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   From: invalid@dont-email.me   
      
   GOMA, Congo – Torrents of lava poured into villages after dark   
   in eastern Congo with little warning, leaving at least 15 people   
   dead amid the chaos and destroying more than 500 homes,   
   officials and survivors said Sunday.   
      
   The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday night sent about   
   5,000 people fleeing from the city of Goma across the nearby   
   border into Rwanda, while another 25,000 others sought refuge to   
   the northwest in Sake, the U.N. children’s agency said Sunday.   
      
   More than 170 children were still feared missing Sunday and   
   UNICEF officials said they were organizing transit centers to   
   help unaccompanied children in the wake of the disaster.   
      
   Goma ultimately was largely spared the mass destruction it   
   suffered the last time the volcano erupted back in 2002.   
   Hundreds died then and more than 100,000 people were left   
   homeless. But in outlying villages closer to the volcano, Sunday   
   was marked by grief and uncertainty.   
      
   Aline Bichikwebo and her baby managed to escape when the lava   
   flow reached her village, but said both her mother and father   
   were among those who perished. Community members gave a   
   provisional toll of 10 dead in Bugamba alone, though provincial   
   authorities said it was too soon to know how many lives were   
   lost.   
      
   Bichikwebo says she tried to rescue her father but wasn’t strong   
   enough to move him to safety before the family’s home was   
   ignited by lava.   
      
   “I am asking for help because everything we had is gone,” she   
   said, clutching her baby. “We don’t even have a pot. We are now   
   orphans and we have nothing.”   
      
   The air remained thick with smoke because of how many homes had   
   caught fire when the lava came.   
      
   “People are still panicking and are hungry,” resident Alumba   
   Sutoye said. “They don’t even know where they are going to spend   
   the night.”   
      
   Elsewhere, authorities said at least five other people had died   
   in a truck crash while they were trying to evacuate Goma, but   
   the scale of the loss had yet to be determined in some of the   
   hardest-hit communities.   
      
   Residents said there was little warning before the dark sky   
   turned a fiery red, sending people running for their lives in   
   all directions. One woman went into labor and gave birth while   
   fleeing the eruption to Rwanda, the national broadcaster there   
   said.   
      
   Smoke rose from smoldering heaps of lava in the Buhene area near   
   the city Sunday.   
      
   “We have seen the loss of almost an entire neighborhood,”   
   Innocent Bahala Shamavu said. “All the houses in Buhene   
   neighborhood were burned and that’s why we are asking all the   
   provincial authorities and authorities at the national level as   
   well as all the partners, all the people of good faith in the   
   world, to come to the aid of this population.”   
      
   Elsewhere, witnesses said lava had engulfed one highway   
   connecting Goma with the city of Beni. However, the airport   
   appeared to be spared the same fate as 2002 when lava flowed   
   onto the runways.   
      
   Goma is a regional hub for many humanitarian agencies in the   
   region, as well as the U.N. peacekeeping mission. While Goma is   
   home to many U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers, much of   
   surrounding eastern Congo is under threat from myriad armed   
   groups vying for control of the region’s mineral resources.   
      
   https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/05/23/mount-   
   nyiragongo-congo-volcano-deaths-victims/5236294001/   
        
      
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