At least 100 people have been killed and dozens injured on December 13 by widespread floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.
Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde said officials were still searching for more bodies.
“We came to assess the damage and the primary damage we see is human,” Mr. Lukonde said on state television December 13.
Some 12 million people live in the 24 neighbourhoods of Kinshasa hit by the floods, according to three local officials who told The Associated Press that people were killed, houses submerged and roads ruined.
A car is seen after heavy rains caused floods and landslides, on the outskirts of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on December 13, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters
In the Ngaliema area more than three dozen people died and bodies are still being counted, said the area’s Mayor, Alid’or Tshibanda. In another part of town five members from one family were killed, some by electrocution.
“It is a just calamity,” said Pierrot Mantuela. The 30-year-old lost his mother, nine-year-old daughter and three brothers. “It’s sad to lose all the members of my family,” he said. He was spared because he was working on Dec. 12 night when the rains began, he said.
Officials said much of the destruction happened in houses built on plots without official permission. “They have no documents. They are chased away but they always come back,” said Dieumerci Mayibazilwanga, the Mayor of Mont-Ngafula, of people building unauthorised houses.
In 2019, flooding and landslides killed at least 32 in and around Kinshasa.
