Thousands of people scrambled to flee the Congolese city of Goma on Thursday, some picking their way across landscapes scarred with lava, after officials said a second volcanic eruption could happen any time.
Congo accounts for 8% of world’s tin-in-concentrate As much as 175 tonnes of tin could be delayed - ITA ITA sees build-up in stocks at mining operations (Adds ITA quote)
JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, May 27 (Reuters) - Earthquakes following a volcanic eruption in Goma, a city near Congo’s border with Rwanda, are disrupting exports of tin concentrate from mineral-rich North Kivu province, the International Tin Association (ITA) said on Thursday.
The industry association confirmed what two sources with direct knowledge told Reuters on Wednesday.
The disruption to Congolese tin exports - which account for 8% of the world’s tin-in-concentrate, according to the ITA - is likely to exacerbate shortages of the soldering metal, prices of which last week touched 10-year highs at $30,650 a tonne.
Every Sunday, Rachel is allowed a few hours off work to go to church - her only moment of respite in a week she spends cooking, sweeping and washing clothes and dishes for a family of seven in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital.
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GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -An earthquake on the border of Congo and Rwanda razed buildings in the city of Goma on Tuesday and stoked fears a nearby volcano would erupt again three days after dozens of people were killed and 17 villages were destroyed by lava.
The quake, measured at 5.3 magnitude by the Rwandan Seismic Monitor, was the largest of over 100 tremors that have followed the eruption on Saturday of Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo volcano, one of the world’s most active and dangerous.
“We know that children were injured when a building collapsed on Tuesday just a few steps from the UNICEF office in Goma,” the U.N. children’s agency said.
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GOMA (Reuters) - A smoking trail of lava from a volcanic eruption appeared to have halted a few hundred metres from the edge of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s main city on Sunday morning, said a Reuters reporter at the scene.
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Goma, a lakeside city of about 2 million people, was thrown into panic on Saturday evening as the nearby Mount Nyiragongo erupted, turning the night sky an eerie red. Thousands fled with their belongings on foot, some towards the nearby border with Rwanda.
As the sun rose on Sunday, much of the hillside to the north of the town was burned black and houses had been demolished. The sky was again a cloudy gray.