At least 55 people have died in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in floods and landslides caused by heavy rains, said Sylvano Kasongo, chief of police in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. , Tuesday, December 13. And this is still only a provisional assessment.
These floods also caused significant material damage and submerged in the early morning to the main streets of the center of the megalopolis of approximately 15 million inhabitants. According to General Kasongo, the victims are counted in different districts and communes of the city, in particular in valleys where houses have been destroyed by landslides.
Among the dead are nine members of the same family, including young children, killed in the collapse of their house in the Binza Delvaux district of the Ngaliema commune of Kinshasa. Heavy rain overnight paralyzed the Congolese capital. The rain notably caused a landslide in a peripheral district, cutting off the national road 1 which leads west.
“In the erosion, residences have been washed away”Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde told reporters on the spot, referring to “twenty dead”. “Searching in the Rubble” continue, he said.
National road 1, essential for supplying the city, connects the capital to the river port of Matadi, between Kinshasa and the Atlantic Ocean. This subsidence of the roadway occurred in the hilly commune of Mont-Ngafula, where frequent landslides are caused by the rains and aggravated by anarchic urbanization.
“Backfilling work has already started”, said the Prime Minister. According to him, small vehicles could be on the road within twenty-four hours. For trucks, you need “civil engineering work that can take three to four days”he estimated.
Previous in November 2019
In town, the small rivers, canals and sewers overflowed, flooding the streets including in La Gombe, one of the twenty-four municipalities of the city-province, which is generally the most spared from the daily difficulties of the people of Kinshasa, such as as the lack of electricity, the accumulation of rubbish and the recurring floods. This district is home to ministries and embassies.
In November 2019, around 40 people were killed in Kinshasa, victims of torrential rains which had caused floods and landslides. Mont-Ngafula had been one of the most affected communes.
In November, at least 20 people were killed in landslides and floods caused by heavy rains in Masisi territory (North Kivu), eastern DRC.