Dateline ACT

Goma (DRC) 04/02

Relief for villages first hit by lava flow

By Rainer Lang

Ndece Bugesha vividly recalls the morning when Mt. Nyiragongo erupted near Goma. "We thought that an aeroplane was crashing."

Mr. Bugesha, his wife and their eight children just managed to escape the rapidly flowing lava stream that would within minutes engulf their home. It was 8.50 in the morning. Their village, Kaguri, about eight kilometers far from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was one of the first villages to be hit by the lava flow. Two weeks after the disaster, villagers are still waiting for assistance. "I have no house and no food", Mr Bugesha says, shrugging his shoulders.

Dr. Lobo Muhigirwa, a medical doctor with Action by Churches Together (ACT) member Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is visiting the Kybati area to identify the people in urgent need of support. He is accompanied by a colleague, Dr. Nicolas Rusati who works with ACT member Eglise du Christi au Congo (ECC). The Kybati area lies close to the volcano, about 12 kilometers from Goma, and comprises nine villages with a population of nearly 6,700 people.

While in the area, the two doctors meet up with two women and five children carrying jerry cans, all carefully making their way along the lava stream that cuts across a road just below the volcano. They were told that there were water and oil distribution points further along the road. This will be the first time in two weeks that they will get help, the women say.

They too tell of how little time they had to escape, how there was no time to take anything with them when the lava came, destroying everything in its path, including their homes. The lava also swallowed up the village water tank. To get fresh water, they had to wait for rain.

Dr. Lobo points at the now solid lava stream, showing how it wended its way from the volcano, heading for Rwanda, before it suddenly veered back and flowed directly towards Goma. Buried under the cold, hard lava-rock lie what used to be the fields of the villagers. "This would have been a bean field", he explains.

Many of the people living in villages in the low-lying areas fled to the closest village on higher ground. Two weeks later, hundreds of people are still seeking shelter here. Pastor Bakishe Balizire says that the villagers here have not received food or any other kind of assistance. A few kilometers away however, closer to Goma, food distribution has started in the neighbouring area of Monigi.

The two doctors say that the people who lived in the villages close to the volcano were very poor even before the volcano erupted. Most of the villages had no permanent water supply.

The challenges may be many, but every day staff of local ACT members Bureau Oecuménique d'Appui au Development (BOAD) and ECC accomplish what they can. Next on the agenda, is the distribution of food to the villagers in the Kybati area.