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East Africa: Rwanda, Congo Quake Kills 40
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New Vision (Kampala)
3 February 2008
Posted to the web 4 February 2008
Raymond Baguma and Agencies
Kampala
TWO strong earthquakes struck Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday, killing at least 40 people and seriously injuring 550 more, officials said.
Two quakes shook the African Great Lakes region, killing at least 34 people in Rwanda and six in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to officials and hospital sources.
"According to the figures I have at the moment, 34 people are dead," said Rwandan local government minister Protais Musoni.
Across the border to the east, Radio Rwanda said 10 people were killed when a church collapsed in the Rusizi district of Western Province and 13 others died in Rusizi and Nyamesheke districts.
When contacted, Uganda's ambassador to Rwanda, Richard Kabonero, said: "We are trying to get information. The earthquake was in Gitarama, about an hour's drive south of Kigali. There is a phone line at the embassy but so far, we have not got any information on Ugandans."
The first quake, with a magnitude of 6.0 and its epicentre in the Democratic Republic of Congo, happened at 10:30am (12:30am Ugandan time), followed by another 5.0 quake in Rwanda at 1:56pm (2:56pm). A quake with a magnitude of 6.0 is considered 'strong' and may cause a lot of damage. One measuring 5.0 is categorised as moderate.
Deputy Rwandan Police Chief Mary Gahonzire told Reuters: "Rescue efforts are underway but the number of dead could rise, as so many people are trapped."
The acting governor of Congo's South Kivu province, Bernard Watunakanza, said by telephone from the eastern town of Bukavu that aftershocks were happening "every 20 or 30 minutes." "Many people are traumatised," he added.
An official from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, said buildings had been destroyed in Bukavu. "There is lots of damage. Many buildings have been hit. Lots of houses have collapsed," said Jacqueline Chenard, the MONUC spokeswoman in Bukavu.
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Earthquakes are common in the western Great Rift Valley - a seismically active fault line straddling western Uganda, eastern DR Congo, Rwanda and neighbouring Tanzania.
In 1994, a tremor measuring 6 on the Richter scale in the Rwenzori Mountains killed at least six people. In 1966, a magnitude 7 earth quake killed 157 people and injured more than 1,300 in the Semliki Valley, also in western Uganda.
On December 5, 2005, a strong earthquake with its epicentre under Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania shook East Africa and its aftershocks were felt as far as the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
was there any clue earliar before it happened?what african country is likely to face this problem?
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