Congo Earthquake

BBC news reported on the earthquake in DR Congo near Lake Tanganyika and the Tanzanian border on Monday 5 December, but no further news or updates have been added. The shocks were felt in Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, and by the Indian Ocean. Hundreds fled in panic from offices in Nairobi, 1000Km from the epicentre. The quake hit with a 6.8 magnitude at 1219GMT, the US Geological Survey said. East Africa's Great Rift Valley runs along a geological fault line, but has largely escaped major quakes in recent years. The epicentre is about 90 miles from Kigoma where we briefly spent some time on our way to a refugee camp. BBC aricle is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4499938.stm We understand that the Rema guys in Bujumbura, Burundi are OK and have not been personally affected by it, but there have been some fatalities. In DR Congo, eyewitness reports from Kalimie say it has been “an incredibly difficult and frightening time” for the people of Kalemie, the town nearest the epicentre. CMS are reporting that over 300 hundred houses fell down. Six people died. There was a strong wind off Lake Tanganyika causing major damage to houses; some collapsed, roofs come off. Many people are now homeless.

You could ask why there has been so little coverage of this event in the media, there are probably two main reasons; western media know that there will be little interest from the public - not many of us have friends, relations or business interests there. Also, there is little infrastructure so news will only get out slowly. it is interesting that this is still the case despite ubiquitous mobile phones, internet access in even the remotest of places. By the time movies and eyewitness reports reach the mainstream media, the news has moved on and lost interest.

Deepa Verma Jivram at the Sunday Monitor in Uganda has an interesting article looking at earthquakes in the region. http://www.monitor.co.ug/sunday/oped/oped12115.php