24 dead in DR Congo floods

KINSHASA: Twenty-four people died overnight when torrential rain and mudslides swept though shanty homes in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the authorities said Thursday.

The provincial minister for health and social affairs, Dominique Weloli, said the city's central morgue had received 11 bodies "plus 13 from Ngaliema," a poor hillside community that was particularly hit.

"It's a provisional toll," the provincial interior minister, Emmanuel Akweti, told AFP.

Flooding is a major peril for residents of Kinshasa, a chaotic city with a population of around 10 million people, most of whom are extremely poor.

Many homes are flimsy and built on hillsides where lack of drainage makes them vulnerable to mudslides and flash floods.