DR Congo
Floods caused by heavy rains swept parts of DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa on Tuesday, in one case killing nine people when their home collapsed, an AFP reporter saw.
Major roads in the centre of Kinshasa, a city of some 15 million people, were submerged.
Images circulating on social media showed a landslide in hilly Mont-Ngafula district, cutting off Highway 1, a key supply route linking the capital with the Atlantic Ocean port of Matadi.
Floods also inundated streets in the up-market government district of Gombe, which houses ministries and embassies.
The AFP reporter saw the bodies of nine members of a family who had died after the collapse of their home in the Binza Delvaux district.
Located on the Congo River, Kinshasa has seen a huge population influx in recent years.
Many dwellings are shanty houses built on flood-prone slopes and the city suffers from inadequate drainage and sewerage.
In 2019, around 40 people died in floods and landslips.
Mont-Ngafula was one of the worst-hit areas, but a local resident said the flooding this time was even worse.
“We’ve never seen a flood here on this scale,” Blanchard Mvubu, who lives in the Mont Ngafula neighbouring of CPA Mushie, told an AFP reporter on the scene.
“I was asleep and I could feel water in the house… it’s a disaster — we’ve lost all our possessions in the house, nothing could be saved.”
He added: “People are building big houses and that blocks up the drains. The water can’t move freely and that’s what causes the floods.”
Another man, who gave his name as Freddy, said everything in his home was underwater — “shoes, food stocks, closes. Everything is lost, there’s nothing to be saved?
Close by, a young man was asking 500 Congolese francs (24 cents) from passersby to carry them on his back across the submerged street.
Another man, who identified himself as a teacher, was walking barefoot in the water, holding a pair of shoes in one hand and a plastic bag containing documents in the other.
“I’ve got no other choice,” he said. “I have to give schoolchildren an exam.”
