Microsoft says group behind SolarWinds hack now targeting government agencies, NGO's


© Reuters/Sergio Flores

Exterior view of SolarWinds headquarters in Austin

(Reuters) -The group behind the SolarWinds cyber attack identified late last year is now targeting government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organizations, Microsoft Corp said on Thursday.

"This week we observed cyberattacks by the threat actor Nobelium targeting government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organizations", Microsoft said in a blog https://bit.ly/2SzLGmO.

Nobelium, originating from Russia, is the same actor behind the attacks on SolarWinds customers in 2020, according to Microsoft.

The comments come weeks after a May 7 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline shut the United States' largest fuel pipeline network for several days, disrupting the country's supply.

"This wave of attacks targeted approximately 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 different organizations", Microsoft said on Thursday.

While organisations in the United States received the largest share of attacks, targeted victims came from at least 24 countries, Microsoft said.

At least a quarter of the targeted organisations were involved in international development, humanitarian issues and human rights work, Microsoft said in the blog.

Nobelium launched this week's attacks by breaking into an email marketing account used by the United States Agency For International Development (USAID) and from there launching phishing attacks on many other organisations, Microsoft said.

The hack of information technology company SolarWinds, which was identified in December, gave access to thousands of companies and government offices that used its products. Microsoft President Brad Smith described the attack as "the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen".

This month, Russia's spy chief denied responsibility for the SolarWinds cyber attack but said he was "flattered" by the accusations from the United States and Britain that Russian foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack.

The United States and Britain have blamed Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), successor to the foreign spying operations of the KGB, for the hack which compromised nine U.S. federal agencies and hundreds of private sector companies.

The attacks disclosed by Microsoft on Thursday appeared to be a continuation of multiple efforts to target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts, Microsoft said.

The company said it was in the process of notifying all of its targeted customers and had "no reason to believe" these attacks involved any exploitation or vulnerability in Microsoft's products or services.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel and Clarence Fernandez)

USDA rejects request for faster pork slaughterhouse speeds


© Provided by The Canadian Press

USDA rejects request for faster pork slaughterhouse speeds

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declined a request by the pork industry to increase the speed at which pigs can be processed into meat, delivering a victory to slaughterhouse workers who had raised safety concerns about the plan.

The USDA announced Wednesday evening it would enforce a Minnesota judge's order issued in March. The judge struck down plans begun years ago but finalized by the USDA under former President Donald Trump's administration that would have lifted maximum line speeds at pork slaughterhouses, allowing dozens of plants to speed up production.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union International, which represents 33,000 workers in the pork processing industry, welcomed the decision.

“President Biden made a commitment to strengthen safety protections for America’s meatpacking workers on the frontlines of this pandemic. With today’s USDA statement, the Biden administration is reaffirming its commitment to worker safety,” union president Marc Perrone said Wednesday.

The USDA's decision followed a March 31 ruling by U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, who had considered a lawsuit filed by the union and found the USDA acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it refused to consider the impact of faster line speeds on worker safety. Ericksen ordered the rule to be vacated but delayed the effective date for 90 days to give the USDA and the industry “time to prepare for any operational change.”

The National Pork Producers Council, a group representing pig farmers, this week asked the USDA to appeal the ruling, seek a stay while the appeal is considered and request the agency pursue a fast-tracked rule that would allow higher line speeds.

In a statement posted Wednesday on its website, the USDA said pork processing plants should prepare to revert to previous maximum line speeds as of June 30.

“The agency is committed to worker safety and ensuring a safe, reliable food supply. We will work with the establishments to comply with the court’s ruling and minimize disruptions to the supply chain,” the USDA said.

Pork processing plants in Hatfield, Pennsylvania; Coldwater, Michigan; Fremont, Nebraska; and Austin, Minnesota, have been working with the faster line speeds under a pilot project for years, and a plant in Guymon, Oklahoma, began faster speeds in 2019. Several others were expected to adopt faster speeds but plans were delayed by the pandemic.

