Resilience shines through despite volcano disrupting lives

Authorities in Goma report that 32 people died in the May eruption and at least 4,000 houses were destroyed by the lava and extreme heat. No one, including volcano experts, had predicted the eruption. It came as the North Kivu region, where Goma is located, is struggling with decades of ongoing conflict and violence that has displaced more than 2 million people.

More than 450,000 people fled Goma in the days following the eruption, as the city continued to be hit by over a thousand tremors, raising fears of another eruption. Some 120,000 people fled to Sake town alone while others continued to Minova and Bukavu further south, or northwards to Kiwanja in Rutshuru Territory.

Around 8,000 people also crossed the border into Rwanda, which lies east of Goma. Most of them have since returned to the DRC.

Julienne Bushashire, 50, undertook a similarly arduous journey. She walked all the way to Sake with her ten children, in pain throughout due to a condition that means she can only walk with the aid of a stick. She also found shelter in the school.

“I have nothing left.”

“I had to stop to rest many times as my legs hurt. We slept by the roadside in the open when we were too tired to continue,” she explains, adding that the roads out of Goma were full of panicked people.

Julienne lost everything when she fled to Goma in 2007 after her home village in Masisi was attacked by armed militia. She had to start over and now, the volcano has taken what little she had.

“I have been told that my house in Goma was looted. I have nothing left,” she adds.

With no running water or electricity, dozens of families are staying in classrooms without any facilities, hygiene or comfort.

Some 350,000 people are estimated to be in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency’s priority is to vacate schools and ensure a sense of normalcy resumes, particularly for children, as soon as possible.

“Children who fled the volcano and are now displaced are really traumatized. It is crucial that they return to their regular routines and for their parents to be able to resume their daily activities,” explains Liz Ahua, UNHCR’s representative in the DRC. “This can help reduce the children’s trauma.”

• See also: Some 350,000 people in urgent need of help in Goma

UNHCR has assisted the displaced with core relief items including soap, blankets, solar lamps and hygiene kits. Communal shelters have also been built in Sake and Minova to decongest schools and churches.

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“We had to relocate our staff to Sake and Bukavu where they immediately began assisting the most vulnerable people there,” adds UNHCR’s Ahua, explaining that days after the disaster, emergency teams were in place in various towns, including Sake, Minova, Kiwanja, Masisi, Kitshanga and Bukavu.

But more effort is required to prepare displaced families who are ready to return and rebuild.

Esperance and her husband Jean stand on lava rocks that have piled up on the spot where their house once stood in Mugerwa, one of the neighbourhoods that was almost entirely wiped out. The rocks are still warm but the couple is ready to start over.

“We are used to the volcano, it is like our neighbour,” says Jean. “But we need a piece of land to rebuild our home.”

Originally published by UNHCR on 14 June 2021.