(7 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo – 6 April 2025
1. Man sitting on the roof of a submerged truck
2. Submerged cars
3. SOUNDBITE (Lingala) Françoise Mutela, fruit seller:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 2, 4 & 5++
"This is my first time seeing this kind of disaster. I take this road to do my business selling bananas and okra at the Gaby and Gambela bridges. I have never seen something like this before."
4. People walking through floodwaters in Kinshasa
5. Submerged car
6. Flooded street in Kinshasa
7. Close of submerged car
8. SOUNDBITE (Lingala) François Munday, Kinshasa resident:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 6, 7, & 9++
"This is the very first time that this kind of thing has happened here in Congo. I was born, grew up and had my children here. I have never encountered these kinds of situations. The traditional chiefs are at the root of this. The country is not working!"
9. Various of floodwaters in Kinshasa
10. People walking across a bridge
STORYLINE:
The death toll from flooding that cut access to over half of the Congolese capital of Kinshasa reached 33 as authorities raced Monday to evacuate and support hundreds of families trapped in their homes.
Ten more people were confirmed dead as of Sunday evening, in addition to the 23 people killed the day before, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani said on state television late Sunday.
Heavy rains began last week, causing the key Ndjili River to overflow on Friday and submerge hundreds of buildings.
While the situation had improved by Monday morning, some access roads remained blocked and vehicular traffic was limited.
Many residents blamed the government for not responding quickly enough to the disaster.
“I was born, grew up and had my children here in Congo. I have never encountered these kinds of situations,” said François Munday. “The country is not working!”
Officials said Sunday that most of the fatalities were caused by walls that collapsed shortly after the deluge began.
The main road to the airport, which also links Kinshasa to the rest of Congo, was damaged by the flooding but will be open to all traffic within 72 hours, Kinshasa Gov. Daniel Bumba said over the weekend.
The flooding has also hampered access to drinking water in at least 16 communes after water facilities were affected, the Congolese interior ministry said in a statement.
The government has set up at least four emergency shelters that were catering to hundreds of displaced families across the city, the ministry said.
Françoise Mutela sells bananas and okra in the city, and was stopped on her way to her usual spot by the floodwaters. “I have never seen something like this before,” she said.
In 2022, at least 100 people were killed during similar flooding in Kinshasa.
The disaster comes as the government is battling a humanitarian disaster in the east of the country, more than 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) from Kinshasa, where decades of fighting with rebels escalated in February, worsening what is already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
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