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CNN Saturday Morning News
Lava Traces Fiery Path Along Congo-Rwandan Border
Aired January 19, 2002 - 11:17 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: It's a desperate situation in eastern Congo. A river of fire is consuming everything in its path near the border of Congo and Rwanda. U.N. relief workers say at least 40 people have been killed in a devastating volcanic eruption. Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless, with no food, no water and no sanitation.
Reporter Joyce Ohija (ph) has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOYCE OHIJA, REPORTER (voice-over): People in Goma trying to stem the flow of smoldering lava as best they can. At Goma Airport, men from the local fire brigade sprayed extinguishers they'd taken from nearby offices in desperate attempts to put out the flames. Their efforts, though, appear to be in vain.
Mount Nyriacongo has been spewing rock and molten lava since the volcano erupted on Thursday. It sent a river of molten rock through the center of the eastern Congolese town of Goma, burning everything in its path.
Hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to abandon their impoverished city, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as it burned. They've been seeking shelter in the neighboring country of Rwanda. Many spent the night crammed into this local petrol station. Officials have been trying to determine the number of casualties, amid concerns that many could be dead.
BASI KULUMBA, GOMA RESIDENT: So we were thinking that we have to stay and attempt to just take the situation and (inaudible).
OHIJA: Help for the victims is underway. OXFAM is flying out aide workers and equipment from Britain this afternoon.
JUSTIN FORSYTH, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, OXFAM: We have a lot of people already on the ground, 60 people already working in the region, and we're flying out today water equipment so that we can begin to provide water immediately to these 500, 450, 500,000 people.
OHIJA: Britain's promised L2 million in aid for the region. Experts meanwhile fear the worst for people here, saying there's no sign the eruptions are over.
Joyce Ohija, ITV News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And now to get the very latest on the situation on the ground there, we're going to speak with Allison Preston. She's with World Vision, and she is near Goma.
Allison, can you hear me, and what's the situation there right now?
ALLISON PRESTON, WORLD VISION: Yes, I'm here in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) which is the town just next to Goma on the Rwandan side of the border. Here in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) there are hundreds of thousands of people along the road, on the hills, anywhere where they can find a space.
They're sleeping on the side of the roads and they have nothing to eat or drink.
CALLAWAY: Allison, what kind of aid is available to them at the moment?
PRESTON: There's very little aid that's so far reaching the people. It's incredibly difficult as you can imagine. This is very mountainous country, with small winding roads, and although water is being trucked up those hills to the people, it's incredibly difficult to get enough water for up to half a million people.
CALLAWAY: Half a million. Are there any types of camps set up for these people, or are they just basically getting to safety and staying there?
PRESTON: At the moment, people are just scattered at random. I mean, it's incredibly difficult to effectively get food and water and shelter to people. The Rwandan Government has just announced that they're planning to set up 20 refugee camps, and this will help out enormously.
World Vision's already made an agreement with the U.S. Government to begin distributing maize and beans and oil to people as soon as possible, and once people are in these camps, we'll actually be able to get the food to them. As things are at the moment, people are just scattered, and trying to distribute food in this environment would just create a disaster.
CALLAWAY: And, Allison, as we've seen in these types of situations before, it takes some time before these camps can be set up and the aid can get to them. Will this happen in time for these people?
PRESTON: Well, other emergency aid will be coming much quicker, such as high-energy biscuits and emergency survival reaching people, because you're right it does take time to set up refugee camps that have proper sanitation. One of the key issues here that we're trying to respond to is the threat of the cholera outbreak. This area is endemic for cholera. In 1994, when there was a similar refugee crisis here in Rwanda, 24,000 people died because of cholera in a very short space of time.
CALLAWAY: All right. Allison Preston joining us with World Vision there near Goma. Thank you, Allison. Dire situation there. None of us can really imagine what it must be like.
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