LUANDA – Torrential rain in Angola over the weekend has killed a further six people, the interior ministry said yesterday, after more than 40 people died a week ago. 

For a second straight weekend, the central coastal city of Benguela was hardest hit, with the ministry giving a provisional death toll of five, with four people missing.

Footage from public broadcaster TPA showed entire neighbourhoods submerged by the waters of the Cavaco River and residents waist-deep in water.  

Another person died in a suburb of the capital Luanda, where Pope Leo XIV is due to visit next Saturday as part of his first major overseas tour, which started yesterday in Algeria.

Heavy downpours are a regular occurrence in southern Africa during the southern hemisphere summer and the region has repeatedly seen deadly flooding since the start of the year.

Researchers from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network estimated in January that a 10-day period of extreme rainfall events had become “significantly more intense” in the region due to human-induced climate change.

Between January 10 and 19, parts of southern Mozambique received up to 500 mm (19.7 inches) of rain — the equivalent of a year’s worth of rainfall in a normal year, according to the scientists.  Around 50 people died in that period of flooding, according to Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD).

In South Africa, floodwaters devastated villages and killed more than 30 people in January, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage, including in Kruger National Park. At least 13 people died in mid-March in Malawi following heavy rains.

The currently active La Nina cool weather cycle phenomenon also tends to dump above-average rainfall on southern Africa, according to WWA scientists, who say it amounts to some 22% of the increase in rain intensity. 

-Nampa/AFP