Washington, DC — International humanitarian agencies need more help quickly if they are to adequately provide for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who fled last week's eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the situation in the area remained precarious Monday, most of the refugees who fled to neighbouring Rwanda are said to be headed back home. Apart from the threat posed by possible further eruption and continuing earth tremors, there are acute food and water shortages as aid groups work to get supplies to devastated areas.
According to reports from Rwanda, tens of thousands of people who had fled the volcanic eruption near Goma, are streaming back into the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the weekend, the number of refugees who had fled to Rwanda was estimated at 700,000. But on Monday, Paul Stromberg, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), told allAfrica.com from the Rwandan capital, Kigali, that the number is now considerably lower, as "most people feel safe to go home."
Despite warnings that the situation in Goma was still precarious, the refugees have been hesitant to stay in Rwanda. Their reluctance seems motivated, in part, by antipathy towards Rwanda, whose government backs rebels in eastern Congo, but also by fear of being looted and concern for relatives left behind. Such concern was further strengthened following the Goma gas station blast, triggered by lava flows, in which about fifty people are reported killed.
According to Stromberg, the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, which was initially swamped by refugees, is now "essentially clear, apart from a small number of remaining pockets". Also, a limited number of people who managed to reach Kigali were put up by the Red Cross for one night before being asked to go Nkamira, a designated site 25 miles east of Gisenyi.
The UNHCR spokesman says the the situation in Rwanda could have become catastrophic if all the arriving refugees had stayed there. But the problem relief agencies are faced with now is how to get immediate supplies to the area around Goma, to which the mass of refugees is returning. As the deterioration of the already-poor road structure from many directions has been exacerbated by lava flows, food will have to be transported in small vehiclest via Gisenyi and the Congolese city of Bukavu, on the opposite side of Lake Kivu. Some relief could also come from Uganda, where the World Food Programme keeps food stocks.
UN officials are also worried about the possible outbreak of disease. The fleeing refugees have been drinking contaminated water from the lake, further poisoned by molten lava, which has also destroyed both Goma's water treatment plants. A major cholera epidemic followed the 1977 volcano eruption.
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Relief agencies say they are working closely with the authorities in both Kigali and Kinshaha, the Congolese capital. But Stromberg says "local authorities in eastern Congo are particularly earger to help." The Rwandan-backed Rally for Democracy (RCD), which controls the area, says that power supply in the city of Goma has already been restored but called on residents outside the city not to return for at least ten days.
DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, who has announced a million-dollar aid package to help victims of the volcano, said he is anxious to help the Congolese wherever they were. He said a Kinshasa ministerial delegation is ready to visit Goma, if the rebels and their Rwandan backers would allow it.
