The situation is “under control” following the eruption of a volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said on Saturday after his government mistakenly announced another volcano had erupted.
A week after Mount Nyiragongo — Africa’s most active volcano — roared back into life, causing devastation and sparking a mass exodus, “the situation is certainly serious, but it is under control,” Tshisekedi told a news conference.
About 400,000 residents have evacuated the city of Goma after a week of rolling aftershocks followed the eruption of Nyiragongo.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“There is an underground lava flow that can arise anytime, anywhere in the city,” Tshisekedi said, strongly advising against people returning to Goma.
“The lava is no longer in the crater, but the volcano remains active. So we have to be wary and that’s why we don’t want to rush things by bringing back the populations,” he said.
His comments came after more than 1,000 refugees left a camp in Rwanda to return to the DR Congo on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the Congolese government announced that another volcano had erupted, later admitting it was a false alarm.
The blunder comes as the government is increasingly criticized over a looming humanitarian crisis.
“A plane has just flown over the entire area on the sides of this volcano. No eruption was observed,” it added.
On Saturday, the Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG) said that while there was “intense activity, there has been no eruption.”
Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, lies on the shores of Lake Kivu in the shadow of Nyiragongo.
On May 22, the strato-volcano spewed rivers of lava that claimed nearly three dozen lives and destroyed the homes of 20,000 people before the eruption stopped.
Hundreds of aftershocks have rocked the region, but the OVG said they had decreased in number and intensity over the past 48 hours.
The OVG said that 61 earthquakes had shaken the area in the previous 24 hours.
It said that the quakes were “consistent with the continued movement of magma in the Nyiragongo fissure system toward Lake Kivu.”
Scientists have warned of a potentially catastrophic scenario — a “limnic eruption,” which occurs when lava combines with a deep lake and spews out lethal gas across a potentially large area.
However, the OVG report said that a “landslide or large earthquake destabilizing the deep waters of the lake causing the emergence of dissolved gases” was much less likely, although it still “cannot be excluded.”
About 80,000 households — 400,000 inhabitants — have moved out of Goma since Thursday, when a “preventative” evacuation order was given.
About 3,000 people fleeing Goma sought refuge at a temporary camp in Rugerero, about 10km across the Rwandan border.
However, on Saturday, an estimated 1,200 had left to return to Goma, a Rwandan government official at Rugerero said on condition of anonymity.
Military trucks were seen transporting refugees to the border.
William Byukusenge, a construction worker, said that “if it erupts again, we will come back to Rwanda.”
However, another evacuee, Marie Claire Uwineza, said that she had nowhere left to go.
“My house was burned and I have nothing left,” said the 39-year-old, who fled with two of her children.
Criticism has been growing over the government response after Thursday’s evacuation order was met with fear and traffic jams, many not knowing where to go.
“The population had the impression of being abandoned to their sad fate,” the newspaper EcoNews said, calling it “a perfect illustration of the fact that the state does not exist.”
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