More than 120 people perished Tuesday, December 14 in Kinshasa in floods caused by torrential rain, according to a provisional report communicated in the evening by the government of DR Congo.
After a crisis meeting, the government declared three days of national mourning from Wednesday, said in a press release the services of Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.
The floods also caused significant material damage and submerged in the early morning up to the main streets in the center of the megalopolis of around 15 million inhabitants.
According to the authorities, the victims are counted in different districts and municipalities of the city, in particular in valleys where houses have been destroyed by landslides.
Among the dead are nine members of the same family, including young children, killed in the collapse of their house in the Ngaliema commune of Kinshasa.
An AFP journalist had seen their bodies lined up on the ground in the morning after being extracted from the rubble.
In November 2019, around forty people died in Kinshasa, victims of torrential rains which had caused floods and landslides.