Quake rattles Congo

AP

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KINSHASA, Congo (AP) – A powerful earthquake toppled homes onto children in eastern Congo Monday, killing at least one child in a region already beset by war, poverty and volcanoes.

Dr. Jean–Donne Owali told The Associated Press by telephone that two people died from quake injuries in his clinic in lakeside Kalemie, 55 kilometers (35 miles) from the epicenter.

"Dozens of houses have collapsed, several children were buried by the roofs of their houses," Owali had said earlier. "Injured people have been sent to local hospitals."

U.N. spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux said two houses and a church "crumbled."

"There are three wounded," Bonnardeaux said. "There was one death, a child who died of its wounds."

Bonnardeaux had said earlier most of the casualties were struck by falling zinc and steel roofs. He added damage was reported in Kabalo, a Congolese town 300 kilometer east of Kalemie along the Lukuga River.

The desperately poor region has camps for tens of thousands of refugees from wars and economic collapse in Congo and Burundi.

The United States Geological Survey gave a preliminary measurement of 6.8 for Monday’s quake and located the epicenter about 10 kilometers (six miles) below the surface of Lake Tanganyika, between Congo and Tanzania. Quakes of magnitude 7 can cause widespread and heavy damage.

Jacques Derieux, head of the geological survey in the eastern Congolese town of Goma said the quake was not linked to the volcanic activity that is common in the region. He placed the magnitude at closer to 6.3, still powerful enough to cause severe damage, and the location roughly in the middle of Lake Tanganyika.

"Its a normal tectonic earthquake coming out of the Rift Valley," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Goma, 480 kilometers (298 miles) north of Kalemie.

The Great Rift Valley runs for (4,800 kilometers) 3,000 miles between Syria and Mozambique.

Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, an official at the Goma volcano observatory, said the quake could affect volcano activity. Goma’s Nyiragongo volcano erupted on Jan. 18, 2002, forcing some 300,000 people to flee and destroying the homes of 120,000. An estimated 100 people were killed.

Across Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, the Kigoma Regional Commissioner said authorities were waiting for police stations in remote parts of Tanzania to investigate and report possible casualties. Kigoma, the main transport hub for western Tanzania and the main Tanzanian port for Lake Tanganyika, was 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the center of the quake.

The quake was felt as far east as Nairobi, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Lake Tanganyika. There were reports of tremors being felt as far south as the shores of Lake Victoria, some 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) away.