The pork producers group had said the judge’s ruling would force plants already operating at faster speeds to return to the previous maximum line speed of 1,106 hogs per hour, significantly less than the 1,450 hogs per hour some plants were processing.

In a statement, NPPC spokesman Jim Monroe said the organization is disappointed with the USDA decision “to support a flawed federal district court decision," adding that “irreparable harm will be exacted on small U.S. hog farmers when this court order goes into effect at the end of June 2021.”

The group earlier said the judge’s ruling will cut U.S. pork packing plant capacity by 2.5% and result in more than $80 million in reduced income for small hog farmers, according to an analysis conducted for the group by Iowa State University agricultural economist Dermot Hayes.

The group said it will pursue all avenues to reverse the court decision.

The Washington-based North American Meat Institute, a trade group for the meat processing industry, said the judge’s ruling could have significant unintended consequences, including that “workers who will now have increased workloads as companies attempt to make up for lost production.”

Hayes, in his analysis said some plant managers have told him they may add longer shifts or weekend work to keep up the production pace at slower rates.

The impact on consumer prices for ham, pork chops and bacon isn't immediately clear and will depend on how the industry responds. If the slower speeds cause processors to supply less pork to the market, “grocers and restaurants are left competing against each other for a small amount of pork, which would drive up wholesale and retail pork prices,” said Jayson Lusk, head of the department of agricultural economics at Purdue University.

David Pitt, The Associated Press

Remains of 215 children found at former residential school in British Columbia

"unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School."


© Provided by The Canadian Press

Remains of 215 children found at former residential school in British Columbia

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — The remains of 215 children have been found buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in a news release Thursday that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of a ground-penetrating radar specialist.

Casimir called the discovery an "unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School."

She said it’s believed the deaths are undocumented, although a local museum archivist is working with the Royal British Columbia Museum to see if any records of the deaths can be found.

Some of the children were as young as three, she said.

The school was once the largest in Canada’s residential school system.

"Given the size of the school, with up to 500 students registered and attending at any one time, we understand that this confirmed loss affects First Nations communities across British Columbia and beyond," Casimir said in the release.

The chief said work to identify the site was led by the First Nation's language and cultural department alongside ceremonial knowledge keepers, who made sure the work was done was in line with cultural protocols.

The leadership of the Tk’emlups community "acknowledges their responsibility to caretake for these lost children," Casimir said.

Access to the latest technology allows for a true accounting of the missing children and will hopefully bring some peace and closure to those lives lost, she said in the release.

The reclamation work was paid for by a Pathway to Healing provincial government grant, she said.

Casimir said band officials are informing community members and surrounding communities that had children who attended the school.

“This is the beginning but, given the nature of this news, we felt it important to share immediately,” she said.

The First Nations Health Authority called the discovery of the children's remains "extremely painful" and said in a website posting that it "will have a significant impact on the Tk’emlúps community and in the communities served by this residential school."

FNHL C.E.O. Richard Jock suggested the situation had the potential to affect First Nations people in BC and across the country.

"That this situation exists is sadly not a surprise and illustrates the damaging and lasting impacts that the residential school system continues to have on First Nations people, their families and communities," Jock wrote in his web post.

The FNHA said immediate supports for Tk’emlúps Nation have been identified through its Interior health team, and its teams are on standby to support further needs.

The agency said some of the supports currently available include the KUU-US Crisis Line, Tsow-Tun-Le-Lum Society and the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society.

The Kamloops school operated between 1890 and 1969. The federal government took over the operation from the Catholic Church to operate as a day school until it closed in 1978.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final report on residential schools more than five years ago. The nearly 4,000-page account details the harsh mistreatment inflicted on Indigenous children at the institutions, where at least 3,200 children died amid abuse and neglect.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Michelle Good on why Indigenous people can't 'get over' residential school trauma

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Michelle Good on why Indigenous people can't 'get over' residential school trauma

Michelle Good says her book "Five Little Indians" is her response to a frustrating question that often comes up in discussions about Indigenous people and Canada's residential schools: "Why can't they just get over it?"

