At least 41 people died on Tuesday, November 26, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, victims of torrential rains that caused flooding, landslides and electrocutions in the capital Monday night, in a capital where Congolese authorities are struggling to combat the "urbanism of poverty".
"The material and human damages are really huge" and the balance sheet is still "provisional", said the vice governor of the city, Neron Mbungu, who said that "80% of the damage is caused by constructions. anarchic ". Among the victims is a "child who has been electrocuted".
Popular neighborhoods, mainly on the heights of Kinshasa (Kisenso, Lemba, Mont-Ngafula), were the most affected. About fifteen people died in Lemba, the most affected by these heavy rains, according to the provisional balance sheet.
Lemba has suffered a series of "erosions and landslides" lands "that have engulfed" the houses, told the radio Top Congo Mayor (Mayor), Jean Nsaka.
"People are stubborn and do not respect building standards"
A spectacular collapse of ground cut in two the road that goes up to the university campus, found an AFP journalist. The hole has a depth of about ten meters over twenty wide.
"The collector could not support the volume of water and he gave in, which resulted in the cutting of the road," said the local mayor of the district.
In other parts of the capital, two bridges collapsed, according to the vice-governor. "People are stubborn and do not respect building standards, and even though the state says you should not build, they build, so now you have the consequences," he said.
The rain has caused damage elsewhere in DR Congo, an immense country affected by "generalized poverty" according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Seven others were killed in South Kivu province. "Some were swept away by the waters and the others died after landslides", according to a local elected, Seth Enga.
"Urbanism of poverty"
In this rainy season, thousands of people have been affected by the floods since late October in the northwestern provinces (South and North-Ubangi, Ecuador), watered by the Congo River or its tributary, the Ubangi River.
"Local authorities have recorded ten deaths in North Ubangi province," a spokesman for the Christian NGO Caritas said on Saturday, adding that 180,000 people needed help.
Twenty-five people have died in Equateur province, a local official quoted on 23 November as Newsite.cd as saying.
In Kinshasa, about 50 people were killed in erosions and collapses in January 2018, after a night of torrential rains. At the time, the previous governor, André Kimbuta, had stated that "in order to prevent other cases of floods", the authorities would proceed "to the demolition of anarchic constructions".
Africa's third most populous city, Kinshasa has some 10 million inhabitants, with a population that has doubled in 20 years (estimates have not been made for decades).
This growth is the result of a "urbanism of poverty", said in July 2017 to the French daily Le Monde, Corneille Kanene, former director of the UN agency Habitat, adding: "Three quarters of Kinshasa consist of slums without access to water or electricity ".
With AFP