Record flooding in the DRC: the Congo River invades certain neighborhoods of Kinshasa

Flood alert in Kinshasa. The Congo River which borders the country’s capital has overflowed, causing serious flooding in several neighborhoods of the megacity and its 17 million inhabitants.

Thus, the streets of the Pompage district have transformed into rivers, residents use small boats to evacuate, forced to leave their flooded homes behind them.

Floods are not a new thing in Kinshasa, but their scale is unprecedented. Some citizens criticize the absence of the State in the face of the scale of the floods in these working-class neighborhoods, believing that it would be good for morale to see the authorities care.

In the Republic of Congo, neighboring the DRC, after thee overflow of the Oubangui riverflooding has left hundreds of thousands of people in urgent need of aid, the United Nations said on Friday.

The precipitation recorded was twice the average of those recorded between 2022 and 2023 and floods have destroyed or damaged health facilities, schools and thousands of homes, according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO has already committed to helping the government to intensify emergency interventions to save lives and guarantee access to essential basic services, said Lucien Manga, the organization’s representative in the Republic of Congo.

United Nations officials fear the bad weather could lead to the outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera.

The river level has reached a record high and it is likely that the waters will not recede immediately, said government spokesperson Thierry Moungalla. Since the floods began about two weeks ago, they killed at least 17 peoplehe clarified.

“Even the floods of 1961 were not of the magnitude we know today in Brazzaville”, declared Antoine Okandza. The 78-year-old said his house had been swept away by the floodwaters.

The government announced that it would spend more than 3 million dollars to an emergency relief fund.