As an advocate, lawyer and daughter of a residential school survivor, Good says the devastating long-term impacts of the government-run system are woven into the fabric of her life.

Good, a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation west of Saskatoon, says she drew from these experiences in crafting her acclaimed debut novel, "Five Little Indians," with a braided narrative that shifts focus from the historic infliction of harm to how Indigenous people carry that trauma with them into the present day.

"The question, why can't they just get over it? The answer isn't in the horror of the abuse," says Good, 64, from Savona, west of Kamloops, B.C. "The answer is in how that continues to play out, both with the survivor directly and intergenerationally and at a community level."

"Five Little Indians," from HarperCollins Publishers, traces the intersecting journeys of a group residential school survivors in east Vancouver as they work to rebuild their lives and come to grips with their pasts.

The book won the Amazon Canada First Novel Award on Thursday and is up for a Governor General's prize this coming Tuesday, earning Good the rare distinction of being a sexagenarian up-and-coming author.

Now an adjudicator, Good says she first began working on the novel about a decade ago while juggling her law practice and her studies at University of British Columbia's creative writing program.

While she may have come to writing later in life, Good says fiction has given her the freedom to explore truths that transcend the evidentiary rigours of the legal process.

"A thing need not be factual to be true," says Good, who used to run a small law firm and has represented residential school survivors.

Since 1926, Black History Week, and later Black History Month, have been celebrated each February in the United States, with a series of events that aim to acknowledge the contributions of African-Americans. The idea later spread to Canada, to the UK and elsewhere around the world. Since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, bookstores have seen sharp increases in demand for books on Black history and issues of race and privilege. Here is one non-exhaustive reading list to start your own exploration.

"One of the reasons people respond to this book is that it's true, if not factual, on a very, very visceral level."

As part of her writing process, Good says she studied hundreds of psychological assessments of survivors of childhood physical and sexual abuse to better understand how these injuries can shape a person's trajectory.

She says this research informed how the central characters of "Five Little Indians" cope with the life-altering aftershocks of being torn away from their families and communities and forced into a system designed "take the Indian out of the child."

"The whole point of the book is how difficult it is to live with those impacts from the harm of walking out of those schools just burdened with psychological injury, and facing lack of support, lack of resources (and) racism," says Good.

"It's something that went directly to the fabric of Indigenous community and did profound damage."

Since its 2020 publication, "Five Little Indians" has been making the rounds on the literary prize circuit, securing spots on the Giller long list and Writers' Trust short list last fall.

Good also achieved the unusual feat of scoring three major awards nods in a single day in early May.

"Five Little Indians" won the $60,000 First Novel Award this week, is in the running for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize next month, and is among several heavyweight finalists for the Governor General's Literary Awards, to be announced Tuesday.

Others vying for the $25,000 prize in the Governor General's fiction category are Guelph, Ont.-based Thomas King for "Indians on Vacation," from HarperCollins Canada; Halifax’s Francesca Ekwuyasi with "Butter Honey Pig Bread," from Arsenal Pulp Press; Leanne Betasamosake Simpson for "Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies," from House of Anansi Press; and Toronto-born Lisa Robertson for "The Baudelaire Fractal," from Coach House Books.

Good says the awards acclaim has been "tremendously satisfying." But most meaningful of all is the reception the book has received from residential school survivors and their families who recognize their own stories in the characters Good created, she says.

"It's my love letter to survivors," says Good. "I feel like that's something I can be proud of till the day I move on."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2021.

Adina Bresge, The Canadian Press

UCP KILLS

'Costing lives:' Iveson pins deaths of four vulnerable Edmontonians on lack of provincial housing supports


© Provided by Edmonton Journal Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson is holding the Alberta government responsible for the deaths of four vulnerable residents within the last week.

