Updated 12/26/23 at 10:16 p.m.
Torrential rains killed at least 22 people and caused extensive property damage on Tuesday in Kananga, the capital of Kasaï-Central, in the center of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a preliminary report from provincial authorities.
According to the Kasai-Central Governor's Communications Service, more than 15 houses were washed away in landslides caused by rain that fell in large quantities overnight and during much of the day.
“Swallowed in a House”
On Sunday, around twenty people were swept away by a flooded river in the east of the country, in South Kivu province. Four bodies were found.
Victims of the storm in Kananga include a woman and her eight children who were “trapped in a house,” a father and his four children who died in another neighborhood, and seven people who died in another landslide Lives were lost, as the governor announced in a statement.
This damage, in their opinion, results from “the anarchic construction that the city of Kananga is experiencing”.