Read < 1minuteThis file photo shows people walk down a flooded street in the centre of Kinshasa on 7 February 2017, after several districts of the city were flooded as a result of an abrupt rise in water levels caused by a violent storm. Picture: APF
37 people are reported to have died overnight when torrential rain and mudslide swept through shanty homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, authorities said on Thursday.
The provincial minister for health and social affairs, Dominique Weloli, said many of the dead, which included “two or three drowned children,” had lived in Ngaliema, a poor hillside community that was particularly hit, Reuters reports.
Weloli further said that several houses have collapsed due to landslides and not just from the floods.
Flooding is a major risk for residents of Kinshasa, whose population is around 10 million people.
Many homes are flimsy and built on hillsides where lack of drainage makes them vulnerable to mudslides and flash floods.