Last Friday, three men died in a central Edmonton park of suspected overdoses. The exact cause of the deaths haven’t been released and may never be released publicly. On Wednesday, a 26-year-old woman was killed and a man seriously injured when they were lifted from a garbage dumpster into a garbage truck.

Addressing the tragedies for the first time Thursday, Iveson said he puts them “squarely at the feet” of the province because of a lack of investment in permanent, supportive housing which the city has long called for. Iveson said the city has tried to bridge the gap on its own, by funding affordable housing developments outside its jurisdiction, but can’t do it alone.

“These are the consequences of the gaps in the overall system. The city has tried our best to help plug those gaps in what is ultimately the Government of Alberta’s failing system,” Iveson told reporters Thursday. “The recalcitrance of the Government of Alberta on our housing objectives is now costing lives.”

More than 2,250 people are currently experiencing homelessness in Edmonton, up from 1,800 at the end of last year even though 759 people have found housing within the last six months. Iveson said the current shelter system isn’t the long-term solution and is calling on the province to fund supportive housing projects to move people into more suitable accommodations and in turn reduce costs in the health care and justice systems.



The city didn’t receive any funding for supportive housing in the latest provincial budget. Also a lack of commitment from the province to provide operational funding for 480 planned units resulted in a loss to the city of additional federal support of up to $68.8 million through the rapid housing initiative.

“People have been left to often fend for themselves in ways that are unconscionable in this province for far too long, which is why we have consistently called for supportive housing so that people would have a safe place to be where their addictions can be managed towards a goal of recovery and where their housing needs can be met,” Iveson said.

Iveson said this lack of housing support is the top of many issues he has had in trying to work with Premier Jason Kenney and his government over the last two years, but is not getting a “willing partner.”

“I think I’ve shown working with five premiers and two different prime ministers that I can work with anybody who is prepared to be a willing partner to build a great city for Edmontonians. I just don’t have that in Jason Kenney’s UCP government,” he said. “I’m not alone in my frustration with a number of decisions that have been made that are not what the City of Edmonton would have liked and certainly not what we have constructively advocated for.”

In response to the mayor’s comments, a spokesman for the province, Justin Marshall, said the Alberta government has maintained funding to Homeward Trust for housing and also became the first province to eliminate user fees for publicly-funded residential addiction treatment.

“This means that all Albertans regardless of their ability to pay will have access to lifesaving treatment,” Marshall said in a statement to Postmedia. “The province is a clear leader in supporting those struggling with addictions.”

Video: EPS investigating four suspicious deaths in the last week (Edmonton Journal)

B.C. biologist fights invasive fish in Cultus Lake

Duration: 01:54 

A B.C. biologist is fighting to rid one of the province's most popular lake of a destructive invasive species, that was brought here deliberately. Linda Aylesworth reports.

Global News

Goldboro LNG builder Pieridae proposes carbon capture and power project in Alberta


© Provided by The Canadian PressGoldboro 

LNG builder Pieridae proposes carbon capture and power project in Alberta

CALGARY — The company behind a proposed liquefied natural gas export facility in Nova Scotia is planning a power plant and carbon capture facility at its central Alberta natural gas processing plant that will help offset its LNG project's future carbon emissions.

CEO Alfred Sorenson of Pieridae Energy Ltd. says its proposed Caroline Carbon Capture Power Complex resulted from research into ways that its Goldboro LNG project can achieve net-zero emissions status by 2050.

He says the project answers recent criticism in Nova Scotia that Pieridae doesn't have a carbon emissions plan that would be acceptable to the European buyers of LNG it's targeting.

Sorenson says details such as capital cost of the new project are lacking because a partner is deciding how big the natural gas-fired power plant will be and that will determine how much carbon can be captured and stored underground.

He says the potential partner — "a player on the power side" — is expected to officially join the project in two weeks, adding Pieridae's announcement was made Thursday in part to coincide with its annual general meeting.

