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Up to 100 feared dead in DR Congo after volcano lava ignites blast
( 2002-01-22 10:03 ) (7 )

A petrol depot swamped in molten lava exploded Monday, leaving as many as 100 people dead in a city left in ruins after a volcano erupted last week.

Looters were siphoning fuel when the station ignited, belching a ball of fire and thick black smoke into the sky over Goma, where rivers of lava have gushed through the city since Thursday's eruption of Mount Nyirangongo.

"There was a group there who took a wrong step. Many of them died," said Azarias Ruberwa, a spokesman for Congolese rebels who control the region. He said between 60 and 100 people were killed.

He said the casualties were the first confirmed deaths resulting directly from the eruption of Mount Nyirangongo, which sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing into neighboring Rwanda.

Hospital sources said another 10 people had been killed and nearly 400 were being treated at hospitals in Goma and in the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, while

other unconfirmed reports have spoken of a death toll of around 40.

The tragedy unfolded as residents kept returning to the city in search of food and water despite warnings from aid agencies that Goma was not yet safe.

An AFP reporter said further tremors were still shaking the region on Monday night although a volcano expert said the risk of more eruptions from Nyirangongo was minimal.

"The current phase of the active eruption is finished. The volcano is quiet," said Jacques Durieux, a vulcanologist working with the United Nations.

Asked whether it was now safe for residents to return, he said: "That is an impossible question. My recommendation is not to live on the foot of any active volcano."

But he ruled out fears of mass suffocation if gases at the bottom of nearby Lake Kivu react dangerously with lava flowing into the water at the Goma shore.

"There is no reason for the methane and carbon dioxide to rise to the surface," he said.

The lava flowed much more slowly than in the previous major eruption of Nyiragongo, which in 1977 killed some 2,000 people in one of the fastest moving disasters vulcanologists had ever seen.

Goma, a city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, regained some of its usual bustle Monday.

The residents had streamed back on Sunday over the objections of humanitarian organisations warning of air and water pollution from the lava and the risk of further volcanic activity.

The most pressing needs in Goma were food and water, with residents complaining of an absence of aid distribution in the city.

The United Nations has set up two camps in Gisenyi, to where most of Goma's population fled Thursday, but these remained virtually empty.

Some food -- fruit, vegetables and flour -- was being sold by the side of the road in Goma but not in large quantities.

UN officials have repeatedly said they did not want to distribute available food stocks until the risk of further volcanic eruptions was ruled out.

On Monday evening, one of its top officials, Ross Mountain, said it would make a decision by morning in the light of the Durieux's findings.

The lack of humanitarian assistance in Goma has angered its residents, who are deeply distrustful of the government in Rwanda, whose forces back the rebels from the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD).

"Rwanda would love to help us so they can help themselves to the aid," one resident said.

"We are used to fleeing," said Fabrice Ali, 18. "They should bring the food here."

"We repeat with emphasis that we cannot take refuge in Rwanda, nor in any other foreign country. Our country is large, let them deliver aid here," declared a local aid worker who asked not to be named.

The RDC began distributing food and water in Goma on Monday. At one school, officials were taking the names of beneficiaries as a waiting crowd grew impatient and angry.

Occasionally one person would be called up to receive rations of salt, oil, sugar and other goods.