AIR MISERY GOMA

INTRODUCTION — THE AIRBRIDGE INTO GOMA

Goma was crying.

Not the quiet crying of a mother who had lost a child.

Not the private grief of a family standing beside a destroyed home.

This cry was different.

It was a cry that travelled beyond Africa.

It was heard in New York, London, Paris, Geneva, Washington, Rome, Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi and Moscow.

It came through satellite telephones.

It appeared in humanitarian situation reports.

It flashed across television screens.

It arrived in the offices of relief organizations long after midnight.

Goma needs help.

Again.

And again.

And again.

For years, the most vibrant city in eastern Congo had seemed trapped between disasters that refused to end.

Conflict.

Displacement.

Disease.

Poverty.

Fire.

And the enormous forces of nature.

To the north stood Mount Nyiragongo.

To the south lay Lake Kivu.

Between them was Goma.

The mountain was more than a mountain.

It was a sleeping threat.

Nyiragongo was one of the world's most active volcanoes, rising above the city like an ancient fortress of fire.

Its lava had flowed before.

It would flow again.

The people of Goma knew that.

They had learned it in 1977.

They learned it again in January 2002.

And in 2021, when Nyiragongo erupted once more, the city was reminded that the mountain could change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of hours.

The lava did not care about borders.

It did not care about politics.

It did not care about humanitarian organizations.

It simply moved.

In 2002, lava entered Goma and destroyed large portions of the city. The airport was struck. The runway was damaged. Homes, businesses and roads disappeared beneath black volcanic rock.

But Goma did not die.

The people rebuilt.

They built on the hardened lava.

They quarried volcanic stone from the ground beneath their feet.

They rebuilt homes, markets, roads and businesses.

And the humanitarian organizations came back.

The scientists came back.

The pilots came back.

The aircraft came back.

Because Goma had learned another lesson.

When the roads failed—

the aircraft had to keep flying.

There was another danger.

Lake Kivu.

The enormous lake looked peaceful from the air.

Beautiful.

Almost innocent.

But deep beneath its surface were vast quantities of dissolved gases, creating a geological danger that scientists continued to study.

And around Goma there was another silent volcanic threat.

Mazuku.

The evil wind.

Invisible volcanic gases could collect in low areas, creating places where the air itself could become deadly.

Goma therefore lived between fire, water and invisible danger.