Sorenson says the project would be able to store up to three million tonnes of carbon per year, which is roughly equal to the amount of emissions to be produced from the LNG project. He says the power plant would produce as much as 900 megawatts if three proposed phases are built.

"Part of the reason why we wanted to make the announcement now is because it shows that we do have a carbon strategy that meets European needs for a carbon neutral LNG facility," said Sorenson.

A final investment decision to proceed with Goldboro has been delayed several times.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:PEA)

The Canadian Press

Analysis: Big oil may get more climate lawsuits after Shell ruling - lawyers, activists

© Reuters/Tim Chong FILE PHOTO: 

A general view of Royal Dutch Shell's Pulau Bukom offshore petroleum complex in Singapore after a fire was contained

By Shadia Nasralla and Tom Hals

LONDON (Reuters) - A Dutch court's decision to force Royal Dutch Shell to make deeper, faster cuts to its climate warming emissions on the basis of human rights could set a precedent, especially in European countries, according to lawyers and activists.

The court on Wednesday ordered the Anglo-Dutch company to slash its global greenhouse gas emissions, which stood at around 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2019, by 45% by 2030. Shell said it would appeal the decision forcing it to cut by an amount roughly equivalent to four times Britain's annual emissions.

(Graphic: Shell's greenhouse gas emissions: https://graphics.reuters.com/SHELL-EMISSIONS/yzdvxeoznpx/chart.png)

"We expect a ripple effect into other jurisdictions. Now that we have this first established liability, it definitely creates a momentum we can build on," said Roger Cox, lawyer for activist group Friends of the Earth, which brought the case along with Greenpeace, other activists and Dutch citizens.

They brought the lawsuit in the Netherlands, where Shell's headquarters are based.

The court held that Shell violated its duty of care under Dutch law because its policies and emissions contributed to dangerous climate change.

Shell had argued that its global emissions were not subject to Dutch law, that the plaintiffs' claims were a matter for lawmakers and that the company was acting lawfully and its emissions were permitted. The company also said the plaintiffs could not establish that reducing Shell's emissions would have an impact on climate change.

Michael Burger, a litigation specialist who represents local U.S. governments in climate cases including against Shell, said while Wednesday's decision was based on Dutch law, the concept of a duty to care exists in legal systems in Europe and around the globe.

"I think it's quite likely that we'll see other lawsuits filed in other jurisdictions, seeking to accomplish the same thing," he said, noting a similar case is pending against Total in France.

Myfanwy Wood, dispute resolution partner at law firm Ashurst, said duplicating the approach will depend on the standard of care that applies to corporations in other jurisdictions.

Dutch climate rulings have inspired global climate litigation before.

In 2019, the country's High Court ruled that the government had to commit to stronger climate targets in a case brought by the Urgenda Foundation. That decision, which paved the way for the Shell case, established that the government had a duty of care to significantly reduce emissions.

The case "sparked a wave of similar lawsuits around the world against governments, and we can expect that with the decision yesterday," said Louise Fournier, a climate lawyer for Greenpeace.

There are about 425 pending climate lawsuits in various countries and about 1,375 lawsuits in U.S. courts, according to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

The U.S. cases target the industry, while most cases in other jurisdictions take aim at governments.

Experts said the Dutch ruling will have no legal impact on the U.S. cases, which are generally based on different laws and accuse the industry of misleading the public about climate change and seek financial damages.

However, the Dutch ruling could still influence the U.S. cases, said Karen Sokol, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. She said the Dutch decision reassures U.S. judges that climate change involves more than policymaking.

“The industry has done everything it can to scare courts into 'you have no role,'” said Sokol. “It is going to get demystified and courts will get comfortable with it.”

European legislators are working on a raft of new rules on what type of investments should be labeled sustainable and how to reduce planet-warming leaks from natural gas infrastructure.

