The Labour Party has today said the Government’s humanitarian aid package to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo is "insufficient".
Labour spokesperson on International Co-operation Ms Joan Burton told ireland.comalthough the €800,000 (£630,051) in aid, announced by the Government today, was "welcome", it was not enough considering the scale of the natural disaster in the region.
Ms Burton said the Congo and Rwanda areas were "deserving of long-term structural assistance" and said she hoped the Government’s aid package was just the "first installment" of a committed aid programme in the region.
Goma has been in ruins since the Nyiragongo volcano erupted last Thursday, sending lava through the region. The eruption has killed about 45 people, according to UN estimates.
Thousands of Congolese were displaced and fled to the Rwandan border. However, many of these people returned to Goma yesterday. Aid agencies have said the mass movement has turned plans for food and water distribution on their head.
Further catastrophe unfolded today when an explosion at a petrol station in Goma killed an unknown number of people. Witnesses have reported seeing between 50 and 60 people in the petrol station at the time of the explosion.
Apparently they had been pouring fuel from large drums into smaller containers, when some spilled liquid appeared to have trickled onto hot lava, setting the garage ablaze.
Announcing the humanitarian assistance today, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O’Donnell, said the natural disaster now facing the Congolese people was "particularly harrowing", as the country had already suffered severely as a result of conflict and poverty.
She said the €800,000 would help provide emergency food, shelter and water supplies for the people of Goma. But Ms O’Donnell said the funding was in addition to the €1.33 million already donated to the Ireland Aid organisation in 2001.
Additional reporting by Reuters