The volcanic eruption in eastern Congo two days ago has killed at least 32 people, officials said Monday as residents searched for missing loved ones amid destroyed homes on the outskirts of the eastern city of Goma where aftershocks were detected.
With little warning Mount Nyiragongo turned the dark sky fiery red Saturday night and then spewed torrents of lava into villages destroying more than 500 homes, officials and survivors said.
The toll Monday increased from 22 to 32, and was likely to continue rising, saidccording to Joseph Makundi, head of Civil Protection for the North Kivu province. More than a dozen people died in car accidents while trying to escape, he said. Others were killed when lava hit their homes.
Some died Monday from inhaling smoke or toxic gas when they were walking across a wide expanse of the cooling lava, the scientific director of the Volcanic Observatory of Goma, Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, told The Associated Press.
They were traveling on the road between Kibati and Goma that was cut off by a flow of lava 1,000 meters (about a half-mile) wide, he said.
“The population of Goma must avoid unnecessary travel, but also not visit places that have been hit by lava from the volcano because these lavas are toxic and harmful,” he said.
Grief, disbelief and fear hung over the area as a delegation of government ministers, including Congo’s health minister, visited Goma after flying in from neighboring Rwanda.
Scientists at the volcano observatory weren’t able to adequately warn the public of the eruption because of a funding cut, Mahinda said.
“The observatory no longer has the support of the central government or of external donors, which explains why the volcanic eruption was such a surprise,” Mahinda told The Associated Press. A partnership between the government and the World Bank that had supported the observatory was cut in October 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the observatory without even internet, he said.
The observatory had just started to resume operations last month thanks to new funding from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, which means the observatory can at least gather data after the eruption, he said.
The volcano remains active and earthquake tremors are being recorded, he said, calling on the population to remain vigilant.
The government ministers visiting Goma Monday were assessing what aid is needed for those hurt by the eruption.
“The government team dispatched expressly here in Goma, following the volcanic eruption which caused a lot of damage in the city,” Minister of Public Health Jean-Jacques Mbungani said. “It is important that a strong signal from our government is given. We will have discussions with the military governor as well as with all the stakeholders so that we can identify avenues for quick solutions for the population.”
The military governor of North Kivu province, Lt. Gen. Constant Ndima called on the population of Goma not to send children to school. Goma’s international airport of Goma and the airport in Kavumu in South Kivu province were closed for security reasons, he said in a statement.
The volcano eruption caused about 5,000 people to flee from one neighborhood of Goma, a city of about 2 million people, across the nearby border into Rwanda. Another 25,000 others sought refuge to the northwest in Sake, the U.N. children’s agency said.
More than 170 children were still feared missing, and UNICEF officials said they were organizing transit centers to help unaccompanied children in the wake of the disaster as more than 150 children were reportedly separated from their families.
Goma ultimately was largely spared the mass destruction caused by Mt. Nyiragongo’s last eruption in 2002. Hundreds died then and more than 100,000 people were left homeless.
Goma is a regional hub for many humanitarian agencies as well as a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Much of surrounding eastern Congo is threatened by a multitude of armed groups vying for control of the region’s lucrative mineral resources.
Panic in Goma
A volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted Saturday, turning the sky above a fearsome red and causing evacuation plans to be activated in a major city devastated by Mount Nyiragongo’s last activity.
The volcano in central Africa last swamped the city of Goma with lava in January 2002, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless and hundreds dead by some counts. Well over one million people live near the active crater, with Goma just a dozen miles south.
A DRC government spokesman, Patrick Muyaya, said Saturday that Goma’s evacuation plan had been activated, as the Associated Press reported that thousands were already fleeing, often on foot. A din of people and honking horns could be heard in videos of the red-glowing eruption shared on social media, and Rwandan officials said that more than 3,500 Congolese people had sought refuge across the border in nearby Rwanda.
As of today morning, it has been reported that over 7000 Congolese are returning home following last night’s incident.
Lava coursed onto a highway linking Goma with the city of Beni, according to the AP. Reuters said it was approaching an airport as the city grappled with power outages. Officials and experts gave mixed assessments on the threat the lava posted to Goma.
A United Nations peacekeeping mission in the area said that Goma seemed safe, though officials remained on “alert.”
“Current assessments indicate eruption doesn’t threaten the city itself,” the British embassy in the Congo echoed in a statement. Celestin Kasereka, who leads scientific research at the Goma Volcano Observatory, told reporters he also doubted lava could make it Goma.
But Dario Tedesco, a volcanologist in Goma, told Reuters that lava was flowing toward the city center after initially heading for Rwanda.
“Now Goma is the target,” Tedesco said. “It’s similar to 2002. … It might stop before or go on. It’s difficult to forecast.”
The U.N. mission MONUSCO tweeted that it was running reconnaissance flights and posted footage of a fiery landscape.
Congo President Félix Tshisekedi said he would cut his trip to Europe short to return home Sunday to coordinate aid.
Government spokesperson Muyaya said that the prime minister had called an emergency meeting and that authorities would set more plans in motion Sunday.
Muyaya urged people to avoid engaging with “everything that is being said in social media” in the face of an “extremely serious situation.” He vowed that officials would do their best to keep people updated and manage a crisis that “touches us all.”
The AP said there were no immediate reports of casualties, as some residents complained of what they said was a delay in information. Dorcas Mbulayi told the Associated Press that she left home for Mount Goma as the volcanic activity began and faulted officials “for not informing us in time about the possible volcanic eruption.”
In one especially deadly eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in 1977, around 2,000 people were reported killed.
“This is the most dangerous volcano in the world!” volcanologist Dario Tedesco told Science magazine last year, suggesting another disaster could strike.
Video of Saturday’s new threat circulated widely. Charles Balagizi, a geochemist and geohazards researcher at Goma Volcano Observatory, posted footage of a towering cloud of smoke lit bright red against a dark sky, with the lights of buildings all around.
Posting another video later, Balagizi said a new “vent” — an opening from which the volcano erupts — had formed near Mujoga.