Just when we though the pandemic couldn’t deteriorate then this, we got another saddening news.
On 22nd of May 2021, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, witnessed a sudden horrendous volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Virunga National Park.
The Mount Nyiragongo is a part of the Virunga mountain ranges associated within the Albertine rift Valley in the Virunga National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This successive eruption after January 2002, has been very calamitic for the people residing in the Goma city, lake Kivu and near the border of Rwandan Border. Although, the areas proximal to the Virunga Ranges faced flowing of the hot lava, the Goma City was majorly affected by the 2021 eruption.
The North Kivu province’s military governor confirmed the timing of the eruption to be 17:00 GMT. Abrupt downpours of the lava from the volcano lashed out into the proximal areas after dark leaving people in a state of panic, chaos and lifelessness. 15 people have been reported to be dead as of yet. While, around 5,000 shifted to the nearby Rwandan Border, and some 27,000 people sought refuge onto the provincial area of northwest lake Kivu.
The horrors of the eruption were amplified by the smoky sky and thick black air, with emissions of high levels carbon dioxide that could kill living beings. The lava burnt more than 500 homes, people were displaced and many lost their family members trying to escape now what has become a Hot furnace.
UNICEF officials report that more than 170 children were missing. They also confirmed establishing transit centers for refuging unaccompanied children and displaced people.
Displacement of life, missing of children, creation of a bedlam, cut off from the highway to Beni, electricity cut, hunger, panic, distress, trauma, poverty, loss and fear are a few casualties caused by the eruption till now, many more to come.
