Siggi Soler and Andrei Neacsu in Rwanda
Betty Nyilaburu is a single mother of six children, her home one of many destroyed in central Goma. Like everyone at Mudende Camp across the border in neighbouring Rwanda she is here because "we saw the fire coming towards the house and had to run, we couldn't take anything with us - if you try you will melt."
She especially regrets losing the cradle for the smallest of her children and - in the chilly Rwandan weather - her blankets. She crossed the border and stayed two days in Gisenyi until Red Cross volunteers told her about the camp, where the authorities took the family by bus. But Betty cannot work in Rwanda and wants to go back as soon as the volcano is calm again. "We have always lived with the threat - it comes and goes," she says. "I just can't go back alone, but I can't stay here for ever. When my friends leave I'll join them because there, with or without my possessions, is my home."
The only thing that makes Betty smile is the new friend she met at the camp, Bienvenue Mutujamamba, a student at Goma's Mbulia Institute. His account of the day Nyiragongo struck: "It was Lumumba Day, a national holiday in Congo. I was with my friends and we heard about the eruption on the radio. I started walking slowly towards my parents' house, but realized we could not pass and went towards my uncle's instead. It was worse, we could only cross over to Rwanda. I don't know where my parents are now. I hope they are safe."
Like many others Bienvenue is waiting to see what the volcano will do in the next few days. "My family has lost everything and won't be able to support my studies anymore," he says. "My life is suddenly a mess, I would have finished this year. The weather here is very different from Goma and we are really happy to see the Red Cross distributing blankets. The Red Cross volunteers are taking care of us and preparing the camp, but it would be best if they helped us rehabilitate our place in Goma so we can go back."
Odette Nyiraminani didn't bother to take any belongings when she fled the Corniche district west of Goma. She grabbed her 10-month-old son Patrick and they ran for their lives with the lava at their backs. "First I thought it was thunder when the volcano started to spit the boiling lava," she says, holding her small baby tightly in her arms. "The town was covered with smoke and we could hardly breathe. We were allowed to cross the border and spent two days in a manioc field near Gysenyi, until the Red Cross found us and guided us to the Mudende camp."
An old college building five kilometres off the main road from Gysenyi to Ruhengeri, Mudende is now sheltering about 3400 volcano refugees. "What I am wearing is all I have," Odette tells Rwandan Red Cross coordinator Christophe Mushimiyinman who is delivering mattresses, blankets and food, and reassuring people that work has begun to improve sanitation.
"The health situation in Mudende is satisfactory although there are cases of respiratory infections partly due to the smoke from the volcano, but luckily nothing serious," says Federation health coordinator Dr. Razak Akadiri. He is particularly reassured to see drinking water is available in sufficient quantities.
In a room at Mudende, playing with two of his children, Ntako Maéshé is sad and happy at the same time. "I am happy because I managed to save my two daughters, Aminata and Odette. I am happy to have found a shelter and good people to help us.But I am sad because I lost my four-year-old, Gédéon." Ntako, 34, is a school teacher who saw his house in the northern district called simply Virunga, which means volcano, swallowed whole by the lava flow. Ntake hopes the Rwandan Red Cross and the ICRC can trace his son.
In front of two large tents a group of children - all unaccompanied and waiting to be reunited with their families - play under the watchful eye of Red Cross volunteers. "We are broadcasting messages about the location of the children on both Rwandan and Congolese radio," says Christophe as he comforts a small boy visibly traumatised by being separated from his parents. "In some cases we were really lucky as the parents turned out to be in Mudende as well."
"When I saw everyone running around and shouting I got so scared I started to runwith the crowd while my mother and father were trying to pack what they could," says 13-year-old Yéyé Févrié.