Dr. Adolf Diefenhardt, Regional Director Africa Programmes, and Dr. Alfred Kinzelbach, Regional Medical Coordinator Great Lakes Region, both Malteser Germany, are in Goma in order to prepare and organize the ECOM emergency aid for the victims of the Nyiragongo eruption. Up to one hundred thousand people who fled the volcanic eruption last Friday have streamed back to Goma across a river of steaming lava since Sunday and returned to their ruined town, shunning the refugee camps being set up for them in Rwanda.

These people now above all need accommodation facilities and basic equipment for daily survival.

ECOM through Malteser Germany will therefore first of all provide blankets, plastic awnings, pots and pans, clothing for the children, water cans, buckets, chlorine tablets, charcoal and last but not least medicine. The relief goods to the value of 250.000 Euro will be purchased directly in Uganda so that it will be possible to distribute them to the needy people in Goma and the neighbouring villages already on Wednesday.

The assessment and the preparations are run in close cooperation with the ECOM associations in Belgium, France and Germany as well as with Caritas international, Freiburg/Germany, and the local Caritas in Goma and Rwanda.