Congo; Floods of lava flowed into villages after an evening in eastern Congo with short notice, killing at least 15 people between the turmoil and damaging more than 500 homes. The explosion of Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday night carried about 5,000 people escaping from the city of Goma beyond the nearby boundary into Rwanda, while another 25,000 others sought shelter to the northwest in Sake, the U.N. children’s agency said Sunday.
Also than 170 children were still feared lost Sunday, and UNICEF executives said they were preparing transit hubs to support abandoned children in the wake of the disaster. Goma eventually was widely saved from the mass damage created by the volcano’s last eruption in 2002. Hundreds died then and more than 100,000 people were left abandoned. But in remote villages more adjacent to the volcano, Sunday was considered by anguish and dilemma.
Aline Bichikwebo and her baby managed to flee when the lava flow reached her village but said both her mother and father were among those who died. Community members provided a provisional loss of 10 dead in Bugamba alone, though provincial officials said it was too soon to know how many lives were lost. Bichikwebo says she strived to rescue her father but wasn’t strong enough to take him to safety before the family’s home was burned by lava.“I am asking for help because everything we had is gone,” she said, clutching her baby. “We don’t even have a pot. We are now orphans and we have nothing.”
The air prevailed dense with smoke because of how many homes had grabbed fire when the lava arose.“People are still panicking and are hungry,” resident Alumba Sutoye said. “They don’t even know where they are going to spend the night. Authorities said at least five other people had died in a truck accident while they were attempting to leave Goma, but the range of the loss had yet to be discovered in some of the hardest-affected areas.
Residents said there was a short signal before the dark sky turned a glowing red, carrying people running for their lives in all directions. One woman went into labor and gave birth while escaping the eruption to Rwanda, the national broadcaster there said. Smoke billowed from smoldering piles of lava in the Buhene area near the city Sunday.“We have seen the loss of almost an entire neighborhood,” Innocent Bahala Shamavu said. “All the houses in Buhene neighborhood were burned and that’s why we are asking all the provincial authorities and authorities at the national level as well as all the partners, all the people of good faith in the world, to come to the aid of this population.”
Witnesses said lava had immersed one highway joining Goma with the city of Beni. However, the airport seemed to be saved the same fate as 2002 when lava spilled onto the runways. Goma is a local hub for many humanitarian agencies in the region and the U.N. peacekeeping mission. While Goma is home to many U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers, much of the neighboring eastern Congo is under threat from myriad armed groups competing for control of the region’s mineral reserves.
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