Hundreds of thousands of destitute people are leaving the Congolese city of Goma following predictions that last weekend’s disastrous explosion of the adjacent Nyiragongo volcano might be followed by another “apocalyptic” explosion.
Since the eruption, the metropolis of two million inhabitants has been affected by more than 200 earthquakes of varied magnitude.
It has risen roughly 30 inches, and its highways are now crisscrossed by cracks more than 200 yards long and two feet wide. Volcanologists are concerned that magma is accumulating underneath Goma.
The worst-case scenario is an explosion or earthquake underneath Lake Kivu, the inland sea that separates the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Rwanda.
The Goma Volcanology Observatory has warned that this might release massive amounts of methane and carbon dioxide buried in the lake’s depths and “asphyxiate all living creatures near Lake Kivu.”
At 3am on Thursday, Ndima Kongba, the military governor of North Kivu province, ordered the evacuation of the poorer, lower-lying parts of Goma.
“Current data on seismicity and the deformation of the ground indicate the presence of magma under the urban area of Goma, with an extension under Lake Kivu,” he said. “Right now we can’t rule out an eruption on land or under the lake, which could happen very soon and without warning.”
