Powerful aftershocks from the Mount Nyiragongo volcano rocked the eastern DR Congo city of Goma on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 as the death toll from the disaster climbed to 32 and thousands were feared homeless. Three days after Africa’s most active volcano roared back into life, spewing lava that reached the outskirts of the city of 1.5 million, tremors were shaking the region every 10 to 15 minutes.
And two major cracks, stretching up to several hundred metres (yards) long and dozens of centimetres (roughly two feet) wide in places in some places, opened up near the city’s main hospital and on a major highway near the airport, worrying residents who have only just returned home after Saturday’s eruption.
“We don’t know what to do — we’re in a quandary, there’s no instructions from the authorities, even though everything is moving,” said local resident Furaha Nyirere, visibly anxious.
A three-storey building partially collapsed under the repeated strain of the aftershocks, seriously injuring at least seven people, police said.
“We are all living in fear of a fresh eruption,” a local official from an international organisation told AFP.
“The aftershocks are very intense. A lot of people slept outside under mosquito nets, scared that their homes were going to collapse. There are cracks in the walls of our office,” the official said.
Across the nearby border, the Rwanda Seismic Monitor said it had detected a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in the region at 0903 GMT, as well as a 4.6 magnitude tremor an hour earlier. Goma, a city on the shores of Lake Kivu, lies just 12 kilometres (about seven miles) from Mount Nyiragongo.
Tens of thousands of residents fled in panic, many of them to Rwanda, when the much-dreaded volcano began erupting on Saturday evening. Two rivers of molten rock flowed from the volcano at a height of 1,800 metres (5,900 feet). One headed towards Goma, stopping at the very outskirts of the city.
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Powerful aftershocks from the Mount Nyiragongo volcano rocked the eastern DR Congo city of Goma on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 as the death toll from the disaster climbed to 32 and thousands were feared homeless. Three days after Africa’s most active volcano roared back into life, spewing lava that reached the outskirts of the city of 1.5 million, tremors were shaking the region every 10 to 15 minutes.
And two major cracks, stretching up to several hundred metres (yards) long and dozens of centimetres (roughly two feet) wide in places in some places, opened up near the city’s main hospital and on a major highway near the airport, worrying residents who have only just returned home after Saturday’s eruption.
“We don’t know what to do — we’re in a quandary, there’s no instructions from the authorities, even though everything is moving,” said local resident Furaha Nyirere, visibly anxious.
A three-storey building partially collapsed under the repeated strain of the aftershocks, seriously injuring at least seven people, police said.
“We are all living in fear of a fresh eruption,” a local official from an international organisation told AFP.
“The aftershocks are very intense. A lot of people slept outside under mosquito nets, scared that their homes were going to collapse. There are cracks in the walls of our office,” the official said.
Across the nearby border, the Rwanda Seismic Monitor said it had detected a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in the region at 0903 GMT, as well as a 4.6 magnitude tremor an hour earlier. Goma, a city on the shores of Lake Kivu, lies just 12 kilometres (about seven miles) from Mount Nyiragongo.
Tens of thousands of residents fled in panic, many of them to Rwanda, when the much-dreaded volcano began erupting on Saturday evening. Two rivers of molten rock flowed from the volcano at a height of 1,800 metres (5,900 feet). One headed towards Goma, stopping at the very outskirts of the city.
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