Hi Friend,

On May 22, Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world's most active and dangerous volcanoes, erupted 10 miles from Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, creating a deadly lava flow and earthquakes. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 31 people have died, with more injured, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Many buildings, including health facilities, have been damaged or destroyed and half a million people have lost access to safe drinking water in an area where cholera is endemic.

The situation is changing rapidly and there is an urgent need for humanitarian aid for people who fled to the cities of Sake and Rutshuru and other parts of North Kivu.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is currently focused on preventing the spread of cholera, treating patients suffering from the disease, monitoring for outbreaks, distributing clean water, and boosting water storage capacity in the area.

We’re also providing care for people at MSF-supported hospitals, and calling for an increase in humanitarian aid across the affected area. Our teams have sent supplies and provided sanitation support to a hospital in Goma and have set up an emergency ward roughly four miles from the lava flow on the road from Goma to Rutshuru, where 25,000 people have fled.

The support of our donors ensures we’re able to respond to emergencies like this whenever and wherever needs are greatest—and we’re incredibly grateful for your help. Our teams are continuously monitoring the situation and preparing to scale up our intervention—we’ll continue to update as our response changes.

Read more about this update and our developing response at doctorswithoutborders.org