The disastrous volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the substantial destruction in the town of Goma, with its more than half a million inhabitants, is another blow to an already stricken area. The loss of life is much less than feared at first. The real damage caused is the destruction of the homes of some 500,000 people. Many of these unfortunates have reportedly fled in panic over the nearby border into Rwanda.
UN officials have distributed biscuits and water to some of an estimated 300,000 refugees on the Rwandan side of the border. But, in view of the scale of the emergency, that effort, massive as it was, amounts to nothing more than a gesture. The whole region is already burdened with refugees of ethnic violence, which has uprooted entire communities. Half-a-million more refugees are going to compound the immense difficulties international aid agencies are already experiencing in helping these people.
It would be a terrible tragedy if the international community were to just wring its hands briefly and then forget the victims of this tragedy. Though occasionally pocketbooks can be forced open by television pictures of stark horrors, such as the seemingly perennial famine in the Horn of Africa, past evidence shows that there is a general apathy for the fate of black Africa. This attitude is bred largely by ignorance. People in the rich world know that the states of Central Africa have been beset with racial hatred and violence, and corrupt and ineffective governments. The prevailing thought is that the people of this vast and hard-to-reach region have largely brought the destructive conflicts upon themselves. A few dollars paid into a charity fund is probably the most anyone feels obliged to do.
The United Nations’ intervention to bolster a shaky cease-fire between the warring parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has done some good. There are UN forces manning a military liaison office and logistical base in Goma itself, which had to be evacuated because it lay in the path of the lava. Though their facilities may be destroyed, at least these UN forces can draw upon their already established command infrastructure to help channel food and medicine and tents to the tens of thousands of new homeless families.
Nevertheless, it is going to need far more than emergency aid. It is reported that lava flows have entered neighboring Lake Kivu, raising the acid levels in the water. This could seriously damage the fishing, which is an important part of the local economy. Hundreds of farms and several villages have also been engulfed in the tidal wave of lava. Health, particularly of young children, may have been damaged by poisonous gases. The task of rebuilding so many shattered lives will cost far more than the government in Kinshasa can ever afford.
Therefore, sustained and carefully disbursed aid is needed to help the people of Goma and its surroundings back on their feet. If such help were applied more widely in the region, it could raise living standards and attack the poverty that underlies so many of the eruptions of ethnic rivalry. Quenching the anger of ethnic rivals ought to be easier than controlling Mount Nyiragongo.
