Kinshasa floods: deadly rainfall leaves city cut off, airport access severely affected

Severe flooding struck Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, over the weekend, leaving at least thirty people dead and causing significant disruption across the city. The heavy rainfall on Friday triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly affecting vulnerable, densely populated neighborhoods. Local authorities report that many victims drowned, while others were injured as walls collapsed in poor, isolated areas.

With more than 17 million residents, Kinshasa saw nearly half of its urban area become inaccessible due to the floodwaters. The Ndjili River overflowed, flooding and damaging a key roadway linking the city to the airport and other major cities. Although the road has since reopened to light traffic, the governor of Kinshasa stated that full access should be restored within 72 hours.

As a consequence of the flooding, Brussels Airlines’ scheduled return flight SN358 from Kinshasa to Brussels was cancelled on April 5. According to Flightradar24 data and sources in Kinshasa, the airline resumed operations the following day, April 6, under the flight number SN1358. Turkish Airlines was also forced to cancel its return flight to Istanbul with TC-LCC, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 still parked in Kinshasa, some passengers rushed to social media to express their frustration.

As traditional road access was blocked, travellers were forced to find costly alternative routes to reach Kinshasa N’djili International Airport. According to reports shared on social media platform X, some passengers paid between $150 and $200 for a boat transfer from the Beach Ngobila to the airport via the river. Others opted for a short domestic flight from the Ndolo aerodrome to N’djili, paying around $120 for the five-minute journey.

The situation echoes similar natural disasters in recent years—most notably in 2022, when heavy rainfall in the region led to over 150 deaths due to floods and landslides.