Trucks loaded with relief aid have entered Goma, as tens of thousands of destitute locals left homeless by Thursday’s volcanic eruption line up for food and water.
More than 90 per cent of the 300,000 people who fled the lava flowing from Mount Nyiragongo have returned home to the city against the advice of aid agencies.
Thousands more are waiting in neighbouring Gisenyi, Rwanda, for boats to take them across Lake Kivu to other cities in Congo.
Mr Jacques Durieux, a vulcanologist at the French Group for the Study of Active Volcanoes, said there were no indications of an imminent eruption and that all lava flows had stopped. He said it was now safe for the United Nations to deliver aid directly to Goma and for the refugees to return home.
UN Deputy Emergency Relief co-ordinator Mr Ross Mountain said he was consulting with Congolese and Rwandan authorities on how to provide aid to the 10,000 families left homeless after 40 per cent of the city was destroyed. About 7,000 civilians have moved into refugee camps in Rwanda.
In New York, Mr Stephen Johnson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the UN expected to appeal for $15 million in immediate aid, including food and other items for victims of the volcano as well as co-ordination efforts and future assessments.
PA