Earthquake Kills Several People in Congo
By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
21 minutes ago
NAIROBI, Kenya - A powerful earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East Africa on Monday, toppling dozens of homes in a Congolese town and burying children in the rubble, aid workers said. Several people were reported killed.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, struck at 2:20 p.m. (7:20 a.m. EST) and was centered near the Congo-Tanzania border, about 600 miles southwest of the Kenyan capital, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.
"Dozens of houses have collapsed, several children were buried by the roofs of their houses," said Jean-Donne Owali, a Congolese humanitarian worker in the lakeside town of Kalemie, Congo, about 35 miles from the epicenter.
"Injured people have been sent to local hospitals," Owali told The Associated Press by telephone. He said he saw children at one clinic bleeding from head injuries after their mud-and-thatch homes collapsed on them.
U.N. spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux said an unknown number of people were killed by collapsing houses and roofs, but exact figures were not immediately available. The desperately poor region has camps for tens of thousands of refugees from wars and economic collapse in Congo and Burundi.
The quake also sent panicked people running from buildings in Kigoma, the main Tanzanian transport hub on the shores of Lake Tanganyika about 90 miles from the epicenter, said regional commissioner Elmon Mahawa. He said there were no immediate reports of casualties in the town.
The USGS said the quake was located about six miles below the surface, and shook the ground in Nairobi and the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa. It was also felt on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, and in Tanzanian towns bordering Zambia and Malawi, Tanzania's meteorological chief Mohamed Mhita said by phone from the country's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
Henri Burgard, U.N. spokesman in the Congolese town of Uvira, said the quake lasted 30 seconds. "The buildings shook quite strongly. We have no reports of deaths so far," he said.
In Bujumbura, the capital of the central African nation of Burundi, an Associated Press reporter felt the three-story building sway in two waves of the quake.
The region is located along the Great Rift Valley, which runs for 3,000 miles between Syria and Mozambique.
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Associated Press reporters Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya, and Aloys Niyoyita in Bujumbura, Burundi, contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051205/ap_on_re_af/east_africa_earthquake
By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
21 minutes ago
NAIROBI, Kenya - A powerful earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East Africa on Monday, toppling dozens of homes in a Congolese town and burying children in the rubble, aid workers said. Several people were reported killed.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, struck at 2:20 p.m. (7:20 a.m. EST) and was centered near the Congo-Tanzania border, about 600 miles southwest of the Kenyan capital, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.
"Dozens of houses have collapsed, several children were buried by the roofs of their houses," said Jean-Donne Owali, a Congolese humanitarian worker in the lakeside town of Kalemie, Congo, about 35 miles from the epicenter.
"Injured people have been sent to local hospitals," Owali told The Associated Press by telephone. He said he saw children at one clinic bleeding from head injuries after their mud-and-thatch homes collapsed on them.
U.N. spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux said an unknown number of people were killed by collapsing houses and roofs, but exact figures were not immediately available. The desperately poor region has camps for tens of thousands of refugees from wars and economic collapse in Congo and Burundi.
The quake also sent panicked people running from buildings in Kigoma, the main Tanzanian transport hub on the shores of Lake Tanganyika about 90 miles from the epicenter, said regional commissioner Elmon Mahawa. He said there were no immediate reports of casualties in the town.
The USGS said the quake was located about six miles below the surface, and shook the ground in Nairobi and the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa. It was also felt on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, and in Tanzanian towns bordering Zambia and Malawi, Tanzania's meteorological chief Mohamed Mhita said by phone from the country's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
Henri Burgard, U.N. spokesman in the Congolese town of Uvira, said the quake lasted 30 seconds. "The buildings shook quite strongly. We have no reports of deaths so far," he said.
In Bujumbura, the capital of the central African nation of Burundi, an Associated Press reporter felt the three-story building sway in two waves of the quake.
The region is located along the Great Rift Valley, which runs for 3,000 miles between Syria and Mozambique.
___
Associated Press reporters Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya, and Aloys Niyoyita in Bujumbura, Burundi, contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051205/ap_on_re_af/east_africa_earthquake
