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CNN Saturday Morning News

Lava Flow Threatens Communities in Congo, Rwanda

Aired January 19, 2002 - 07:02   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now to what looks like hell on earth, a river of fire that's consuming everything in its path near the border of the Congo and Rwanda.

Lava from Mount Nyiragongo has cut through the heart of the city of Goma. Hundreds of thousands of people had to run for their lives.

CNN's Catherine Bond is in Goma, and she has the latest for us. Catherine?

CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the most extraordinary sight. You can see these walls of rock, some of them still red-hot inside, down Goma's main street. It looks as if the volcano has exploded and very conveniently run all its lava along the streets of the city, literally bearing some shops over the ground floor, up to the first floor, going onto the sidewalks, covering trucks. It must be coming very quickly.

And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) some of whom have lost hundreds of thousands of worth -- of dollars of assets. I spoke to two businessmen who were working for an American phone company, and they'd just set up a cell phone network, and they were due to launch it literally this week, and they've lost $2 to $3 million worth of investments.

For the ordinary people, though, many more scenes of looting as very poor people go into what shops remain unscathed and take out things as paltry as second-hand clothes. Even children were looting. Occasionally soldiers and Rwandan police were coming in to try and restore order.

So some scenes of chaos in the center of Goma today, a lot of people going back to have a look at the lava flow, and a lot more, mostly women and children (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Rwanda, to which we've returned now. They're camping out in municipal gardens, and they're also taking boats across the lake to the city of Okagu (ph), which is also in the Congo.

Basically, the menfolk are saying, We can't afford to keep our wives and children here, there's nothing for them to eat. The Rwandans aren't accepting our Congolese money in the markets, so we've got to send them to friends and relatives somewhere else in the Congo -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Catherine, what do we know about casualties? I know it's very difficult to get a handle on that.

BOND: Very little, actually. We asked the Red Cross what they knew, and they said 47 people dead, according to official statistics. But they didn't think that was exact. I think that's for two reasons. I think that many people did have time to get out of the way. The majority of people left ahead of the lava flow. Some may have been caught up in it. We've heard one account of one woman who feels she knows she's lost her mother because her mother remained behind in the house when the rest of the family fled.

And beyond Goma, to the north of it, the air (ph) has been cut off, so we don't know what's happened in the rural areas, which are very densely populated here because it's a very fertile area, and so therefore there are a lot of farming communities. So not as -- no, not clear yet how many casualties there've been -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Catherine Bond in Goma, thank you very much.

Help is on the way to that city. International aid organizations are setting up camps for some of the homeless people. An African issues specialist for World Vision International spoke to us earlier about the destruction and what's being done right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE WILKINSON, WORLD VISION INTERNATIONAL: The water pumping stations are down, electricity's been destroyed. So you've got a whole infrastructural piece you have to rebuild. The real issue right now for World Vision is taking care of the people who are displaced. We're working with the U.N., we're working with the UNHCR in setting up some camps on the outside of the towns, we're in safe zones, we hope, that won't be reached by continued lava flows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: The U.S. government is also planning to help. Officials are preparing to send relief supplies to Goma today.

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