No fewer than 120 people have been confirmed killed and dozens injured in widespread floods and landslides caused by torrential rain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.
According to reports, entire neighbourhoods were flooded with muddy water while houses and roads were ripped apart by sinkholes and landslides, including the N1 highway that connects Kinshasa to the country’s main seaport of Matadi.
Reacting to the incident in a statement, the prime minister’s office said that the road could be closed for as long as four days. Health minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani Mbanda said that the ministry had counted 141 dead but that the number needed to be cross-checked with other departments.
The death toll which was compiled by the General Management of Migration, a part of the interior ministry is expected to rise further.
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Kinshasa- Once a collection of fishing villages on the banks of the Congo River- has grown into one of Africa’s largest megacities with a population of about 15 million people. Rapid development and poor regulation have made the city increasingly vulnerable to flash floods after intense rains, which have become more frequent due to climate change.
Some 12 million people are said to live in the 24 neighbourhoods of Kinshasa hit by the floods. In the Ngaliema area, more than three dozen people died and bodies were still being counted, according to the area’s mayor, Alid’or Tshibanda.
Images making the rounds on social media showed a landslide in the hilly Mont-Ngafula district, which cut off Highway 1, and entire neighbourhoods flooded with muddy water.
Story was adapted from Aljazeera.
