DR Congo: More than 120 killed Due to Floods

On Tuesday, More than 120 people were killed as the worst floods in years battered DR Congo's capital Kinshasa following an all-night downpour, according to authorities.

Main roads in the center of Kinshasa, a city of about 15 million people, were flooded for hours, and a major supply route was cut off.

Earlier in the day, the city's police chief General Sylvano Kasongo put the provisional death toll at least 55 in a statement to AFP, focusing particularly on hillside locations where there have been landslides.

However, the number was then revised upward to at least 100, according to the country's state television.

An AFP reporter saw the bodies of nine members of the same family - including young children - who died after the collapse of their house in the Binza Delvaux district.

Located on the Congo River, Kinshasa has seen a huge influx of population in recent years.

Many of the dwellings are shantytown homes built on slopes that are prone to flooding and the town suffers from inadequate sanitation and sewerage.

A major landslide has hit the mountainous hilly district of Mont-Ngafula, choking off National Highway 1, a major supply route linking the capital to Matadi, a port on the lower Congo River, and an important outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.

Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde told reporters at the scene that nearly 20 people there had died when "homes were swept away".

He added that Searches are continuing for survivors.

The highway should be reopened to small vehicles within the next day, but it could take "three or four days" for trucks, the prime minister said.

Streets were also flooded in the upscale government district of Gombe, which houses ministries and embassies and is usually untouched by problems affecting other areas of Kinshasa such as inadequate waste disposal and power supplies, and were also inundated.