Kinshsha Swamped As Congo River Highest In At Least 15 Years; Deaths From Landslides, Disease

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Democratic Republic of Congo is one of several central African countries to be hit by severe flooding in recent months, which researchers have attributed to increasingly intense and unpredictable weather linked to global warming. Flooding in November in the capital Kinshasa led to landslides that killed 39 people.

The rains can be deadly in other ways, too. Henry Bofason said two of his children died of typhoid on Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 because of unsanitary conditions in the church where they and more than 700 others had taken shelter. "The children are always sick here because the environment is not healthy," Bofason told Reuters while seated next to his son's coffin alongside his wife and his remaining five children.

In the Manzenze and Ngewele neighbourhoods, residents say the flooding is the worst in at least 15 years, keeping dozens of city blocks underwater for the last two months.

Hundreds of residents have abandoned their homes altogether. Paulin, a motorcycle taxi driver who didn't give his last name, now ferries clients by canoe around canals choked with leaves and plastic bottles.

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http://news.trust.org/item/20200109103704-zu5nd/