AFRICA: The Congolese town of Goma was deserted yesterday after a tide of fiery lava flowed through its streets, setting buildings on fire and sending at least 200,000 terrified people across the border into neighbouring Rwanda.
The volcano Mount Nyiragongo, 30 miles north of the town, erupted on Thursday night, spewing a stream of lava that consumed at least 14 villages and killed at least 45 people according to the UN.
When it reached Goma the lava exploded fuel depots and power installations, engulfed the Catholic cathedral and destroyed the airport runway. It finally spilled into nearby Lake Kivu, where scientists fear it could spark a secondary disaster by disturbing an underwater mass of poisonous gas. Two miles from Goma the border crossing with Rwanda was heaving with a crush of fleeing Congolese, who carried their children, chickens, pots and mattresses.
"It seemed as if the whole town of Goma left on foot. At least 50 people slept at my gate [on Thursday\]," said Ms Rosamund Carr, an American who runs an orphanage in Gisenyi, over the Rwandan border.
International aid agencies and Rwandan authorities scrambled to provide food, water and shelter for the refugees, estimated to number at between 200,000 and 400,000. A further 80,000 fled west to the town of Sake.
EU relief experts carried out an emergency assessment while the Belgian government immediately committed aid worth €1.25 million.
The most immediate danger is a cholera epidemic, Mr Bernard Le Flaive of the aid agency Merlin told The Irish Times. "People are going in every direction. It is a very confused situation," he said.
The UN evacuated 350 troops from its camp near the airport. The Moroccan soldiers are part of a 5,500-strong contingent overseeing a ceasefire in the four-year war between government and rebels.
Eighty per cent of Goma has been damaged or destroyed, according to the Red Cross. "As a human being I feel like I must cry," said Mr Adolphe Onusumba, leader of the rebels that control the town. Experts warned that the lava pouring into Lake Kivu could cause further loss of life. It is polluting the water supply in a town where two of the three purification plants are not working.
Worse, scientists say the lava flow could disturb a mass of toxic gas sitting on the lake bed. In the worst case scenario, a cloud of gas would rise from the lake and suffocate those living on its shores, as happened in Cameroon several years ago when almost 2,000 villagers died.
The 3,471-metre high Mount Nyiragongo is one of eight volcanoes in a chain running into Rwanda, of which two are active. Zambia last year took in so many refugees from wars in neighbouring countries that aid officials had to slash their food allowances, leading to increased malnutrition, a UN official said yesterday, warning of an even bigger influx to come.
Mr Martine Bucumi, deputy resident representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the southern African country, said Zambia took in some 40,000 people, notably from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.