"This ruling (...) increases the pressure on large polluters and helps us in Europe to tighten climate policy for them as well," said the Greens' European legislator Bas Eickhout, Vice Chair of the European Parliament's Environment Committee.

"They can no longer escape the climate crisis: International climate targets must also apply to them."

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla in London and Tom Hals in Delaware ; Editing by Veronica Brown, Alexander Smith, Noeleen Walder and David Gregorio)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Credit Suisse scandals prompt Switzerland to think unthinkable: punish bankers

© Reuters/ARND WIEGMANNFILE PHOTO:

 Switzerland's national flag flies above the logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse in Zurich

By John O'Donnell and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Exasperation with Credit Suisse following a string of scandals is prompting Switzerland to rethink a system in which top bankers have been largely untouchable.

Credit Suisse's heavy losses from the collapse of family office Archegos and the decimation of billions of client investments backed by insolvent British financier Greensill have angered regulators and triggered a rare discussion among lawmakers about fining bankers.

The debate, the biggest public discussion about banking reform since the financial crash, centres on ending the current laissez-faire regime, where fines on bankers are not possible, to copy Britain's stricter rule book.

"Bank directors don't take responsibility for their action because there is no need to. There are no real sanctions for mismanagement," said Gerhard Andrey, a Green member of the Swiss parliament.

"The scandals that have hit Credit Suisse, from Mozambique to Greensill, are damaging for Switzerland's reputation. We have proposed a reform ... that would mean if something goes wrong, then the manager is on the hook," he said.

Andrey's proposals, which follow the ground-breaking British model that makes top management of financial firms directly accountable for their actions, are set to be discussed by Swiss lawmakers in the coming days.

The debate has unfolded after Credit Suisse lost more than $5 billion from the collapse of family office Archegos and faced a barrage of legal action over $10 billion of client investments linked to Greensill.

A bank spokesman said its board of directors had launched investigations that would "reflect on the broader consequences" of those events, adding that it had made management changes in investment banking and risk controls.

The string of scandals angered officials at supervisor FINMA, who struggle to hold bankers to account because Swiss rules only allow it sanction directors if directly involved in wrongdoing rather than for general managerial lapses.

A FINMA spokesman told Reuters that it welcomed a discussion about "optimising" "questions about personal responsibility", adding that other financial centres "go significantly further than Switzerland".

He said current Swiss rules allowed penalties, such as banning bankers from working, only if there was a direct link between the manager and wrongdoing, and that it was not enough to show that person was simply in charge.

Despite more than $15 billion in writedowns and penalties at Credit Suisse and multiple scandals, FINMA has struggled to get the bank under control and dissenting shareholders also failed to oust its chairman, Urs Rohner, before he retired this year.

As well as Archegos and Greensill, Credit Suisse's has had other problems, including a spying scandal that forced the departure of its former CEO.

Its bankers also faced proceedings in Britain and the United States related to loans granted to Mozambique that plunged it into a debt crisis.

U.S. prosecutors last year said they were investigating Credit Suisse's role in the $2 billion corruption case, which stems from loans the bank helped arrange to develop Mozambique's coastal defences. The bank has said it is cooperating with the enquiry.

Commenting on its most recent setbacks, the bank said it had suspended some pay to employees involved, including executive board members so that it would be able to claw back the money if needed.

Monika Roth, a Swiss lawyer and compliance expert, said it was prohibitively expensive for bank shareholders to seek justice by pursuing directors over failings in Swiss courts and that it should be made possible for supervisors to claw back director pay.

Any reform, however, is likely to meet resistance. The Swiss Banking Association said that current supervision was "well-balanced" and rigorous and that any improvements should take into account the "peculiarities" of Swiss banking.

Dominik Gross, of the Swiss Alliance of Development Organisations, predicted that Swiss lawmakers would be reluctant to change.

"There is an understanding that a strong financial centre is part and parcel of Switzerland - just like watches and chocolate. A large part of the population profits from the money that comes in."

