Flooding kills more than 120 in DR Congo capital

More than 120 people were killed on Tuesday as the worst floods in years battered DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa following an all-night downpour, authorities said in a provisional assessment.

Major roads in the centre of Kinshasa, a city of some 15 million people, were submerged for hours, and a key supply route was cut off.

The death toll – which was first estimated in the late afternoon to be at least 55 – jumped to more than 120 by nightfall.

The government has announced three days of national mourning beginning Wednesday, according to a statement from Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde’s office.

City police chief General Sylvano Kasongo said that the bulk of people dead were on hillside locations where there had been landslides.

Located on the Congo River, Kinshasa has seen a huge population influx in recent years.

Many dwellings are shanty houses built on flood-prone slopes, and the city suffers from inadequate drainage and sewerage.

A major landslide occurred in the hilly district of Mont-Ngafula, smothering National Highway 1, a key supply route linking the capital with Matadi, a port further down the Congo River and a crucial outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.

Lukonde told reporters at the scene that about 20 people there had died when “homes were swept away”.

The highway should be reopened to small vehicles within the next day, but it could take “three or four days” for trucks, the prime minister said.

The streets of the upmarket Gombe district – home to government buildings and usually spared the problems affecting other areas of Kinshasa such as inadequate waste disposal and power supplies – were also inundated.

Poorly regulated rapid urbanisation has made the city increasingly vulnerable to flash floods after intense rains, which have become more frequent due to climate change.

In November 2019, around 40 people in Kinshasa died in floods and landslides.

The country’s president joined the United States in blaming climate change for the major floods.

“The DRC is under pressure but unfortunately it’s not sufficiently heard or supported,” President Felix Tshisekedi told Secretary of State Antony Blinken as they met at a US-Africa summit in Washington.

The flooding is an example of “what we have been deploring for some time,” he said.

“Support must come from countries that pollute and unfortunately trigger the harmful consequences in our countries that lack the means to protect themselves,” he said.

Blinken offered condolences for the deaths, saying the flooding was “further evidence of the challenges we are facing with climate and something we need to work on together”.

Despite a series of international conferences, scientists say the planet is far off course from meeting a UN-blessed goal of checking warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.