By Nina Mitch
Kinshasa, DR Congo: The volcanic eruption in the city of Goma and its surroundings has already caused at least 15 deaths with several left homeless. According to the provisional report published by the Congolese government on Sunday, May 23, 2021, the government spokesman, Patrick Muyaya, said that nine people died in a traffic accident during the evacuation of the city and two others were burned, while four other victims are prisoners of the Munzenze prison killed during an escape attempt.
Earthquakes are still felt in the region since Sunday. As a result, the provincial government has decided to suspend school classes until further notice.
Meanwhile, in Goma, the population of 2millio is trying to gradually resume life after the volcanic eruption last Saturday. Activities are timidly resuming this Monday, May 24, in Goma. Some stores opened this morning to allow people to buy food. The markets are also opening. Public transportation has also resumed.
The lava is said to have reached at the brink of the Goma airport hence suspension of air transport as a preventive measure. 7 national ministers from Kinshasa landed in Kigali to travel by road to Goma to inquire about the situation after several emergency meetings held in Kinshasa.
According to a UNICEF statement dated May 23rd, more than 150 children have been separated from their families with fears of more than 170 others are missing as people fled the city of Goma, in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, following the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano.
More than 5,000 people have crossed the Rwandan border from Goma and at least 25,000 people have been displaced in Sake, 25 km northwest of Goma. However, UNICEF notes, most people are slowly returning to their homes since the lava stopped flowing on Sunday morning.
UNICEF is also concerned that hundreds of people are returning to Goma to find their homes damaged, causing water and electricity shortages.
“It is not yet known how many homes have been affected by the eruption in Nyiragongo territory, north of Goma. Dozens of children in the area near the city’s airport have been left homeless and destitute. A UNICEF team has been deployed to the affected areas of Sake, Buhene, Kibati and Kibumba to provide a first-line response,” the statement said.
It is since Saturday evening at 7 pm that the Nyiragongo volcano in full activity poured its lava on the northern part of the city of Goma, capital of the North Kivu province. Several houses, schools, farms, and other property of the population were engulfed in the villages like Buhene, Katoyi, and Majengo located in the territory of Nyirangongo.
This situation caused widespread panic among the inhabitants of Goma, some of whom headed for Saké, in Masisi territory, and others to Gisenyi, the town on the border in Rwanda.
According to scientists, a volcanic eruption is a period of activity of a volcano during which it emits various materials, such as lava, tephra, gases or ashes.
Goma-Rutshuru road cut off by lava
The one and only Rutshuru road that connects Goma to the eastern part of the country was also damaged by the volcano’s lava hence cutting off Goma from its food supply.
The strategic road is used to supply Goma with food from Rutshuru. This morning, no car or bus made the trip, following the lava eruption from the Nyiragongo volcano, 17 km north of Goma. Pundits fear that this sudden interruption will affect the province’s economy, especially the small-scale traders who have pegged their livelihood on the ever flowing heavy traffic and rehabilitation is urgently needed they say.
“The basic necessities that come from Goma to Rutshuru will no longer arrive as usual. Traders are penalized. Food that leaves Bunagana, Ishasha, Rutshuru, even Butembo will no longer reach Goma. The same is true for the movement of people. This affects the income of the traders and shopkeepers in our area. It is complicated what this volcano has just created for us as a problem,” said the president of the civil society of Rutshuru.
Failure in the management of the Volcanic Observatory of Goma
In an interview given to the local media on Sunday, the Scientific Director of the Goma Volcanic Observatory (OVG), Dr. Kasereka Mayinda, blamed the lack of an early warning due to lack of internet connectivity for more than 6 months.
It goes without saying that the OVG did not have access to volcanological data from Nyiragongo during this period, due to lack of enough funding for the government.
“With covid-19, there was a project supported by the World Bank that financed the operation of the OVG. The project ended on June 30, 2020. From October 2020 to April 2021, there was no internet at the observatory” said Dr. Kasereka.
Adding “It is thanks to an American partner that we were able to restore the internet. During all this time, we did not have real-time data. There were no operating fees. Our stations are remote, some 150 kilometers away. We spent that time without data,” he said.
He noted “It was in May that we started getting data. We thought, ‘Maybe this is the beginning. The data indicated that there was something going on in Nyiragongo. We had the alert but we assumed it was a recent alert”.
A Member of parliament elected in Goma had already alerted the Bureau of the National Assembly and the government about the mismanagement of the Goma Volcanic Observatory since October 2020.
He said that he had been alerted by OGV agents that the activities of the Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira volcanoes as well as those of the methane gas in Kivu had not been regularly monitored for several months. Unfortunately, no attention was paid to his request by the member of the National Assembly’s office at the time
Goma city spared from volcano
The incandescent lava from the Nyiragongo volcano has stopped dead in its tracks about 1.5 km north of the Goma airport, in a neighborhood known as Buhene.
But earthquakes continue to be felt in Goma since midday Sunday, May 23. This is far from reassuring the local population, who are aware of the existence of volcanic fissures in the city.
After the flight over Nyiragongo volcano, the scientific director of the Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG) indicated this morning that there was no possibility to see if the lava was active in the main crater. According to him, it is therefore early to confirm whether the earthquakes felt in Goma come directly from the main crater of the Nyiragongo volcano. But he reassured the residents of Goma the situationwas under control
However, the damage is enormous in the territory of Nyiragongo where the lava has burnt several houses. The situation was deplorable on Sunday morning in the town of Buhene, north of Goma, the day after the volcanic eruption. At least 500 houses were completely razed by the lava in the town of Buhene, bordering Goma and Nyiragongo territory.
While returning from their various places of refuge, due to this volcanic eruption, the survivors watched helplessly as the lava formed hills in their plots of land as their belongings were calcinated.
“Our house has just been swept away by the lava, unfortunately, the ill-intentioned men have taken advantage of this natural disaster to rob us before the passage of the lava. We have just woken up thanks to God. There are some houses that were spared,” said Soki Makali, a survivor from Buhene.
Nyiragongo, one of the two remaining active volcanoes in the Virunga chain, killed two thousand people in thirty minutes in January 1977, with lava flows that passed through villages at a speed of 60 to 100km/h.
The last volcanic eruption in Goma was in 2002 when the eastern DRC was under the administration of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)/Goma. At least 100 people died when a tanker containing fuel exploded near the lava. The flow destroyed at least 40% of the city’s economic fabric and part of the airport runway. At least 50 schools were destroyed, health centers, pharmacies, part of the urban road system, as well as several dwellings.
Nyiragongo erupts every 20 years, according to scientists. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kivu region, along with Nyamulagira. The latter, located 5 km north of Nyiragongo, erupts every year, pouring its lava into the Virunga National Park, far from the houses.
