At least two killed in central African quake
A powerful earthquake toppled homes onto children in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today, killing at least two people in a region already beset by war, poverty and volcanoes.
Dr. Jean-Donne Owali said two people died from quake injuries in his clinic in lakeside Kalemie, DRC, 35 miles from the epicentre.
“Dozens of houses have collapsed, several children were buried by the roofs of their houses,” Owali had said earlier.
“Injured people have been sent to local hospitals.”
UN spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux said an unknown number of people were killed or injured. Anne Edgerton, another UN spokesman in the region, said later that about a dozen injuries had been reported and no deaths could be confirmed.
Bonnardeaux said most of the casualties were struck by falling zinc and steel roofs. He added damage was reported in Kabalo, a town east of Kalemie along the Lukuga River.
The desperately poor region has camps for tens of thousands of refugees from wars and economic collapse in Congo and Burundi.
The US Geological Survey gave a preliminary measurement of 6.8 and located the epicentre about six miles below the surface of Lake Tanganyika, between the DRC and Tanzania. Quakes of magnitude 7 can cause widespread and heavy damage.
Across Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, the Kigoma Regional Commissioner said authorities were waiting for police stations in remote parts of Tanzania to investigate and report possible casualties. Kigoma, the main transport hub for western Tanzania and the main Tanzanian port for Lake Tanganyika, was 90 miles from the centre of the quake.
The quake was felt as far east as Nairobi, some 600 miles from Lake Tanganyika. There were reports of tremors being felt as far south as the shores of Lake Victoria, some 700 miles away.
Jacques Derieux, head of the geological survey in the eastern town of Goma said the quake was not linked to the volcanic activity that is common in the region. He placed the magnitude at closer to 6.3, still powerful enough to cause severe damage, and the location roughly in the middle of Lake Tanganyika.
“Its a normal tectonic earthquake coming out of the Rift Valley,” he said.
The Great Rift Valley runs for 3,000 miles between Syria and Mozambique.
Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, an official at the Goma volcano observatory, said the quake could affect volcano activity. Goma’s Nyiragongo volcano erupted on January 18, 2002, forcing some 300,000 people to flee and destroying the homes of 120,000.
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