Climate change in DRC: at least 41 dead after heavy rains in Kinshasa. Victims were swept away by landslides, while two bridges and a causeway collapsed in the Congolese capital.

publié le 17-04-2020

Results of surveys conducted by Climate change-Africa Opportunities (CCAO) in 2019 show at least 41 people died after heavy rain overnight Monday 25 to Tuesday 26 November in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ). "The material and human damage has been truly enormous." According to the vice-governor of the city of Kinshasa, Néron Mbungu, "80% of the damage is caused by anarchic constructions".

The working-class districts, mainly on the heights of Kinshasa (Kisenso, Lemba, Mont-Ngafula), were the most affected. About fifteen people died in that of Lemba, the most affected by these heavy rains having experienced the city of Kinshasa.

The victims were among others carried away by landslides. At least two bridges have collapsed, as well as a causeway on the avenue leading to the university, in the commune of Lemba, said the vice-governor.

Heavy rains caused a "landslide" in the Livulu district of Lemba commune in eastern Kinshasa, Kinshasa chief of police, General Sylvano Kasongo, told Anadolu.

The same torrential rains also caused erosion on the road to the University of Kinshasa. The track rehabilitated six months ago is cut in half. The asphalt layer of the road collapsed, creating an impassable ditch for users.

The third largest city in Africa, after Cairo and Lagos, with around 15 million inhabitants, according to city hall estimates, Kinshasa is experiencing rapid growth amid the poverty of a large part of the population. Floods are a phenomenon in the DRC, a country with non-urban cities and agglomerations and poor in road infrastructure.

In the north of the country, entire territories were submerged under water after torrential rains brought rivers and tributaries of the Congo River out of their beds in early November 2019.

Thirty people died and thousands of households are homeless.

Recall that several dozen people still died in erosions and land collapses in Kinshasa, in January 2018, after a night of torrential rain caused by climate change in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the time, the previous governor, André Kimbuta, said that "in order to prevent further flooding", the authorities would "demolish anarchic buildings". The third largest city in Africa, Kinshasa has some 10 million inhabitants, often living in precarious housing.

Climate change-Africa Opportunities (CCAO) calls for strengthening urban resilience by putting in place mechanisms to support the management of the negative impacts of floods in the city of Kinshasa.

Trésor Badisungu

Africa Coordinator

Climate change-Africa Opportunities (CCAO)