HERVE BAR and ANTHONY MORLAND, Gisenyi, Rwanda | Saturday
RELIEF workers were scrambling to create order out of chaos on Friday after some 450 000 people fled the region hit by a huge volcanic eruption in east Africa, with at least one city devastated by lava flows.
There was still no word on casualties from the disaster, which hit the town of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and was threatening to prompt an evacuation of the adjoining town of Gisenyi, across the border in Rwanda.
An official of the UN Observers Mission in Congo (Monuc), sent to monitor a ceasefire in the country’s civil war, said it was clear that there were casualties, but the number was not yet known.
An AFP reporter saw one body in the ruins of Goma, that of a man who had been shot, apparently during the looting which accompanied the rush to evacuate.
Mount Nyiragongo, just 10 kilometres north of Goma, a city of 350 000 people, erupted early on Thursday.
Officials from Goma said some 300 000 Congolese from there had fled across the border into Rwanda, while a Rwandan official said some 450 000 people in all, both Congolese from Goma and Rwandans from Gisenyi, had fled.
There were fears that Gisenyi, the Rwandan lakeside town that initially received most of the displaced Congolese, would have to be evacuated in its turn as the lava flow continued to advance, albeit at a slower rate.
Two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff who managed a swift visit to Goma early on Friday confirmed the picture of devastation and reported there was no let up in the lava flow and seismic activity, the ICRC said from its Geneva headquarters.
“We can estimate that in the next few hours there will be maybe half a million people on the roads, it’s a very likely, plausible estimate,” ICRC representative Juan Martinez said.
Tremors could be felt regularly in Gisenyi, apparently due to continued activity from the volcano. Tremors of varying intensities were being felt approximately every five minutes.
An official of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva said there could be a major risk of pollution and underwater explosions if lava flowed into nearby Lake Kivu.
The disaster occurred in a part of the DRC that is run by a Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), and Rwandan troops, sent across the border to back up the rebels, were present in the area.
The eruption left Goma a ghost town cut in two by a river of lava that was still glowing in places late on Friday. The runway of the Goma airport was unusable, having been covered by lava along 500 meters of its length.
Looting was reported in Goma in spite of a massive Rwandan troop presence.
Witnesses said they saw looters, who they said were officials of the governing RCD, taking equipment from the offices of the UN observer mission.
“Thank goodness the Rwandans are here,” said one businessman, whose stock of rice was only saved from looters by the presence of the troops.
In Nairobi, a representative for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said initial reports from ICRC staff who returned to the city early Friday indicated that 80% of its infrastructure was damaged.
Survivors from Goma confirmed that the water supply was off, and said that the response to the disaster by the RCD authorities had been very slow.
“The eruption had already begun in the morning, but the radio was telling us to stay put, to stay calm,” one said.
“At around five or six in the afternoon we could see the flames of the volcano and we realised it was serious,” she said.
Belgium said Friday it was providing 1,25-million euros ($1,1-million) of emergency humanitarian aid to help victims and has also given the DRC government permission to use medicine and water reserves.
The Belgian air force is to send a C-130 airplane to the region Saturday to deliver blankets and tents.
Worldwide aid and UN agencies were also rushing to set up relief efforts.
In 1977, the last time Mount Nyiragongo erupted, 2 000 people were killed, although on that occasion the lava flows moved much faster than on Thursday.
The ICRC representative said the Red Cross had “extensive facilities” which could be mobilised from Nairobi and Kigali to deal with the crisis. – AFP