# Kinshasa flooding kills about 30 as Ndjili River bursts its banks

Heavy flooding in Kinshasa has killed about 30 people and damaged roads, homes and infrastructure after torrential rains pushed the Ndjili River over its banks, according to reporting from Al Jazeera.

Provincial Health Minister Patricien Gongo gave the provisional death toll on Sunday and said many of the dead were killed when walls collapsed under the force of the water. The flooding began after the river burst its banks on Friday night, submerging the main national road and leaving motorists stranded for hours, in some cases through the entire night.

The scale of the disruption was not limited to the immediate loss of life. Al Jazeera reported that many neighbourhoods were left without power and that some areas suffered water shortages after the city's infrastructure was hit. Kinshasa Governor Daniel Bumba Lubaki said water infrastructure had been damaged but said supply would be restored within days.

The flooding also exposed the vulnerability of housing in the capital. On state television, the governor blamed illegal housing for some of the deaths and warned that people living in unplanned settlements could face eviction. That warning reflects a long-running problem in a city that has expanded rapidly and now has a population of nearly 17 million.

One resident told Reuters that she spent the night in her car after trying to get home from the airport, unable to find a safe place to park. Her account captured the way the flooding stopped movement across a key route in the city and turned an ordinary journey into an overnight wait. The same report said some drivers spent the entire night trapped in their vehicles because there was nowhere safe to stop.

A hydrologist quoted by Reuters, Raphael Tshimanga Muamba, said human activity had worsened the river's condition over time, arguing that the river no longer has the capacity it once had to contain floods. That explanation points to more than a single night of heavy rain. It suggests a city where degraded waterways, unplanned construction and extreme weather are combining to increase the damage from each storm.

The Kinshasa flooding comes at a difficult moment for the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also facing mounting instability in its east. Al Jazeera said Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have intensified attacks there since the start of the year, with more than 7,000 people killed and millions displaced in recent months. While the flood disaster is geographically separate from the fighting, it adds another strain to a country already dealing with overlapping emergencies.

Even in the immediate aftermath, the report made clear that the collapse of roads, power and water services affected everyday life across the capital. That matters in a city where rivers, drainage systems and hillside settlements are tightly intertwined and where a single weather event can quickly become a multi-day crisis.

The death toll remains provisional, and officials have not ruled out further updates. Even so, the picture is already clear: the Ndjili River's overflow inflicted lethal damage on one of Africa's largest cities, and the consequences are still being counted.

*Event date: 2025-04-06.*

Citations

  • Al Jazeera source 4445: provisional death toll, Ndjili overflow, collapsed walls, infrastructure damage, housing warning, and river context.