The assessment of the consequences of the torrential rains in Kinshasa is particularly tragic.

More than 120 people died Tuesday in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo in floods, according to a provisional report communicated in the evening by the government.

After a crisis meeting, the executive decreed three days of national mourning from this Wednesday, said the services of Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.

The floods also caused significant material damage and submerged in the early morning up to the main streets in the center of the megalopolis of around 15 million inhabitants.

A vital road cut by a landslide

According to the authorities, the victims are counted in different districts and municipalities of the city, in particular in valleys where houses have been destroyed by landslides.

Among the dead are nine members of the same family, including young children, killed in the collapse of their house in the Ngaliema commune of Kinshasa.

The heavy rain that fell during the night paralyzed the Congolese capital and notably caused a landslide in an outlying district which cut off national road 1 leading west.

This is essential to the supply of the city because it connects the capital to the river port of Matadi, between Kinshasa and the Atlantic Ocean.

This subsidence of the roadway occurred in the hilly commune of Mont-Ngafula, where frequent landslides are caused by the rains and aggravated by anarchic urbanization.

"Backfilling work has already started," said the Prime Minister during a field visit.

Small vehicles may be able to hit the road within 24 hours, he said.

For trucks, on the other hand, it will require “civil engineering work which can take three to four days”.

"In the erosion, residences have been washed away," he added.

Regarding the constructions carried out in dangerous areas, the government also indicated in the evening that “demolitions would be made on (…) the sites which pose a problem”.

In town, the small rivers, canals and sewers overflowed, flooding the streets including in Gombe, one of the 24 municipalities of the city-province, which is generally the most spared from the daily galleys of the people of Kinshasa, between lack of electricity , piles of rubbish and recurrent flooding.

This district is home to ministries and embassies.

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