Protest against Goma relief distributions resolved

An estimated 2,000 people gathered on Friday morning outside the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to protest against perceived discrepancies in relief supply distribution lists that were established in the wake of the lava flows of Mt Nyiragongo on 17 January.

The group, calling itself Solidarité des sinistrés du Nyiragongo (SOSINYI), claimed that they were among those rendered homeless by the lava flows who had not received any humanitarian assistance to date. SOSINYI complained that not only were many people missing from the official distribution lists, but that local neighbourhood leaders were selling relief vouchers to people not resident in their communities.

The tense standoff was defused when the Goma OCHA head, Jean-Charles Dupin, agreed to meet five members of SOSINYI. After their discussions, it was announced that a committee to supervise the revision of distribution lists would be created, comprising representatives of the UN, nongovernmental organisations, SOSINYI and Goma civil society organisations, so as to incorporate those who had thus far been omitted.

The vast majority of Goma's estimated 400,000 residents fled the city ahead of rapidly-approaching lava flows from Mt. Nyiragongo, located some 10 km from the town, on 17 January.

UN agencies in the DRC and Rwanda this week issued a consolidated inter-agency humanitarian response update and funding requirement report for continuing efforts to assist the residents of Goma. According to the report, while the vast majority of the population of Goma who fled the lava flows had returned, an estimated 30,000 people remained scattered in areas around the town and in two camps in neighbouring Rwanda, for an estimated total of 120,000 homeless people in the region.

Nyiragongo is one of eight volcanoes on the borders of DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. Only two of these are currently active - Mt Nyamuragira, which erupted in 2001 causing no casualties, and Mt Nyiragongo, which last erupted on 10 January 1977, killing scores of people in less than half an hour, with some of the fastest lava flows (up to 100 kph) ever recorded.