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22 January 2002 by Siggi Soler and Andrei Neacsu, in Gisenyi The Rwandan Red Cross is now active in three of the temporary camps for people who fled last week's eruption of the Mount Nyiragongo volcano and has taken overall charge of one. With Federation support, it is providing first aid, food, health instruction and some non-food items in Mudende, Nkamira and Ruhengeri camps - between them holding about 11,500 people at last count. Rwandan Red Cross volunteers, who were mobilized in the immediate aftermath of the eruption to provide basic assistance to people on the road, Tuesday carried out a distribution of blankets and cooking sets to all the estimated 4500 people in Mudende camp - actually a half-finished college building - where it has taken charge. They are in good condition but suffering from cold and glad of blankets. A government dispensary is operational and the Rwandan volunteers - about 100 of them - are digging extra latrines. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Congolese Red Cross and the ICRC are together providing assistance to volcano victims, bringing them water and medical help and repairing water treatment plants in Goma, almost all of whose population has now returned. The Rome-based World Food Programme said Tuesday it would shortly start distributing food aid inside Goma after receiving "expert assurance" that the eruption is finally over. Meanwhile, a Movement airlift got into full swing with the arrival in the Rwandan capital Kigali of two aircraft, sent by the Belgian and Netherlands Red Cross Societies and carrying tents and blankets. Several other flights are due over the next few days, carrying supplies from the French, Swiss, Belgian, Finnish, American and Spanish Red Cross Societies. "It is vital we rapidly assist people who have lost everything, wherever they may be," said Iain Logan, Federation operations manager in Geneva. The airlifted resources would be used as appropriate according to the "coordinated assessment with our partners," he added. In Goma itself, partially destroyed by the massive lava flow after the eruption, strong earth tremors were still being felt from Mount Nyiragongo and small lava flows are still visible. But while scientists clearly believe the immediate danger of further eruptions had abated, Federation planning will be done in collaboration with the Rwanda Red Cross and the ICRC, and will provide for a possible second exodus to Rwanda from the DRC. Volcanic lava covers much of the commercial centre of the city, and the authorities have begun to bulldoze a road across a section of solidified lava to a part of the city that was cut off. After fears about poisonous gases in Lake Kivu, into which some of the molten lava had been flowing, the ICRC tested the water and is now also working with the local water company to restore the piped supply. Two of Goma's three pumping stations are still probably functional, and the ICRC is also trucking water to eastern Goma from the nearby Rwandan city of Gisenyi using a 30,000-litre tanker. The ICRC in Goma provided dressing materials and a special burns kit to help health centres treating people injured in Monday's explosion at a petrol station, which probably increased the overall death toll in the eruption to at least 75. The blast was triggered when red-hot lava sparked an explosion in a fuel drum. Last week the Movement responded quickly to the eruption of Nyiragongo - one of Africa's most active volcanoes. Delegates from the Red Cross Societies of Belgium, France, Germany and Spain already in Kigali sent water tankers and reservoirs, as well as purification equipment to Gisenyi. The ICRC provided medicines to treat burns and hundreds of Rwandan Red Cross volunteers set up first aid posts along the road to the temporary transit centres. The day after the eruption the Federation launched an appeal for 1.5 million Swiss francs, to which many Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world have responded. The Federation's crisis coordination and assessment team is based in Ruhengeri and has offices in Kigali and in Gisenyi. Mount Nyiragongo is one of eight volcanoes along the borders of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Last active in 1994 when a lava lake emerged in its summit crater, it has a long history of activity. But last week's eruption was much more serious, with a huge torrent of molten lava smashing its way through Goma at speeds of up to 60 kilometres an hour. |
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