Hundreds have been reported dead as the Congo River has risen to a record height forcing floods across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo Republic.
According to authorities, the flood, which is at its highest level in more than three decades, has killed over 300 people in the previous months.
Several African nations are especially susceptible to flash floods following heavy rains, which are occurring more frequently as a result of climate change, because of poor urban planning and inadequate infrastructure.
Nearly the whole flood plain of DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa, which is located on the banks of the river, might be impacted, according to a hydrology specialist at the DRC Riverways Authority, Ferry Mowa.
The Riverways Authority office, a division of the transport ministry, had alerted him to the high water level in late December.
The Congo River reached 6.20 metres above sea level on Wednesday, barely missing the record of 6.26 meters set in 1961, he told Reuters.
“It is imperative that people who live around the river move”, Mowa said.
The social affairs ministry reported that villages in over a dozen provinces and several neighborhoods in the heavily populated capital of Kinshasa, DR Congo, were flooded.
It said in a statement last week that nearly 300 people died, 300,000 households had been impacted, and tens of thousands of houses had been destroyed.