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Eruption of Nyiragongo in Congo: Lava flow stops shortly before Goma

2021-05-23T13:01:28.121Z


The African border town of Goma apparently narrowly escaped a disaster when the Nyiragongo volcano erupted. However, the lava leaves a desert of rubble. Thousands fled to Rwanda that night.


Enlarge image

Local residents watch the devastation wrought by a lava flow in a suburb of Goma

Photo: Justin Kabumba / AP

The lava flow from the Mount Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo stopped shortly before the city of Goma.

Residents who had left their homes in a panic on Saturday evening and had fled some of them across the border into neighboring Rwanda returned on Sunday morning, as a reporter from the German press agency reported on site.

Part of the lava flow rolled towards Goma late on Saturday.

The Rwandan authorities then opened the border on Sunday night and let people pass.

The 3469 meter high Mount Nyiragongo belongs to a chain of eight volcanoes in the East African Rift Valley, a tectonically active expansion zone that is part of the Great African Rift Valley.

It is located about 20 kilometers north of the town of Goma on Lake Kivu with its two million inhabitants in the Virunga National Park and thus also near the border with Rwanda.

The volcano erupted on Saturday evening around 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. CEST).

The lava flows have so far mainly flowed through parts of the national park, said Celestin Mahinda, head of the volcanological observatory of Goma, the state radio station RTNC.

The park is Africa's most biodiverse reserve and home to the endangered mountain gorillas.

Thousands on the run

Because, according to Mahindas, part of the lava flow was also moving in the direction of Goma and the glowing lava masses had reached the city's airport, many residents fled to neighboring Rwanda and tried to take their belongings with them;

Crowds gathered in the streets with suitcases and mattresses.

In Goma, riots broke out in the central prison during the night as prisoners evidently feared for their lives after the volcanic eruption.

Several shots could be heard from the building complex.

In large parts of the city, the power went out.

The lava also rolled down a highway that connects Goma with the city of Beni, 350 kilometers to the north.

Reconnaissance flights over the lava fields started at night from a UN blue helmet base.

The UN mission Monusco documented this on Twitter:

Mount Nyiragongo was last erupted in 2002.

Back then, around 250 people were killed when large parts of the eastern urban areas of Goma were covered with lava, including half of the airport runway.

In 2002, 120,000 people were left homeless.

The Nyiragongo eruption with the most serious consequences so far occurred in 1977 and resulted in more than 600 deaths.

mak / dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-05-23

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