Fresh threats to volcano refugees

GOMA, Congo -- Tremors almost every hour are continuing to shake northern Congo as the first food aid arrived in the region following last week's volcanic eruption.

The arrival of food for up to 70,000 people has also coincided with a cholera outbreak among some of the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the area.

The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo has left an estimated 10,000 families homeless and hundreds of thousands out of work in Goma.

Across the border in the Rwandan town of Ruhengeri, 30 miles northeast of Goma, the aid agency Oxfam said it was preparing an isolation space for possible cholera cases.

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It said some Congolese refugees in its camp complained of feeling ill, but Oxfam regional director Rob Wilkinson said an initial report that cholera had been detected at the camp was based on "faulty communication."

The plight of those left homeless after the volcanic eruption has been compounded by heavy seasonal rains in the area where tens of thousands have been sleeping outdoors.

Mwendo Kambale, an office worker and father of four, said his family was sleeping outdoors in the rain and had run out of food on Sunday.

"The food is arriving very slowly," Kambale said. "I'm not happy because now I have no job, no home, no money and very few clothes."

"It's a good thing that it's coming. All I have are the clothes I'm standing up in. I have no food," said John Baganda, a 20-year-old student.

Mwabana Kapinga, 25, said: "I have eight children, I'm glad the food is on its way."

The International Federation of Red Cross Societies has put the number of dead from the volcano's eruption at 46.

Another estimated 50 people were killed when lava ignited fumes at a gas station where people were trying to siphon off gasoline and diesel fuel.

More than 30 percent of Goma's residential neighbourhoods were destroyed by lava, Ross Mountain, the U.N. deputy emergency relief coordinator, told the Associated Press.

Earthquakes continue to shake the region, some of them strong enough to destroy buildings that escaped the three huge lava flows that cut through the centre of the city.

Relief workers using bulldozers managed to break through the drying lava on Tuesday to allow a convoy of aid vehicles to get to the area.

"The food is coming through to Goma today," said Laura Melo, a spokeswoman for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the agency providing the bulk of relief food.

Luisa Colasimone, a spokeswoman for the medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres, said: "There was a problem with access, but now finally we can get the supplies across."

Water distribution began on Tuesday, and food was also delivered to 20,000 people who had fled to Sake, a small village 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Goma.

The 11,381-foot (3,414-meter) Nyiragongo and 10,022-foot (3,007-meter) Nyamulagira volcanoes north of Goma are the only two active ones in the eight-volcano Virunga chain. Nyiragongo last erupted in January 1977.