Mobile phones slow volcano relief

By CNN's Graham Jones

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo -- An unlikely adversary has emerged in the battle to bring relief to the victims of the Congo volcano tragedy -- the mobile phone.

Oxfam worker Rob Wilkinson said that while aid agencies were telling people not to return to the city of Goma and to stay in the refugee camps, mobile phone calls were persuading them to return.

"They are using mobile phones to talk to relatives and friends back in Goma, who are telling them that it is OK to go back," he told the Press Association.

"It is changing the way the population is responding. It's very unusual."

Tens of thousands were scrambling across huge rivers of lava to return to the city on Sunday.

VIDEO Rivers of lava flow through the streets of Goma. CNN's Catherine Bond reports (January 19) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   YOUR SAY Your say: E-mail us your experiences    MORE STORIES • Voices from the devastation  • Aid workers rethink efforts  • British, French ministers to visit  • Congo crisis: How to help    EXTRA INFORMATION Interactive: Anatomy of a volcano  • Map: Goma lies in area prone to volcanic activity

But experts say the molten lava has a thin crust -- similar to ice on a frozen lake -- through which people can fall.

There is also an absence of drinking water in Goma -- with many fetching water from Lake Kivu which has been contaminated by the lava. This brings the risk of disease, including cholera.

But -- aided by mobile phone calls -- human nature has apparently taken over with people much keener to be reunited with their families than to stay in the safety and relative comfort of the refugee camps.

Peter Kessler, spokesman for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees which is sending "family kits" to try to get 10,000 families started on a normal life again, says the mobile phone is the prime means of communication in an area devastated by recent conflicts.

"The Congo is huge. There are no phone lines from one end of the country to the other so the mobile phone is the prime link for all."

"Its quite fascinating," says Kessler. "But the dangers in Goma are still very high with the water contaminated.

"Clearly with so many people on the move there are risks of illness."

The lava flows left some 180,000 people stranded in a section of the city without drinkable water or electricity, according to Adolphe Onusumba, the leader of the Congolese rebel group that controls Goma.

"People are beginning to return, but they are complaining of no food, no water. They are hungry," he told PA.

CNN's Catherine Bond says in such situations, relief agencies normally advise refugees to wait 10 days before returning home.

But tens of thousands families headed back across the border from Rwanda from dawn on Sunday onwards.

"They have very strong memories of what life was like for the Hutu refugees from Rwanda in 1994 who fled to Goma.

"They lived outside Goma in camps for another two years and their lives were so miserable.

"The Congolese recall that and they don't want to become like that -- they don't want to be refugees. They see themselves as better than that and they feel that from their experiences so far the local people in Rwanda won't give them much support if they linger there.

"For example numerous people told me they hadn't even been given a glass of water for their children without local Rwandan people asking for money for it."

"They just feel they may as well go home."