In early April, extreme rainfall and flooding in and around Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killed at least 33 people. Such catastrophic rainfall events are predicted to hit Kinshasa every two years in today’s warming climate, according to a new rapid study by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of international climate scientists analyzing extreme weather events.
The study attributes the April floods to a domino effect of “unusually heavy rains” in March that raised levels of the N’Djili River and its tributaries running through Kinshasa. On April 5-6, the riverbanks burst, submerging major roads and buildings.
The findings highlight the precarious situation of Kinshasa residents, now at about 18 million, who mostly live in dense informal housing in areas especially vulnerable to floods and landslides as the city is built next to the Congo River. In 2022, more than 100 people died after a similar major downpour.
By examining observational data from local weather stations, meteorological offices and satellites, the researchers found that the deadly rainfall in 2025 isn’t rare. Similar periods of heavy rainfall are expected to occur roughly every second year in today’s climate, which has warmed by 1.3° Celsius (2.3° Fahrenheit) over the preindustrial average due to the burning of fossil fuels.
The researchers couldn’t say to what extent climate change influenced the April rains, given that their climate models didn’t give consistent trends. However, some of their data suggest a “notable rise in heavy rainfall for both Kinshasa and the broader study region,” they write. “Therefore, a future increase in heavy rainfall due to climate change is a strong possibility.”
They attributed the inconsistent results of their climate models to limited weather data in the region. This is due to various factors, they said at a media briefing, including a sparse network of weather stations, and inadequate funding for regional weather monitoring and climate research.
The DRC is one of the world’s least-industrialized countries, and remains beset by political instability and conflict going back decades. “When a country is not stable, there’s a lot of resources diverted to security,” study co-author Joyce Kimutai of Imperial College London said during the briefing.
This conflict has “far-reaching ripple effects,” the study adds, including the influx of people into cities like Kinshasa, whose population is projected to double to 40 million in the next 20 years.
“Flood risk is amplified by rapid population growth, limited infrastructure coverage, and high reliance on informal systems — particularly in areas where critical services such as drainage, healthcare, and electricity remain inconsistent or difficult to access,” the study says.
Study co-author Dieudonne Nsadisa Faka, a climate expert from the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), called on politicians to invest in climate science, also a security issue, to save the DRC’s economy and ensure sustainable development.
Banner image of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo by Garcia-Pavilion via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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