The eruption of Nyiragongo volcano in Goma, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo forced thousands of people to leave their homes. With the help of a local NGO, some of them found refuge in the New Apostolic Church in the town of Sake, more than 30 kilometres from Goma. But there are many still missing.
Even as the search continues for the missing, powerful aftershocks from the Mount Nyiragongo volcano rocked Goma as the death toll from the disaster climbed to 32 and thousands were feared homeless.
Three days after Africa’s most active volcano roared back into life, spewing lava that reached the outskirts of the city of 1.5 million, tremors were shaking the region every 10 to 15 minutes.
And two major cracks, stretching up to several hundred metres (yards) long and dozens of centimetres (roughly two feet) wide in places in some places, opened up near the city’s main hospital and on a major highway near the Across the nearby border, the Rwanda Seismic Monitor says it had detected a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in the region, as well as a 4.6 magnitude tremor an hour earlier.
Goma, a city on the shores of Lake Kivu, lies just 12 kilometres (about seven miles) from Mount Nyiragongo. Tens of thousands of residents fled in panic, many of them to Rwanda, when the much-dreaded volcano began erupting.
