6 Established 1961 International Wednesday, June 2, 2021 Defying warnings, inhabitants return to DR Congo’s volcano city Scientists fear a possibly catastrophic eruption GOMA: Streets in the eastern DR Congo city of Gisenyi, just across the border to the east. Goma returned to life yesterday, five days after According to the UN’s refugee agency, the residents fled following warnings that the nearby UNHCR, 350,000 evacuees are in need of emer- Nyiragongo volcano could erupt again. gency help. Many have found refuge in schools, Even as emergency officials insisted it was still churches and host families. Access to potable not safe to return, streets in the city centre were water is the major problem. The UN’s World Food clogged with traffic, the flow of pedestrians Programme (WFP) is distributing food in Sake and seemed close to normal and some shops had Rutshuru, as well as in Minova, in the neighbouring reopened. province of South Kivu. In front of the city’s main hospital, traffic navi- gated around large cracks that had emerged after ‘Danger is full-time’ the volcano first erupted last month, an AFP jour- People have begun trickling back to Goma, the nalist saw. North Kivu capital, in the absence of large Nyiragongo suddenly erupted on May 22, tremors, even though the volcano’s monitors insist spewing out two rivers of lava before stopping the it is not safe to return. following day. But powerful aftershocks ensued, According to an official with the Congolese causing several buildings to collapse and trigger- Directorate for Migration (DGM), 705 displaced ing panic among the population. people returned from Rwanda on Friday, 729 on Scientists fear a possibly catastrophic eruption Saturday and 111 on Monday morning. under the floor of nearby Lake Kivu. In their worst One of those who had left was Francoise projection, a “limnic eruption” would heat carbon Habimana, who fled to the Rwandan capital of dioxide dissolved in the depths of the lake, sending Kigali with her children, where they stayed with a the gas to the surface. host family. Forming a vast, invisible cloud, the gas could Yesterday, she was among dozens of families settle at ground level on the lakeshore city, queueing at the border crossing to return home. asphyxiating its inhabitants, according to this Another was Beatrice Wakandwa. “It was a bit KINSHASA: First Lady of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi, (C) holds a candle while attending a vigil in Kinshasa, in solidarity with the people of Goma affected by the eruption of the scenario. hard to be on my own in Rwanda, even though the Nyiragongo volcano located in the Virunga National Park, on May 22, 2021. —AFP In response, the North Kivu provincial authori- people were hospitable,” she said. ties last Thursday ordered the evacuation of most “I don’t have a choice. Whatever happens, I of the city’s districts. Around 400,000 people, out prefer to be back in Goma with my family.” “Today, the scientific data have recorded 71 recommend that people stay vigilant, listen to the of a population of 600,000, were uprooted. However, a crisis management cell set up by the earth tremors, the majority of which have not been news and strictly observe the measures set down Around 120,000 arrived in the town of Sake, North Kivu authorities said Tuesday that alert sta- felt by the population,” the emergency body said. by the provincial authorities.” about 25 kilometres (15 miles) away to the west, tus “is still red,” meaning that people were advised Despite a “comparatively small fall in seismicity, Rwanda said late Monday that there was no while thousands more fled to the Rwandan town of not to return home. the danger is full-time,” it added. “We therefore “imminent risk” of a limnic eruption. —AFP tect government buildings and shops, many of Colombian soldiers which had already been looted. As they pass, drivers honk their horns in support given mixed reception of the troops. Zimbabwe president “Unfortunately the army didn’t arrive in time. in protest center Cali They totally vandalized the Torre Empresarial entrenches power building, and many businesses that lost every- CALI: Inhabitants of Colombia’s third largest city thing,” said Angela Sguerra, a 42-year-old doctor HARARE: In office since the military-led ouster of reacted with fear and suspicion to the sight of sol- from the exclusive Ciudad Jardin neighborhood. Robert Mugabe three-and-a-half years ago, diers patrolling the streets of Cali, but others have But she added that the soldiers “make us feel more Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa is con- been cheering them. Cali has been the epicenter of protected.” solidating his grip on power with moves reminiscent civil unrest since protests sprang up around the of his predecessor’s style, analysts say. country on April 28, initially against a tax hike that ‘Get out!’ Tweaks to the constitution and criminalising anti- would have mostly affected the middle classes, amid The mood is different in the working class Siloe FACATATIVA: Demonstrators take cover behind a mat- government speech mark a change from Mugabe’s economic pain caused by the pandemic. neighborhood, which has been through some tress during clashes with riot police which erupted street-fighting and abductions, but observers see the According to the NGO Indepaz, at least 44 of 71 bloody days since the protests began. “So far we’ve during a protest against the government of Colombian same motives at work-making political opposition all deaths recorded during the month-old protests had no problems,” Juliana Bonilla, 28, told AFP. President Ivan Duque, in Facatativa, Colombia. —AFP but impossible. were in Cali, where the mayor’s office said there Siloe is one of several parts of the city where The president-who arrived in office promising a have been 550 people injured. protesters are nervously waiting for the arrival of “new and unfolding democracy” and a departure Last Friday, before night fell, Cali’s 2.2 million the soldiers. of troops, neither they nor police have approached from Mugabe’s authoritarian rule-is in fact develop- inhabitants-accustomed to the trauma of violent “There have been clashes and friction with police the road blocks set up around the city by some pro- ing “an imperial executive whose power is not ade- drug cartels operating in their city-faced a new so we’re more cautious than ever,” said Bonilla. testers. One such demonstrator stands guard on top quately checked and balanced,” said Kucaca Phulu, nightmare scenario. Civilians wearing bullet-proof Siloe also shows the signs of violence, including a of a communal bin, surveying with binoculars who legal affairs chief of the opposition Movement for vests and carrying weapons fired at protesters as torched shop from which firefighters pulled the was entering or leaving the neighborhood. Democratic Change (MDC). the police watched. charred remains of a man. Nearby a man comes out of a tent and fires a gun Mnangagwa claimed the presidency in November That day Colombia was marking one month of Elizabeth Serna, 40, says the government “milita- in the air. 2017 after a military coup put paid to Mugabe’s 37- protests, and 13 people in the city were killed. rized” the city without listening to young people left Julian Rojas, 23, with his face painted in the col- year rule. According to authorities, eight of those had destitute by the coronavirus pandemic and weary of ors of Colombia’s flag, ties himself to an electricity He was confirmed in elections eight months later been shot. the lockdowns. pole and says he’s beginning a hunger strike to sup- the results of which were hotly contested by the President Ivan Duque announced that same day They are the ones who have taken to the streets port demonstrators. opposition, and will be up for re-election in 2023. he would deploy the military in Cali to help police, to demand solidarity from the government, as well “We haven’t had a military presence” in the Weeks ago, a constitutional amendment granted who were widely criticized internationally for the as job and educational opportunities. streets, he says, but adds that he’s seen helicopters the president power to handpick judges and extend repression of demonstrators. Duque visited the city on Saturday and while and planes circling over the barricades. the tenure of senior members of the judiciary, even During a tour of the city, an AFP team found rub- he was applauded in some parts, others shouted: Businesswoman Lilibeth Tejada, 41, says she’s past their retirement age. ble, piles of rubbish, destroyed road signs, broken “Get out!” happy the military has arrived. She wants them to The constitutional change “is manifestly con- windows and even a bullet casing. One youngster yelled in his face: “You’re killing reestablish order so she won’t have to “defend my spicuous in its intention to consolidate and solidify Since then, soldiers have been deployed to pro- us. We don’t forgive you.” Despite the deployment business when they come to loot it.” —AFP the president’s position ahead of 2023 elections,” the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said in a statement. and others that the code’s previous wording was out- hibits adultery. Under the new heading of “Offenses Mnangagwa almost immediately extended by five Pope updates canon dated and intransparent. The purpose of the revision, against human life, dignity and liberty,” the code speci- years the tenure of 70-year-old Chief Justice Luke the most comprehensive since 1983, is “restoration of fies that a priest is to be stripped of his office and pun- Malaba-seen as the president’s ally after he threw out law to address justice, the reform of the offender, and the repair of ished “with other just penalties” if he commits offences opposition claims of election-rigging in 2018.