Photo: SAMY NTUMBA SHAMBUYI/AP PHOTO/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
More of 120 people died in the floods caused by heavy rains in Kinshasa , the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a new provisional balance released at night by the government.
Previously, the Congolese television RTNC had spoken of at least “a hundred deaths” after an initial assessment by the capital’s police that had reported 80 fatalities.
After a crisis meeting, the government decreed three days of national mourning starting Wednesday , indicated the office of Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.
The floods also caused significant material damage and this Tuesday morning left two large streets in the center of the capital impassable, about 27 millions of inhabitants before.
According to the police chief, Sylvano Kasongo, victims were reported in various neighborhoods and municipalities of the city, especially in areas with steep slopes, where landslides demolished many houses.
Among the dead are nine members of the same family, who died in the collapse of their house, in the municipality of Ngaliema, in the west of Kinshasa.
An AFP journalist saw their bodies lined up on the ground, after they were pulled out of the rubble.
“Around 12H04 in the morning, the water that was leaking into our house woke us up”, said a relative of the family.
The rains destroyed houses
“We channeled the water and, thinking that there was no longer any danger, we returned home to sleep, we were em Papados,” he added. The family went back to bed and “right after, the wall collapsed.”
The heavy rain overnight caused a landslide in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital, and cut traffic on National Highway 1, which leads west.
It is an essential route for supplying the capital, since it connects it with the river port of Matadi, where goods arrive from the Atlantic Ocean.
The repair works have already started and in some 12 hours the cars will be able to start transiting, indicated the prime minister during a visit to the field. However, the passage of trucks must wait between 3 or 4 days.
The avalanches caused by the rains “took homes ahead”, declared to the press, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde. “Searches in the rubble” continue, he added.
Kinshasa’s streams, canals and sewage system overflowed and several streets were inundated , also in Gombe, a municipality north of the capital, eminently residential, which houses embassies and government buildings.
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