volcano eruption in the republic of congo

On the 17th of January, hundreds of villagers were forced to flee Goma since lava began forking from Mount Nyiragongo, one of the two active volcanoes in The Republic of Congo. This eruption is caused by the rifting of the Earth's crust where two parts of the African Plate are breaking apart. With a magnitude of 4.7-4.8 degrees, 150000 homes were destroyed and 120000 people were displaced, causing them to sleep on the streets. Molten rocks have reduced roads and buildings to fiery ash. Officials believe that the lava that had been spewing out of the volcano had destroyed 80% of Goma.
This eruption is very devastating as people has lost most of their things, yet some people braved the hot lava and made their way back to Goma to try and salvage whatever they can salvage.

United Nations agencies have asked for fifteen million dollars from countries to provide food, shelter and medicines for the people of Goma. Thursday, the U-N World Food Program provided two-hundred sixty metric tons of food. That is enough to feed about seventy-thousand people for a week. Aid groups also are providing blankets and materials to make temporary shelters. Also, The United States is sending five-thousand metric tons of food and a team of experts to Goma immediately. The team members will examine health, food and security issues in the Congolese city. Belgium, Britain, Germany and the European Commission also have promised millions of dollars of aid.
To minimise damage, i personally think that the villagers should have a system where it can tell when an eruption will take place approximately, so the villagers can take their things and the loss would not be so great.



Bibliography: http://www.iris.edu/news/events/congo/congo.htm
http://www.volcanolive.com/nyiragongo.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1768012.stm
http://www.disasterassessment.org/documents/A1-Congo.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1768012.stm
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/01/18/drcongo.volcano/
http://www1.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/a-23-a-2002-01-25-2-1-83113637.html?moddate=2002-01-25