China expresses concern about Congo volcano eruption
( 2002-01-23 11:24 ) (8 )

China is greatly concerned about the disaster caused by the volcano eruption last week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi when asked about the Chinese government's attitude.

The Nyiragongo volcano in the eastern part of the DRC erupted last week, causing severe damage to the city of Goma and leading to a huge exodus of people into Rwanda.

Sun said that Chinese President Jiang Zemin sent a message to his DRC counterpart, Josef Kabila, expressing deep sympathy to the DRC government and people and sincere condolences to those who have lost family members.

Meanwhile, said Sun, the Chinese government has decided to provide the DRC government and the Rwandan government each with emergency goods worth one million yuan (over 120,000 US dollars) to aid those disaster-hit people.