Despite that, over 9, 000 kits each with a laptop, a digital camera, a fingerprint scanner and a card printer will be dispatched across the country, reaching their destinations by air, down bumpy bush tracks or on the dugout canoes that ply Congo's rivers.

ECONOMIST: Worries are growing as Congo's election timetable slips

"The smoke plume of that fire extended some 14km (8.6 miles) into the air and even prevented us from getting aircraft overhead because of just how dangerous and bumpy the conditions were, " RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers was quoted by ABC News as saying.

BBC: News - Australia bushfire destroys homes and damages observatory