Staff Reporter.
Thousands have fled a volcanic eruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo with lava from Mount Nyiragongo reaching Goma city early Sunday.
Even before the official announcement, people had started filling the streets and carrying what they could as they headed out of the city, where the last major eruption killed 100 people.
“The sky has turned red,” one resident, Carine Mbala, told AFP.
“There is a smell of sulphur. In the distance you can see giant flames coming out of the mountain,” she said.
Officials said the lava had reached Goma city airport — located on the outskirts of the metropolis on the shores of Lake Kivu — although residents said it had stopped at the edge of the facility.
“The situation is deteriorating,” an official from Virunga National Park, where the volcano is located, told his staff in a memo.
Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya confirmed on Saturday an evacuation plan had been activated, adding: “The government is discussing the urgent measures to take at present.”
Meanwhile, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said he would “interrupt his stay in Europe to return home this Sunday to supervise the coordination of aid.”
By early Sunday at least 3,000 people had arrived in neighbouring Rwanda, according to the country’s national broadcaster.
The Rwanda Broadcast Agency tweeted photos of those arriving in Rubavu district, adding they would be “accommodated in schools and places of worship that have been made ready”.
The first departures from Goma city came even before the official confirmation that Mount Nyiragongo had erupted at around 7 pm Saturday, spewing red fumes into the night sky.
The Virunga Park official said Sunday “the flow is also descending on the town. It has now reached the airport”, adding the lava was likely to reach the shores of Lake Kivu.
“The eruption of Nyiragongo is similar to the eruption in 2002,” he said, 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.
Power was already cut in large parts of the city when hundreds of residents began leaving their homes.
Additional Reporting by Agence France-Presse (AFP).