Residents pick up the remains of their destroyed homes from the smouldering lava deposited by the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo volcano near Goma
KINSHASA, May 26 (NNN-Xinhua) — A series of earthquakes on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have stoked fears that the Nyiragongo volcano close to the area would erupt again three days after the first eruption.
The volcano started to erupt on Saturday, spewing lava that headed towards the border with Rwanda, and stopped on Sunday morning, leaving dozens of people killed and thousands displaced.
An earthquake on the border of Congo and Rwanda on Tuesday May 25 — measured 5.3 magnitude by the Rwandan Seismic Monitor and the strongest of more than 100 tremors that have followed Saturday’s eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano — destroyed several buildings in the DRC’s eastern city of Goma.
Earlier the same day a series of earthquakes hit western Rwanda’s Rubavu district that borders eastern DRC, causing major cracks in residential and commercial houses, schools and several murram and tarmac roads, Gilbert Habyarimana, mayor of Rwanda’s Rubavu district, told Xinhua.
The death toll linked to the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo volcano rose to 32 and is likely to further rise, the DRC authorities said.
Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the loss of life saddens the UN chief and that Guterres expressed his deepest sympathies to the government and people of the DRC.
Rwanda’s Emergency Management Ministry said thousands of residents from the DRC seeking refuge in Rwanda were on their way back home. — NNN-XINHUA
