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DRC Volcano Eruption, Ensuing Chaos Leave at Least 15 Dead

Associated Press

   GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - Torrents of lava poured into
   villages after dark in eastern Congo with little warning, leaving at
   least 15 people dead amid the chaos and destroying more than 500 homes,
   officials and survivors said Sunday.

   The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday night sent about 5,000
   people fleeing from the city of Goma across the nearby border into
   Rwanda, while another 25,000 others sought refuge to the northwest in
   Sake, the U.N. children's agency said Sunday.

   More than 170 children were feared missing Sunday, and UNICEF officials
   said they were organizing transit centers to help unaccompanied
   children in the wake of the disaster.

   Goma ultimately was largely spared the mass destruction it suffered the
   last time the volcano erupted back in 2002. Hundreds died then and more
   than 100,000 people were left homeless. But in outlying villages closer
   to the volcano, Sunday was marked by grief and uncertainty.
   Watch related video by VOA's Arash Arabasadi: DRC Residents Coping with
   Devastation from Volcano Eruption

   Aline Bichikwebo and her baby managed to escape when the lava flow
   reached her village, but she said her mother and father were among
   those who died. Community members gave a provisional toll of 10 dead in
   Bugamba alone, though provincial authorities said it was too soon to
   know how many lives were lost.

   Bichikwebo says she tried to rescue her father but wasn't strong enough
   to move him to safety before the family's home was ignited by lava.

   "I am asking for help because everything we had is gone," she said,
   clutching her baby. "We don't even have a pot. We are now orphans and
   we have nothing."

   The air remained thick with smoke because a number of homes had caught
   fire when the lava came.

   "People are still panicking and are hungry," resident Alumba Sutoye
   said. "They don't even know where they are going to spend the night."

   Elsewhere, authorities said at least five people died in a truck crash
   while they were trying to evacuate Goma, but the scale of the loss had
   yet to be determined in some of the hardest-hit communities.
   A general view shows smoke and flames at the volcanic eruption of Mount
   Nyiragongo near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, May 22,
   2021.

   Residents said there was little warning before the dark sky turned a
   fiery red, sending people running in all directions. One woman went
   into labor and gave birth while fleeing the eruption to Rwanda, the
   national broadcaster there said.

   Smoke rose Sunday from smoldering heaps of lava in the Buhene area near
   the city.

   "We have seen the loss of almost an entire neighborhood," Innocent
   Bahala Shamavu said. "All the houses in Buhene neighborhood were burned
   and that's why we are asking all the provincial authorities and
   authorities at the national level as well as all the partners, all the
   people of good faith in the world, to come to the aid of this
   population."

   Elsewhere, witnesses said lava had engulfed one highway connecting Goma
   with the city of Beni. However, the airport appeared to be spared the
   same fate as 2002 when lava flowed onto the runways.

   Goma is a regional hub for many humanitarian agencies in the region, as
   well as the U.N. peacekeeping mission. While Goma is home to many U.N.
   peacekeepers and aid workers, much of surrounding eastern Congo is
   under threat from myriad armed groups vying for control of the region's
   mineral resources.