At least 45 dead after volcanic eruption in Congo
At least 45 people have died after a volcanic eruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to UN officials.
Mount Nyiragongo began erupting before dawn yesterday, sending lava flows through the city of Goma and into Lake Kivu, which straddles the Rwandan border.
Hundreds of thousands of villagers were forced to flee the area after the lava destroyed their homes and the UN has warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe.
More than half a million people live in Goma and eyewitnesses there have reported large fires after the lava destroyed buildings and triggered explosions at power plants and fuel depots.
Sources in the Congolese army said as many as 300,000 people have already fled across the border into Rwanda.
"We have to find them shelter, put them up in camps," a UN official said.
"There’s no electricity, no running water."
The World Food Programme has said it is standing by to provide emergency supplies where required, but the scale of the crisis and the country’s decades-old civil war could hamper humanitarian efforts.
As dawn broke today, rescuers recovered several corpses from hardening lava which engulfed entire houses.
Parts of the runway at Goma Airport also disappeared beneath the flow, which is still advancing slowly today.
