Families fleeing the Democratic Republic of the Congo city of Goma after forecasts of another volcanic eruption are starving and unable to find protection when the UN called for help and warned of the risk of cholera.
At least 31 people died when Mount Nyiragongo sent a lava wall that spread to Goma on Saturday last week, destroying 3,000 homes along the road and hijacking a major road used to help the war-torn region.
The lava stopped just outside the city limits, but thousands more fled early on Thursday when the government warned that the volcano, one of the world’s most active, could erupt again.
Many fled to Sake, a town 20 km northwest of Goma that is prone to cholera outbreaks, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
People slept where they could – on the road and in classrooms and a church. Kabuo Asifiwe Muliwavyo, 36, told Reuters she and her seven children had not eaten since they arrived on Thursday.
“They told us there was going to be a second eruption and that there was going to be a big gas explosion,” she said as she rocked her crying one-year-old. “But since we moved, there’s nothing here … We’re starving.”
About 400,000 people need support or protection, UNICEF said in a statement.
“With an increased risk of cholera outbreaks, we are appealing for urgent international assistance to avert what could be a disaster for children,” said UNICEF Representative in the Congo, Edouard Beigbeder.
Under the stars
Danga Tungulo and his four children slept next to the road in Sake. Some locals took water with them, but they had not eaten since they left Goma the day before, he said.
“They told everyone that help would be organized, that money would be paid out by the government,” said Hassan Kanga, a lawyer who fled after the outbreak. “And yet you will find us under the stars.”
The evacuation order was issued around 1 a.m. local time on Thursday after radar images showed molten rock flowing under Goma.
The movement of magma caused cracks in the ground and hundreds of earthquakes, which could cause it to burst through the surface in a new eruption, says Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG).
The frequency and intensity of the earthquakes had decreased during the past 24 hours, which indicates that the risk of a new outbreak is decreasing, said Celestin Kasareka Mahinda from OVG on Friday.
“I do not think we will have a second outbreak. The problem is the risk of fractures, but the risk is small, about 20%,” he told Reuters.
Some people who fled to Sake crowded into trucks later on Friday to return to Goma. Dozens of people who had fled in the opposite direction to neighboring Rwanda also crossed back to Congo, according to photos shared by the Rwandan government.
Congolese authorities meanwhile opened the main road which was divided into two by lava, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday.
Goma is a major humanitarian hub that delivers aid to a region affected by decades of unrest.
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