The Kenya Government has sent four plane loads containing 34 tonnes of humanitarian and food Aid to the Government of Democratic Republic of Congo #DRCongo following the devastating volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragoro which left thousands of families displaced.
Mount Nyiragoro erupted Saturday night (May 22), sending thousands of people fleeing across the border into Rwanda and filling the skies with orange-red smoke. By Sunday morning, the lava flow had slowed, stopping just short of the area’s major transit hub Goma, and so far no directly related injuries or deaths have been reported.
The last time this volcano erupted, in January 2002, lava covered nearby Goma—the capital of North Kivu province and home to about 2 million people—and left possibly 250 individuals dead and more than 100,000 without homes, according to news reports. Before that, in 1977 the volcano blew its top, sending lava across Goma and killing 2,000 people, according to Britannica.
“The humanitarian assistance and food aid delivered by the Kenya Defence Force is an expression of Kenya’s solidarity and friendship with the government of #DRC and will go along way to support the affected families as well as reinforce state intervention for humanitarian aid”, Foreign Affairs ministry said.
Though one of the world’s most active volcanoes, Mount Nyiragongo may not have been properly monitored, according to news reports.The World Bank recently cut funding to Goma Volcano Observatory due to allegations of corruption, BBC News reported.
In fact, on May 10, the observatory issued a report of increased seismic activity around the volcano; and last year, observatory director Katcho Karume told BBC the crater lake on Mount Nyiragongo had been filling up quickly and upping the chances of an eruption, BBC News reported.
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