• Heavy downpours in Kinshasa have killed around 30 people and devastated several suburbs.
• Rising waters paralysed the city, cutting off traffic on National Rd 1 and causing huge congestion.
• Residents criticised the authorities’ response, citing poor maintenance and inadequate sewerage systems.

Heavy downpours in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa have killed around 30 people while wreaking havoc across the central African megacity, an official told AFP on Sunday.

After the rain poured down overnight from Friday to Saturday, rising waters devastated several outlying and impoverished suburbs of the metropolis of some 17 million people, with some residents forced to navigate the streets by canoe.

“There are many wounded who have been evacuated and for the moment we are in the 30s for the number of dead,” Patricien Gongo Abakazi, Kinshasa’s Provincial Minister of Public Health, told AFP.

The victims either drowned or were killed when the walls of their homes collapsed, the doctor added.

The rising waters have paralysed much of the haphazardly urbanised capital, cutting off traffic on National Rd 1, Kinshasa’s main thoroughfare, which leads from the city centre to the airport.

“At around 2 pm, we suddenly noticed that the water was rising in the plot, and it just kept getting higher. As a precaution, we took the children to flee, as it was difficult to get through”, said Orline, a resident of the Masina commune in the east.

Residents stand on a pole for safety as floodwaters engulf a road following heavy rains in the Ndjili district of Kinshasa. Photo / AFP

Paddling in canoes

In the eastern Debonhomme district, waters swallowed up dozens of cars, forcing some residents to swim or paddle in dug-out canoes, AFP journalists saw.

Some victims were trapped in the upper levels of their homes after water invaded their ground floors.

“The water has reached 1.5m high. We have just managed to save ourselves, the rest is trapped in our homes,” said Christophe Bola, a resident of the Ndanu quarter in Limete commune.

Flooding caused huge traffic jams in a city where chronic congestion is the norm.

Several residents told AFP journalists they were angry at what they saw as a tardy and inadequate reaction by the authorities.

Neighbouring Kongo-Central province was also hit by the deluge.

Flooding frequently proves deadly in Kinshasa, which sits on the banks of the Congo River, Africa’s second-largest, after the Nile.

Poor maintenance and inadequate sewerage systems have left drainage pipes blocked by rubbish in many poorer neighbourhoods.

Those living in makeshift shacks and quarters with unpaved streets are especially at risk.

In 2022, at least 120 people were found dead in the capital after downpours caused landslides and flooding.

Central Africa has been grappling with extreme downpours and thunderstorms since Thursday, notably in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Some 6.9 million people in west and central Africa were affected by torrential rains and severe flooding in 2024, according to data from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

- Agence France-Presse