By Stanis Bujakera, Kinshasa DR
CONGO
At least
39 people died in flooding on Tuesday in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic
Republic of Congo, following torrential rains overnight that caused landslides
near the University of Kinshasa, authorities said.
At one site on University Avenue, in a southern
suburb, at least three houses and a road collapsed into a ravine. Chunks of
concrete and metal roofing could be seen sticking out of the freshly turned
orange earth, a Reuters witness said.
Residents stand near the scene of a landslide following torrential rains near the University of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo November 26, 2019 |
The vice governor of Kinshasa province, NĂ©ron
Mbungu, said rescue workers were continuing to hunt for bodies.
“Wherever we found death, we gave the mayors the
means to bring the bodies to the morgue, and we also made available the means
for the wounded to be taken to medical centers,” he said.
One woman wailed and clapped her hands as Red Cross
rescue workers carried several bodies to an ambulance.
“My son, my son,” she cried.
Andre Mwamba, whose house had partially collapsed
into the ravine on University Avenue, said the heavy rain started at 2 a.m.
(0100 GMT) and lasted four hours.
“We started moving things out of the house at
around six and then the house started sliding. The neighbors agreed to let us
stay with them while we look for another place,” Mwamba told Reporters.
Floods are not unusual in Kinshasa, a city of
almost 12 million people with notoriously poor infrastructure and where many neighborhoods
are poorly planned, though they rarely cause so many deaths.
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