More than 120 people have been murdered in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as a result of the worst flooding in years, according to the authorities.
As severe rains persisted for hours, major highways in the city center became drowned, and several homes fell.
Tuesday’s landslides in hillside areas claimed the lives of many people.
The administration has declared a three-day national period of mourning.
Entire neighborhoods were inundated with murky water, and buildings and highways were torn apart by sinkholes, including the N1 highway that connects the nation’s capital to the principal port of Matadi.
Kenga Mwamba said in Swahili that his home had fallen, trapping his family within.
“There was no way to enter my residence. I could only save a single child. I observed my wife’s corpse floating in the home. I observed my three other children beneath the rubble; they were already deceased. After the rain stopped, neighbors arrived to help remove the dead.
A correspondent from AFP witnessed the bodies of nine members of a single family whose house had collapsed.
Blanchard Mvubu, a resident of one of the worst-affected regions, stated, “We’ve never seen a flood of this magnitude here.”
“While I was asleep, I felt water in the house. It’s a catastrophe; we’ve lost everything in the house and nothing could be preserved.”
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde led a government group through various Kinshasa neighborhoods to survey the damage.
He stated that officials were still looking for further bodies.
Earlier on Tuesday, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo joined the United States in attributing the massive floods to climate change.
President Félix Tshisekedi informed Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting at the US-Africa summit in Washington that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is under pressure but is not being heard or supported.
The flooding was an example of “something we have been deploring for some time,” he added, adding that countries responsible for pollution should do more to assist people in need.
His spokesperson stated that the president may shorten his trip to the United States due to the incident.
Kinshasa, which is situated on the Congo River, has experienced a massive population boom in recent years, with 15 million people presently residing there.
Numerous dwellings are shacks constructed on flood-prone slopes, and the city has inadequate drainage and sewage systems.
Longombo Dieudonné, a member of the Red Cross rescue team, told that inadequate housing and poor urban planning are among the primary causes of the crisis.
“When it rains, there is no channel for water to flow because humans have obstructed drainage paths with their homes, and water will find whatever path to travel.”
Stav Danaos stated, “Although information from the area is restricted because of a paucity of meteorological stations, we estimate that more than 6 inches/150 millimeters of rain fell over the capital on Monday night/early Tuesday.”
“It is also difficult to predict the weather for the next few days, but there is the possibility of additional showers and storms, possibly lasting into the weekend but not as intense as we’ve already witnessed.”
In November 2019, flooding and landslides killed approximately 40 individuals in Kinshasa.
