Johannesburg — A fatal blast at a petrol station, set alight by burning lava from Mount Nyiragongo volcano in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), left dozens of people dead Monday in the town of Goma. Figures for the number killed range from dozens up to one hundred.
Witnesses said those who lost their lives were predominantly looters, as well as onlookers, who were trying to siphon fuel from the petrol station. There have been reports of widespread pillage and the breakdown of law and order in Goma since Nyiragongo (3,469 metres, 11,380 feet high) erupted on Thursday. The volcano is 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Goma.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of displaced survivors of the lethal Nyiragongo spillage last week streamed back across the border from neighbouring Rwanda to the besieged town of Goma, ignoring reports of continuing earth tremors and the threat of fresh volcanic eruptions.
Despite warnings by relief workers of the dangers, many of the Congolese returnees have chosen to go home to see what they can retrieve and salvage to began rebuilding their homes, if they survived. At least fourteen villages were swept away as the volcano erupted, unleashing a mile-wide stream of molten lava, without notice.
The Congolese have told reporters that they will face hardship if they become refugees in makeshift camps in Rwanda, "a foreign country", and that they prefer take their chances and return home to Goma. This decision has hampered relief efforts which had initially been centred in the Rwandan frontier town of Gisenyi, mobilising humanitarian supplies and back up.
Some agencies have refused to deliver aid to Goma until the situation has stabilised. They are still encouraging residents of the town to return to Rwanda.
Aid workers reported a shifting population to and from Goma, depending on availability of food, fresh water and shelter. But by late Monday, almost all those who had fled across the border to Rwanda were thought to have returned to Congo.
Last week, as they left town with babies and hastily-gathered possessions hoisted on their heads and backs, thousands of people camped outdoors on sidewalks and in fields in Gisenyi.
Goma, with a population of up to half a million, was divided in two when Mount Nyiragongo erupted, burying great swathes of the town under a simmering blanket of lava. It was the first time there had been a major eruption by the volcano since 1977, and experts note that Nyiragongo is unstable enough to erupt again.
Residents returning to Goma on Monday gingerly climbed over thin layers of blackened, crusty, cooler giant mounds of hardened lava. But underneath the apparently safe surface, scientists warned that the boiling current of liquid lava could easily break through again, to continue its murderous cascade through the town.
They said the people of Goma also risked their lives by reverting to their usual water source, Lake Kivu, for bathing, drinking and cooking. The lake, which separates the Congolese border town of Goma from Gisenyi in Rwanda, has been contaminated by the lava flow which has poisoned and overheated its waters (up to 40 degrees Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit).
Chlorination equipment to treat the water has been set up along the lake. This may reduce the risk of disease, say the experts, but may not prevent the hazard of volcanic toxins mixing with noxious gases in the lake, such as methane.
Goma first came to international attention in 1994, when it was transformed into a giant refuge for hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, some of whom had organised the genocide of 800,000 mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutu.
They fled after the arrival of the Tutsi-led rebel government in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. The refugee problem sucked the then Zaire, under President Mobutu Sese Seko, further into the conflict that has continued to blight the Great Lakes region of central Africa.
Since the outbreak of civil war in mineral-rich Congo in 1998, Goma has been home to one of the rebel factions opposed to, first, the late Congolese president, Laurent Kabila, and now his son Joseph, the current leader in the capital Kinshasa, more than 2,000 miles away.
Kabilas government has pledged a $1.3 million aid package to assist the relief effort. Other countries, including South Africa, Britain, Ireland, Australia and the United States, have also committed money and help to Congo.
The South African foreign ministry spokesman announced on Monday that Pretoria was ready to "kick into action, hopefully sooner rather than later".
The same day , the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, flew to Kinshasa accompanied by the French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, in a visit planned long before Mount Nyiragongo erupted.
After a meeting with President Kabila, the European ministers were scheduled to continue their four-nation, peace-building mission to Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Kigali and Kampala support rival rebel groups in Congo which they helped to launch the campaign against the Kabilas four years ago.
Presidents Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni say the security of Rwanda and Uganda are threatened by activities across their borders in Congo. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia came to the rescue of the Kinshasa government, sending troops and military hardware to hold back the rebel advance.
Rwanda and Uganda backed Laurent Kabila's rebellion in 1996 and helped the assassinated Congolese leader march to Kinshasa and oust an ailing Mobutu in May 1997. They then fell out with Kabila and turned against him, giving support to Kabila's opponents.
Joseph Kabila's government controls the capital and about a third of the divided nation, while various rebel groups have occupied the rest of the country.
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All sides in the Congo conflict signed a peace accord in Lusaka, Zambia in 1999, but have repeatedly violated the agreement.
There was a move towards peace last year, after the assassination of Laurent Kabila in Kinshasa in January 2001. The warring factions -- including government and rebel delegations -- met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for what was billed the Inter-Congolese dialogue. The peace talks failed to make progress and broke down after less than a week.
Brokered by the former president of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Masire, the Congolese negotiations have been relocated to South Africa and reportedly rescheduled to mid-February.
Straw and Vedrine are hoping to further reconciliation and rapprochement with their visit. France and Britain have a history of rivalry in Africa, but both countries say this unprecedented trip, now made more urgent by the crisis in Goma, is an effort to foster peace in the troubled heart of Africa.
"Central Africa is the scene of the biggest war in the world," said Straw in a statement released before his departure from London. "This conflict has been ignored for too long".
The British foreign secretary concluded that "The region stands at a key moment. The fighting may have stopped, but peace has not yet broken out. Hubert Vedrine and I will be urging the leaders of the region to seize this opportunity for peace".
