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CNN Live At Daybreak
Some Goma Residents Return to Unsafe Town
Aired January 22, 2002 - 06:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the Congo where
CNN's Chris Burns joins us by videophone just across the border from Goma with the latest from there.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, well the latest is that the rain is coming down. This is going to make life a lot harder for the refugees -- for the people displaced without a house, also for the people trying to deliver the food. In the last couple of hours, the U.N. World Food Program has decided to release 1,000 tons of food that they'd been keeping inside Goma, waiting to determine whether it was actually safe for everyone to come back.
Well whether they like it or not about 120,000 people have come back, and they're clamoring for food. And because of this decision -- this decision does show according to one of the camps, one of the distribution places we went to, that this decision comes not a minute too soon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURNS (voice-over): The ground still shakes under their feet, even as their bellies now growl with hunger. Residents of Goma, their homes under a deep sheet of lava from Mt. Nyiragongo are trying to find a way to survive as the earthquakes persist. The U.N. estimates 300,000 fled over the border into Rwanda, but many have returned even though aid agencies have set up camps there.
After years of warfare, the Congolese are wary of Rwandans.
(on camera): Caleb (ph), how is your family ...
(voice-over): Caleb Bahoti (ph) is among them.
CALEB BAHOTI (ph), GOMA RESIDENT: Then it's better just to come here, to be helped here in our country.
BURNS: But the rush back home left aid agencies off guard. This distribution point, run by local officials, is overwhelmed.
(on camera): Claude Mushacaluso (ph) was one of the lucky ones who arrived early enough this morning to receive a few handouts. Claude (ph), what did you receive? (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You got some rice. That's about one kilo of rice, a little bit of oil, some salt. CLAUDE MUSHACALUSO (ph), GOMA RESIDENT: Yes.
BURNS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). That's sugar. Claude (ph) is in a family of 11 people -- 11 children. They're trying to get by. Their house was not destroyed here in Goma, but their lives are extremely difficult.
(voice-over): In fact, many need far more than food.
"There's no plastic sheeting, there isn't anything," says Faraha (ph).
Aid officials say they still believe it's too dangerous for people to return here. They face a dilemma as they try to accommodate the returnees.
ROSS MOUNTAIN, U.N. HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: We were seeking to find out how we can provide food to people who have -- who, in fact (ph), they've gone back and without encouraging -- further encouraging people to return.
BURNS: The U.N. has hired international volcanologists to study whether the lava threat has passed. The first assessment is optimistic.
JACQUES DURIEUX, VOLCANOLOGIST: For my opinion, the phase of the active eruption we've had is finished.
BURNS: But as aid officials try to decide what to do, the humanitarian situation worsens in a city half destroyed by the lava flows. This used to be Goma's main street.
(on camera): In a town that is still smoldering, people here are trying to salvage what they can. Little bits of metal, anything they can to try to rebuild their lives.
(voice-over): Sometimes salvage efforts turn deadly as some try to siphon fuel at a gas station, a massive explosion apparently ignited by the hot lava. It's not clear how many people died.
Evidence of a growing crisis for those who have little more than a handful of belongings, perhaps the hope that help will get to them before starvation and disease do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNS: So the help is on its way, but 1,000 tons of food does not go very far for more than 200,000 people they're trying to deliver it to. The World Food Program says it's already mobilized thousands of tons more from Rwanda. This does show that the relief effort is far from over -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Chris, can you explain to us about the earthquakes that are happening there now?
BURNS: Absolutely. There continues to be tremors keeping us awake and everybody else here awake through the night. Those tremors have lessened somewhat. Volcanologists say that those tremors do not indicate an impending -- another impending eruption of the volcano. It does indicate a settling of this great African rift.
The earth's crust is now settling after that eruption, and they say this is a natural occurrence, not to worry about it, but it does shake people up a bit. The biggest one was 4.5 in the last couple of days, so that is enough to stir your coffee.
COSTELLO: You got that right Chris. But more aid is coming soon and hopefully will get to the people because they have to like get to the distribution points too, and that probably means walking for them.
BURNS: Well absolutely. The distribution points are being set up by a number of relief agencies, but it is a process. It is going to take some time, and a lot of people are living and sleeping on the streets.
So it's very, very difficult for tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in this area, and that is why it is so very important for the relief agencies to get working, and they are expressing relief that the U.N. World Food Program is now willing to give them the food they need to distribute -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, you be safe out there, Chris Burns.
BURNS: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Thank you. Chris Burns reporting live for us from just across the border from Goma.
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