KINSHASA (Reuters) -At least 50 people have been killed in the Congolese capital Kinshasa after heavy rains unleashed floods and caused landslides, the city’s police chief Sylvano Kasongo said on Tuesday.
Images shared online, which Reuters was not immediately able to verify, showed entire neighbourhoods flooded with muddy water and tarmac roads ripped apart by sinkholes.
“We are already at around fifty deaths and that is not yet final,” Kasongo told Reuters.
Once the site of fishing villages on the banks of the Congo river, Kinshasa has grown into one Africa’s largest megacities with a population of around 15 million.
Like in other cities on the continent, poorly regulated rapid urbanization has made Kinshasa increasingly vulnerable to flash floods after intense rains, which have become more frequent due to climate change.
(Reporting by Stanis BujakeraWriting by Alessandra PrenticeEditing by Estelle Shirbon)
