The military governor of the region said that as thousands of people were evacuated from Goma, the lava flow stopped on the outskirts of the eastern city.

The military chief of the region said on Sunday that a lava river boiling from the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo stopped outside Goma, leaving the city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

after that volcanic eruptions Caused thousands of fugitives at night,” General Constance Ndima said, “The lava stopped near Buhené on the outskirts of Goma… The city was spared, adding that according to provisional estimates , “Five people were killed in related accidents.”

Thousands of people fled at night on Saturday. Many families slept on the sidewalk surrounded by belongings. The night sky was reddened by fire and smoke.

Officials said the lava had reached the Goma City Airport, although residents said the lava had stopped at the edge of the facility.

As dawn broke, Goma appeared relatively calm, but people said they remained vigilant.

“It smells of sulfur. In the distance, you will see huge flames emerging from the mountains,” Carine Mbala, a resident of the city, told AFP.

Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya said on Saturday that the government has initiated an evacuation plan and is “discussing urgent measures that should be taken at this time.”

According to the country’s National Broadcasting Corporation, by the early hours of Sunday morning, about 5,000 to 7,000 people had arrived in neighboring Rwanda.

The Rwandan broadcaster tweeted photos of the arrival in Rubavu district, but said earlier on Sunday that the evacuees had begun to return home.

“Currently, the Congolese evacuated from Rwanda due to the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano are returning home. It seems that the eruption has stopped,” it tweeted.

The first flights from Goma even arrived before the official confirmation that Mount Nyiragongo erupted at 7:00 pm on Saturday.

When hundreds of residents began to leave their homes, most parts of the city had no electricity.

Some people drove from the southern end of the city to the nearby Rwanda border post, while others drove west to Sake in the neighboring Massisi Congo region.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said he will “suspend his stay in Europe and return home this Sunday to oversee the coordination of aid.”

In a report on May 10, the Vulcanology Observatory in Goma warned that seismic activity around the volcano has increased, so careful monitoring is required.

Nyiragongo last erupted on January 17, 2002, killing 250 people, displacing 120,000 others, and covering almost the entire eastern part of Goma, including half of the airport landing runway, with lava.

During that eruption, most of the victims were sick or elderly. They were abandoned by fate in the northern part of the city, and some robberies occurred.