Latest Goma Stories

NEW YORK, Nov. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- International humanitarian organization Concern Worldwide calls for stronger protection of civilians and safe access to deliver humanitarian assistance after rebel forces besieged Goma, the capital city of North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today. The violence is likely to forcibly displace thousands and threatens to trigger a humanitarian crisis if aid organizations are not able to reach those most affected...

This week's fighting in Goma the latest in staggering increase in violence BOSTON, Nov. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Communities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are being preyed on mercilessly by rebel groups and local militias, as well as their own government's troops and officials, in a vicious cycle of exploitation and abuse according to a new report by international agency Oxfam. The report is launched as fight engulfs the town of Goma in North Kivu,...

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Thousands of children fleeing a recent upsurge in violence in eastern DRC are at risk of being forcibly recruited into armed groups, said World Vision today. The majority of people fleeing violence in DRC are children, with some reporting they are doing so to avoid forcible recruitment into armed groups, the aid agency said from Goma. Despite the release of some of the estimated 30,000 child...

Africa’s most active volcano Nyamuragira, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, erupted last weekend throwing off clouds of ash and orange smoke, AFP reports. Located in the eastern areas of Virunga National Park, the volcano continues to erupt but was not considered a threat to locals or to the mountain gorillas living in the park, said Congo’s Center for Research and Natural Sciences. “A fountain of lava, smoke and ash came out of a fissure on the side” of a flat area...

National Geographic writer Michael Finkel has written a special piece about a team of seismologists and their exploration of the Nyiragongo Volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The setting of the report lies in its vivid painting of a team passionate about exploring this volcano, which threatens about a million people who live 12 miles south in the city of Goma. Finkel describes the efforts taken to gain a better understanding of Nyiragongo and its future impact on the areas...

On January 2, Mount Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted, spewing lava from its southern flank and raising concerns that the 100 000 people in the town of Sake could be under threat.Fears were also triggered in Goma as rumors circulated that an eruption was imminent at the nearby Nyiragongo volcano, which devastated the city in 2002.Following the eruption, scientists and local authorities have been using a long series of space images from ESA's Envisat, together with...

The Virunga National Park, home to 200 of the world's 720 mountain gorillas, is in the path of molten hot lava spewing from a volcano that has erupted in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.The park is also home to elephants, hippos and buffalo, along with a range of reptiles and birds.It's said lava from Mount Nyamuragira began picking up speed when it hit the steep ground near the national park.The volcano is 22 kilometers from the provincial capital Goma, which it last threatened in...

RIT professor organizes workshop in Rwanda to grapple with the problem of Lake KivuA dangerous level of carbon dioxide and methane gas haunts Lake Kivu, the freshwater lake system bordering Rwanda and the Republic of Congo.Scientists can't say for sure if the volatile mixture at the bottom of the lake will remain still for another 1,000 years or someday explode without warning. In a region prone to volcanic and seismic activity, the fragility of Lake Kivu is a serious matter. Compounding the...

Two volcanoes near a major city in eastern Congo have begun showing evidence of intense volcanic activity - tremors, pools of lava and plumes of smoke - causing some residents flee the area, MSNBC reported.Scientists who visited the two volcanic peaks of Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira said on Thursday the volcanoes could be near eruption and would threaten Goma, a city with a population of more than half a million people. Dieudonne Wafula, the head of Goma's Volcanological Observatory, said the...

Science and aid agencies said that two volcanoes may erupt in heavily populated eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where years of fighting have already forced a million people from their homes.Scientists in Goma have registered high levels of seismic activity in recent weeks, which is considered an early warning sign of an impending eruption, around the Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira volcanoes."There is heavy activity around Nyiragongo, but it's more centered on Nyamuragira, around 8...