Mount Nyiragongo erupts

[Ken Gargett]

this is probably only of interest to the vulcanologists among us or those who have travelled in this area but harsh news for the region. this thing does go off fairly regularly. i had heard that they built a luxury resort on the lip of the thing so would imagine that has suffered the inevitable fate.

it fascinates me as back in the mid/late 80s, a group of us climbed it. there were tracks but the problem was that the locals had them straight up and down the mountain so that if you got a torrential storm, the water would flood down these paths which were often well worn into the side of the volcano and often feet deep, thanks to erosion. we had such a storm coming down and i remember hanging on to tree roots for dear life in a channel six foot deep as the water rushed over my head, thinking how bizarre to have cause of death as drowning on a mountain. 

we camped the night on the edge of the volcano - no luxury resorts then - which was spectacular, although the thing was very much in remission. the lava was bubbling and spurting thousands of feet below, but no chance of getting to us. amazing thing.

i also remember goma well. wonderful town. we had a hoot there. great people. then a few years later that was the centre of the massacres spilling over from rwanda. and possibly hundreds of thousands killed, mostly with machetes. 

puts life in perspective when today's problem might be whether or not your cigar is plugged. 

 

for those who also want the pics. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/22/dr-congos-nyiragongo-volcano-erupts-triggering-panic

DR Congo orders Goma evacuation after Mount Nyiragongo erupts

Thousands flee their homes as lava from Mount Nyirangongo approaches Goma airport.

Residents are seen standing next to destroyed structures near smouldering ashes early morning in Goma in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo [Moses Sawasawa / AFP]

22 May 2021

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Updated: 

13 hours ago

 

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have urged residents of the eastern city of Goma to evacuate after a volcano overlooking the area erupted.

Lava from Mount Nyiragongo approached Goma’s airport late on Saturday, as thousands of residents carrying mattresses and other belongings fled the border city on foot – many towards the frontier with Rwanda. The lava flow has now stopped after reaching Goma’s suburbs, AFP news agency reported.

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Nyiragongo’s last eruption in 2002 killed 250 people and left 120,000 homeless.

It is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and is considered among the most dangerous.

“The evacuation plan for the city of Goma has been activated,” Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya tweeted late on Saturday. “The government is discussing the urgent measures to take at present.”

The plan was activated after an emergency meeting in Kinshasha, he added.

The presidency said President Felix Tshisekedi will cut short a trip to Europe to return to Congo on Sunday.

The military governor of North Kivu province, of which Goma is the capital, confirmed the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano at around 7:00pm (17:00 GMT).

General Constant Ndima urged residents of Goma, a city of two million people that sits on Mount Nyiragongo’s southern flank and the north shore of Lake Kivu, to remain calm.

‘Goma is the target’

Earlier on Saturday, residents reported a strong smell of sulphur on the streets of the eastern town and a red glow filling up the sky above the city.

 

Peacekeepers from the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) stand guard as civilians watch smoke and flames as they gather with their belongings following a volcanic activities at Mount Nyiragongo near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo May 22, 2021 [Olivia Acland/ Reuters] People gather with their belongings following a volcanic activities at Mount Nyiragongo near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo May 22, 2021 [Olivia Acland/ Reuters] The lava initially flowed east towards Rwanda, said Dario Tedesco, a volcanologist based in Goma. But later in the night, new fractures opened in the volcano allowing lava to flow south towards Goma, he said.

 

“Now, Goma is the target,” Tedesco told the Reuters news agency. “It’s similar to 2002. I think that the lava is going towards the city centre.”

“It might stop before or go on. It’s difficult to forecast,” he said.

INSO, which coordinates safety for non-governmental organisations, said in a note that the lava had cut off a main road that runs north from Goma.

 

 

Emmanuel De Merode, head of Virunga National Park, asked park employees in parts of Goma to evacuate.

“The situation is deteriorating,” he said in a note, asking all residents near the airport to “evacuate without delay”. At this stage, he said, “the other districts of the city were not in danger” as the lava was unlikely to reach those areas.

‘We don’t know what to do’

On the streets of Goma, panic spread quickly.

The first departures from the city came even before the official confirmation of the eruption came. Power was out across much of the city on Saturday night and phone lines were busy, according to Reuters.

“We are panicked because we have just seen the entire city covered by a light that is not electricity or lamps,” said John Kilosho. “We don’t know what to do. We don’t even know how to behave. There is no information.”

Others fled to the city centre from villages and neighbourhoods threatened by lava on the northern outskirts.

“We looked at the sky and saw the red colour of the volcano,” said Richard Hazika Diouf from the Majengo neighbourhood.

“We have fled to seek shelter in town.”

Rwanda’s Ministry in Charge of Emergency Management said more than 3,500 Congolese have crossed the border.

Rwandan state media said they would be lodged in schools and places of worship.

 

Steam and spurts of molten rock are pictured in the lava lake of Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo [File: AFP] Volcano watchers have been worried that the volcanic activity observed in the last five years at Nyiragongo mirrors that in the years preceding eruptions in 2002 and 1977.

 

Volcanologists at the OVG, which monitors Nyiragongo, have struggled to make basic checks on a regular basis since the World Bank cut funding amid embezzlement allegations.

In a bulletin on May 10, the observatory said there had been increased seismic activity at Nyiragongo earlier in the month.

The deadliest eruption of the 3,000-metre high volcano was in 1977, when more than 600 died.