Authorities report that nearly 50 people died last week in the southwest due to landslides. These disasters, linked to heavy rainfall, prompt Congolese authorities to mobilize the population to mitigate the consequences during the upcoming rains until June.
Following a meeting with other state organs, including the media regulator and the presidency, the National Agency of Meteorology and Satellite Remote Sensing announced “excessive rainfall” expected in May and June. These rains will affect twenty cities, including the capital Kinshasa, as well as Goma, Inongo, Kolwezi, and Boende, with a high probability of “flooding and landslides.”
To prevent catastrophe, authorities issue a call for the population to “urgently” organize sanitation work on drainage channels, according to official statements. People occupying coastal areas and hazardous terrain are also urged to evacuate.
For civil society, this message reflects the irresponsibility of the leaders. “This announcement clearly shows that the current government has decided to abandon the population to its own devices,” reacts Bienvenu Matumo, a member of the citizen movement La Lucha.
“The state, supposed to act by relocating exposed occupants, compensating some, dredging rivers, and drains, has disengaged itself in defiance of its obligations. This announcement must be quickly withdrawn by its issuers. While millions of dollars are being embezzled, while the country is drowning in corruption scandals, such a statement cannot be issued to suggest that the state lacks the means to protect the population in the face of such frightening meteorological forecasts from our point of view.”
The statement is also criticized by some of the leaders. “Especially since the state, through its public agents, is itself responsible for disorder in land occupation,” commented an official source.