(Writing By John O'Donnell; editing by David Evans)

Thousands evacuate Congo's Goma amid renewed volcano threat

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Tens of thousands of people are fleeing the city of Goma in eastern Congo fearing another volcanic eruption by Mount Nyiragongo, which spewed lava near the city last week. Traffic was jammed and pedestrians streamed through the streets, desperate to escape the impending danger.

A new eruption could occur at any moment, the military governor of Congo’s North Kivu province, Lt. Gen. Constant Ndima Kongba, announced Thursday. He ordered the evacuation of 10 of the 18 neighborhoods in the city of nearly 2 million residents.

Full of fear, residents from many of the unlisted neighborhoods also fled after no warnings of Saturday’s eruption left so many in harm’s way.

The center of Goma, which was spared when the volcano erupted last week, is now under threat, with activity being reported near the urban area and Lake Kivu, Kongba said.

“Based on these scientific observations, we cannot currently rule out an eruption on land or under the lake. And this could happen with very little, or no, warning,” he said. An eruption under Lake Kivu could also have harmful consequences by leading to an explosion of gas in the lake, which could destroy parts of Goma and Gisenyi in neighboring Rwanda.

Residents were advised to carry very little and told not to return to their homes until advised by authorities. Authorities provided vehicles for the evacuations.

Many people were seen heading northwest toward the town of Sake and east toward Rwanda. International organizations such as the U.N. mission in Congo had on Wednesday already begun evacuating their staff.

Maguy Balume told The Associated Press by phone that she left her home with her two children and is heading for Sake.

“I am with my two children heading toward Sake, after leaving my home. My husband is on a mission in Kinshasa and I don’t know how I’m going to meet him,” she said. “I don’t think about my house because my family’s safety and health come first. I can build another house if I want to. I know that my God will save Goma.”



Video: Thousands evacuate DR Congo's Goma amid more volcanic activity (France 24)

Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world’s most active volcanos, turned the dark sky fiery red Saturday night and then spewed torrents of lava into villages on the outskirts of Goma destroying more than 500 homes and resulting in the deaths of more than 32 people.

Scientists at the volcano observatory weren’t able to adequately warn the public of the eruption because of a funding cut, according to the scientific director of the Volcanic Observatory of Goma, Celestin Kasereka Mahinda.

A partnership between the government and the World Bank that had supported the observatory was cut in October 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the observatory without even internet, he said. The observatory had just started to resume operations last month thanks to new funding from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, which means the observatory can at least gather data after the eruption.

Data wasn’t needed for many who felt hundreds of aftershocks this past week that have left gigantic cracks in the ground and destroyed buildings. The volcano sits about 6 miles from Goma.

“I am fleeing the volcano, I am going to Rutshuru because I have no choice,” said Alliance Simba who was leaving with her son.

Aminata Kavira, another woman evacuating, said had no idea where she would go, but grabbed her belongings and left her home.

“We knew that the situation was becoming precarious,” Kizito Alexis, a resident of Goma told AP, adding they have been told lava will likely hit their homes. “The situation is serious and all the people are leaving and I am leaving for Bukavu,” a city about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Goma.

Suzana Komayombi said the need to flee was all too familiar, as she also evacuated in 2002 before an eruption took everything she owned.

“The first time there was an eruption we lost everything, today we still take the same road as in 2002,” she said.

Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said the situation was complex and Goma faced a number of risks: increased earthquakes, another volcanic eruption, a gas explosion under the lake, and ambient environmental toxicity caused by volcanic ash.

Mount Nyiragongo’s last eruption was in 2002, leaving hundreds dead. The lava coated the airport runways and also left more than 100,000 homeless in the aftermath. The volcano also erupted in 1977, killing more than 600 people.

___

Kudra reported from Kasindi, Congo. AP writer Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo and Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal, contributed.

Justin Kabumba Katumwa And Al-hadji Kudra Maliro , The Associated Press