Congolese who fled Africa's most destructive volcanic eruption in 25 years have begun going home despite the arrival of foreign help, risking everything on the chance that no more lava will engulf their ruined home town.
Braving violent earth tremors, a growing tide of Congolese among more than 300,000 who left the eastern town of Goma on Thursday started returning late last night, saying they did not want to become refugees in Rwanda and anyway there was little aid there to obtain.
"We've only seen damage in one part of the town," said Goma resident Mr Zaza Lwango, who fled to the Rwandan town of Gisenyi because of the three-day-old eruption of Mount Nyiragongo.
"Compared with what we're facing in Rwanda, it's better to go back home," he added.
Scores of vehicles headed for Goma through a landscape shrouded in smoke carrying thousands of homeless Congolese seeking to assess the destruction in the lakeside port.
Returnees will have to cope with a tide of steaming lava that plowed through the town, razing thousands of homes and killing dozens of people, and plunged into Lake Kivu.
UN officials said they were encouraging refugees to mass at two camps some 12 miles from Gisenyi, where they could be more easily provided with shelter, supplies and sanitation.
Mr David Stevenson, the field co-ordinator of the UN emergency food arm in the area, said refugees were returning to Goma during moments of calm, but others felt safer trudging toward the camps.
"The volcano hasn't decided what it wants to do," Mr Stevenson said. "The best case scenario is to have them in a more orderly manner in camps."
"The situation is looking quieter," said Mr Alain Lapierre, program director for the Save the Children Charity in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"It all depends on the volcano," he said.
The evidence from the 11,380 foot mountain, rated one of Africa's most dangerous volcanoes, was ambiguous.
Rwandan volcanologist Mr Dieudonne Wafula, who flew over Nyiragongo yesterday, said the pressure of the lava stream was falling and several flows from the mountain had now stopped.
"The danger has not gone away completely, but there's no risk of an imminent eruption," he said. "There is one lava jet, but the pressure is falling."
Earlier, orange magma welled up from a 1,600-foot long fissure on the mountainside and poured through Goma to Lake Kivu, as it has done for three days, sending up clouds of steam for several hundred meters along the shore.
Cracks also opened up in the Rwanda town of Gisenyi, and at least one house collapsed when strong tremors shook the town.
Emergency aid has begun began to flow, but substantial quantities of food and fresh water have yet to arrive.
UN officials said they had distributed biscuits and water to some of an estimated 300,000 refugees on the Rwandan side of the border. But it appeared a modest effort in view of the scale of the emergency, and officials acknowledged that the overwhelming majority would face a third night without shelter.
Most of Goma's estimated half a million population appears to have fled eastwards into Rwanda. Another 100,000 are believed by aid workers to have escaped westwards, some of them taking boats to Bukavu on the southern tip of Lake Kivu.
Wildlife experts said many wild animals in nearby forests were likely to be harmed by the torrent of lava, ash and sulphurous gas pouring from the mountain's fissures.
However endangered gorillas that inhabit the region are unlikely to be hurt as they do not live on Nyiragongo's slopes.
