Reuters
ANNOUNCEMENTS••Edited
At least 120 people have died in floods and landslides in the Congolese capital Kinshasa, the interior ministry said. Dozens of wounded too. Rescue operations are still ongoing.
According to local and national officials, heavy rains have caused landslides in recent days, especially in neighborhoods of the city where many illegal, often less robust houses have been built. This applies to much of Kinshasa, home to 15 million people.
Entire neighborhoods were flooded with water and mud. Streets and houses were swallowed up by “sinkholes”, holes in the ground caused by a sudden subsidence of the land.
Residents also hold the government responsible for the many deaths:
Died after the Congo flood
“It’s just a disaster,” resident Pierrot Mantuela (30), who today lost his mother, 9-year-old daughter and three brothers, told the AP news agency. “All those relatives I’ve lost now.” Mantovala himself was spared, as he was working elsewhere on Monday evening when it started to rain.
The N1 state road was partially swept away by a landslide. This is an important link with the port city of Matadi and other cities. The street can now only be used by pedestrians.
In 2019, the Congolese capital was also hit by heavy landslides after the rains. At least 32 people were killed then.
A few years ago, the World Bank calculated that the consequences of floods like the one in Kinshasa cost Congolese families a total of 1.2 million dollars a day. This concerns lost income, for example because residents can no longer go to work.
