Brussels 23.05.2021 02:30 UPDATE: UPDATE: according to ICCN officials, the lava has slowed down drastically.

Brussels 23.05.2021 The Mount Nyiragongo volcano burst into activity Saturday, May 22, spewing red fumes into the night sky, said an AFP reporter in the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma. Power was cut in the city and some residents began leaving their homes and heading towards the nearby border with Rwanda.

The last time Nyiragongo erupted was January 17, 2002, killing more than a hundred people and covering almost all of the eastern part of Goma with lava, including half of the airport’s landing strip.

Hundreds of thousands fled the city. The deadliest eruption of the 3,000-metre high volcano was in 1977, when more than 600 died. The Goma region, which lies in North Kivu province, bordering Rwanda and Uganda, has six volcanoes, all higher than 3,000 metres.

A lava flow from the Nyiragongo volcano, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), reached the airport in the city of Goma, on the southern slope of the volcano, an official said on Saturday (May 22nd). local. “The situation has worsened,” noted in a message to his staff, an official of the Virunga National Park, where the volcano is located.

The sudden eruption caused panic among the population, who fled en masse to neighboring Rwanda, or heading west, to the Masisi region. On the night of Saturday to Monday, impressive images circulated on social networks, but not independently verified, showed homes on fire, slowly swallowed and then engulfed by glowing molten lava, in the northeastern outskirts of Goma. , especially in the Buhene district.

The deadliest eruption occurred in 1977 with over 600 deaths. According to a scenario that may turn out to be similar to the eruption on Saturday, lava slowly flowed towards the city, which it cut in two to flow into Lake Kivu.