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Updated May 23rd, 2021 at 10:59 IST

Residents try to stop lava reaching DR Congo village

A group of men trying in vain to redirect the course of the lava coming from Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo could all but watch as the magma reached their village early Sunday.

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A group of men trying in vain to redirect the course of the lava coming from Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo could all but watch as the magma reached their village early Sunday.

Mount Nyiragongo erupted for the first time in nearly two decades Saturday, turning the night sky a fiery red and sending lava onto a major highway as panicked residents tried to flee Goma, a city of nearly 2 million and other regions near the volcano.

There was no immediate word on any casualties, but witnesses said that lava already had engulfed one highway that connects Goma with the city of Beni in North Kivu province.

"The houses are burned, the people are suffering, the problems are huge" said Alexis Kambere, a resident of Nyiragongo.

The lack of immediate announcements from authorities and conflicting accounts circulating on social media only added to the sense of chaos in Goma.

Authorities at the Goma Volcano Observatory initially said it was the nearby Nyamulagira volcano that had erupted.

The two volcanos are located about 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) apart.

The government said an evacuation plan was being activated, but the official announcement came several hours after the sky turned a fiery red, and many already had fled on foot in hopes of crossing the Rwandan border post just outside town.

Car horns honked and motorcycle taxis weaved as people attempted to escape in panic.

Goma sits along the border between Congo and neighboring Rwanda, and is a regional hub for many humanitarian agencies in the region, as well as the U.N. peacekeeping mission known as MONUSCO.

The volcano erupting is also close the Virunga National Park, home to some of the last mountain gorillas in the world.

While Goma is home to many U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers, much of the surrounding eastern Congo is also under threat from a myriad of armed groups vying for control of the region's mineral resources.

 

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Published May 23rd, 2021 at 10:59 IST

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