The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the United Nations for the Democratic Republic of Congo, quoting the authorities, spoke on Friday evening, December 16, of a balance sheet
"of at least 169 dead"
in the floods of Tuesday in Kinshasa.
"As of December 16, the Congolese authorities have reported that at least 169 people have been killed, around 30 injured (...) and that at least 280 houses have been destroyed
," OCHA said in a statement released on Twitter.
The government has not officially announced this development in the toll of the bad weather on December 13, which the Prime Minister's office had established at least 120 dead on Tuesday evening.
The communes of Mont-Ngafula and Ngaliema, in the west of the city-province of some 15 million inhabitants, were the most affected by the torrential rains which affected around 38,000 people, specifies OCHA.
Very heavy rains fell on Kinshasa late Tuesday night, causing landslides and collapses of houses and submerging the main streets of the city center.
The national road 1 leading to the port of Matadi (west) had collapsed at the exit of Kinshasa.
A three-day national mourning had been decreed from Wednesday.