Kinshasa's lack of public transport drives people mad

Cable car, urban rail link or ring road - Kinshasa has big plans for alleviating its traffic chaos but for now, travelling into the megacity remains a daily headache for millions of people.

Viviane Yuka leaves for work at 5am every day to battle through the Congolese capital's clogged streets where motorbikes, packed buses and taxis compete for space.

The city has 17 million inhabitants across 24 communes but still has no real public transport system and nearly all the passenger vehicles on its roads are privately owned.

"We suffer so much to find transport, we often go long distances on foot," Yuka, who sells brushes and brooms at one of Kinshasa's sprawling markets, said.

Once aboard one of the yellow minibuses ominously known locally as the "Spirit of Death", passengers endure the "suffocation" of being crammed in like sardines, the mother said.