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Residents search for dead killed by Congo's volcano eruption
Residents are searching for missing loved ones amid their destroyed homes on the outskirts of Congo’s eastern city of Goma, where light aftershocks were detected in the area following the eruption of a large volcano.
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KINSHASA – Residents searched for missing loved ones amid their destroyed homes on the outskirts of Congo’s eastern city of Goma Monday, where light aftershocks were detected in the area following the eruption of a large volcano two days earlier.
With little warning Mount Nyiragongo had turned the dark sky fiery red on Saturday night and then spewed torrents of lava into villages, killing at least 15 people and destroying more than 500 homes, officials and survivors said.
Grief, disbelief and fear hung over the area as seven government ministers, including Congo's prime minister and health minister, visited Goma.
Smoke rose from the cooling lava that covered part of the Nyiragongo region. Some people walked on the crust formed by hardening lava.
Scientists at the Volcanic Observatory of Goma were not able to adequately warn the public of the eruption because of a funding cut, the observatory's scientific director of Celestin Kasereka Mahinda said.