Flooding kills more than 120 in DR Congo capital

AFP :
More than 120 people were killed Tuesday as the worst floods in years battered DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa following an all-night downpour, authorities said in a provisional assessment.
Major roads in the centre of Kinshasa, a city of some 15 million people, were submerged for hours, and a key supply route was cut off.
The death toll — which was first estimated in the late afternoon to be at least 55 — jumped to more than 120 by nightfall.
The government has announced three days of national mourning beginning Wednesday, according to a statement from Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde’s office.
City police chief General Sylvano Kasongo told AFP that the bulk of people dead were on hillside locations where there had been landslides.
An AFP reporter saw the bodies of nine members of the same family — including young children — who had died after the collapse of their home in the Binza Delvaux district.
“We were woken up at around 4:00 am (0300 GMT) by water entering the house,” a relative said.
“We drained the water out, and thinking that there was no more danger we went back indoors to sleep — we were soaked,” he said.
The family went back to bed and “just afterwards, the wall collapsed”.
Located on the Congo River, Kinshasa has seen a huge population influx in recent years.
Many dwellings are shanty houses built on flood-prone slopes, and the city suffers from inadequate drainage and sewerage.
A major landslide occurred in the hilly district of Mont-Ngafula, smothering National Highway 1, a key supply route linking the capital with Matadi, a port further down the Congo River and a crucial outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.
Lukonde told reporters at the scene that about 20 people there had died when “homes were swept away”.