Kinshasa, Congo – Mount Nyamulagira erupted near the city of Goma in eastern Congo, threatening to shower ash on a national park that is home to some rare animals, officials said Tuesday.
The volcano began erupting Monday night, said Celestin Kasereka, head of the Goma volcano observatory.
The most immediate danger was to animals in Congo’s nearby Virunga National Park, which were likely to fall ill or die from eating plants covered with the ash, Kasereka said.
Among the rare animals in the park are a threatened hippo population and the mountain gorilla.
Officials were trying to get a U.N. helicopter to fly over the largely uninhabited area to assess the size of the eruption, but have so far been unable to because of security threats.
Goma, a provincial capital of about 500,000 people, is not in the path of lava flows from Nyamulagira because another volcano, Mount Nyirangongo, shields the city.
In 2002, the eruption of Nyirangongo destroyed about a fifth of the residential areas of Goma, the provincial capital of Congo’s North Kivu province. About 100 people died as lava flows as deep as 10 feet overtook parts of the city.
Nyamulagira erupted later that year, shooting plumes of lava 300 feet into the air but without threatening Goma.
The area around Goma has seen recent clashes between forces loyal to a dissident former general and Congo’s army. At least three people have been killed.
