Two million people in Goma exist in the shadow of Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world's most active volcanoes.
For most, the sight of its dark outline towering over this bustling city in North Kivu province represents both a thing of beauty and dread.
Josué Aruna often finds solace in the woods of Virunga National Park, admiring the volcanic mountain's silhouette. Occasionally, his mind wanders to the night of May 22, 2021, when Nyiragongo unleashed its fury on Goma.
At exactly 6pm local time that evening, boiling lava belched from the mountain's belly and streamed down its steep sides at nearly 100kmph. The sky turned into a blood-red canopy.
"We were not far from Nyiragongo," Aruna recounts to TRT Afrika. "It was dark, and we saw the lava – like a flood of fire – pouring down the sides of the mountain."
Families fled on foot, clutching mattresses and cooking pots as a river of molten rock hurtled towards the city, burning down villages along the way.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR reported that over 400,000 residents of Goma were forced to flee their homes.
Aruna, who had previously witnessed Nyiragongo's destructive power in 2002, had been bracing for this moment for 19 years.
"My family was hit hard by the 2002 eruption," he tells TRT Afrika. "We lost everything. Many of my relatives lived in camps for internally displaced people, where the living conditions were terrible."
Community lifeline
In 2016, Aruna established the Congo Basin Conservation Society (CBCS), a civil society organisation dedicated to helping citizens prepare for and survive natural disasters.
"We are a grassroots organisation, training people in preparedness, and creating pre-identified evacuation routes with signage and regular maintenance. We establish safe zones in schools, churches and purpose-built centres away from hazardous zones. We also offer transportation support, especially for vulnerable groups (children, the elderly, and the disabled)," explains Aruna, who is the organisation's country director.
Nyiragongo has erupted at least 34 times since 1882. The 2002 catastrophe was by far the deadliest, killing at least 250 people.
Aruna says lessons learnt from that disaster helped his organisation set up a response template for future eruptions.
"We worked in collaboration with the DRC government's emergency services to help prepare residents of Goma for any eventuality. So, when the next eruption occurred, people knew what to do. They moved fast," he tells TRT Afrika. "I believe this helped save many lives."
CBCS also offered financial support to families that were still awaiting official assistance, including households with pregnant or nursing single mothers and low-income host families earning less than US $10 per month.
The organisation provided food and $20 to each beneficiary to cover essential needs.
"We were able to raise funds from the small-scale businesses we operated within the agency, including seed banking and other agriculture-related services. The financial support may have been meagre, but it meant so much to people who had lost everything," says Aruna.
Double-edged sword
The 2021 eruption occurred at a time when life for many in the region had already been upended by conflict. Over two million people were displaced by violence perpetrated by rebel groups, mainly the M23, in North Kivu province.
Many people have gradually returned, but life in Goma remains uncertain.
"We are constantly facing two deadly threats," says Aruna. "Armed conflict on one side and one of the world's most active volcanoes on the other. Every day, we pray to God to save us."
With the Goma Volcano Observatory, tasked with monitoring tremors and issuing warnings, crippled by years of underfunding and the ongoing conflict, early-warning systems are either unreliable or nonexistent.
"Now, we rely mostly on instinct. The little we can do as an organisation is to help as many people as possible prepare for the next eruption," Aruna tells TRT Afrika.
