GOMA, DR Congo — Five people were found choked to death on toxic fumes from the eruption of eastern DR Congo’s Nyiragongo volcano on Monday, as strong aftershocks rocked the city of Goma.
The deaths bring to 20 the number killed since Africa’s most active volcano erupted on Saturday, spewing red-hot molten lava that engulfed homes in its wake.
“We have just discovered five dead people,” civil society leader Mambo Kawaya told AFP, saying that they were “asphyxiated by the gas” as they tried to cross the cooling lava some 13 kilometers (eight miles) north of Goma.
A sixth person is in a “critical state with trouble breathing and has been taken to hospital,” Kawaya …
Keep on reading: Volcano death toll rises as aftershocks shake DR Congo