Nearly 400,000 flee DR Congo city over volcano eruption fears

Internally displaced Congolese women and children who fled from recurrent earth tremors after the volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, shelter inside a church in Sake town, near Goma, in DR Congo, yesterday.

The eastern DR Congo city of Goma was eerily deserted yesterday after nearly 400,000 of its inhabitants fled following warnings that nearby Mount Nyiragongo volcano may erupt again. The authorities geared for a major humanitarian effort, centred on Sake, around 25 kilometres west of the city, where tens of thousands of people are gathered. Located on the shore of Lake Kivu in the shadow of Africa’s most active volcano, the city has lived in fear since Nyiragongo roared back into life at the weekend. The strato-volcano spewed rivers of lava that claimed nearly three dozen lives and destroyed the homes of some 20,000 people before the eruption stopped. Scientists monitoring the volcano have since recorded hundreds of aftershocks. They warn of a potentially catastrophic scenario — a “limnic eruption” that could smother the area with suffocating carbon dioxide. A report on an emergency meeting early yesterday said 80,000 households — equivalent to around 400,000 inhabitants — had emptied on Thursday following a “preventative” evacuation order. Most people have headed for Sake and for the Rwandan border in the northeast, while others have fled by boat across Lake Kivu. Aid efforts are being organised to provide drinking water, food and other supplies, and workers are helping to reunite children who became separated from their families. Nearly 10,000 people are taking refuge in Bukavu on the southern bank of Lake Kivu, according to governor Theo Ngwabidje, many of them in host families. Several days of aftershocks, some of them equivalent to small earthquakes, yielded to a quieter night Thursday, and tremors eased both in numbers and intensity, an AFP journalist said. But late yesterday afternoon black smoke could be seen rising from the crater on the horizon, causing some to worry. General Constant Ndima, the military governor of North Kivu province, ordered the evacuation of districts that potentially applies to nearly 400,000 out of Goma’s 600,000 residents, according to an estimate by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. The wider Goma area has a population of around 2mn people. The authorities arranged transport towards Sake, but the roads became choked with cars, trucks, buses and people seeking safety on foot. Many people spent the night in the open or slept in schools or churches. “We have a problem with the water here, the children are not used to it and are starting to get diarrhoea,” said evacuee Eugene Kubugoo.