The governor of the province of Zaire, Adriano Mendes de Carvalho, who said he was monitoring the situation closely, stressed that "the picture is not good".
Adriano Mendes de Carvalho, speaking to Rádio Nacional de Angola, said that on Tuesday the provincial council met and throughout the night they monitored the situation, having traveled, on Thursday morning, to the border municipality of Nóqui check the consequences on the ground.
"We have 13 houses collapsed at the moment, we have many families outside their homes," said Adriano Mendes de Carvalho, adding that the Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges, has already contacted his Congolese counterpart about the matter.
The government official stressed that the Angolan authorities cannot prohibit the opening of the floodgates, but this must be communicated in advance, because there are families along the river bank.
"The situation is still critical, we are still going to go along the river to see where these families are," said the governor of Zaire, guaranteeing support for the victims and appealing to truck drivers not to travel to that municipality.
