DR Congo: Prime Minister on post-volcano eruption visit to Goma city

Congolese Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde's plane touched down in Goma international airport on Saturday afternoon.

A momentous mark of its reopening after having been closed since May 23.

Only two weeks after the devastating volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo near the eastern city in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lukonde went directly to Goma city from the airport as he is at the head of a ministerial team to take stock of the situation by meeting local officials and reinforce state intervention for humanitarian aid.

Thirty-two people died from lava burns or asphyxiation after the volcanic spurt on May 22-23, and two people died in accidents during the evacuation ordered by regional authorities.

Roughly 400,000 out of an estimated 600,000 residents left the North Kivu provincial capital following a brief but powerful one-day eruption of the stratovolcano -- which spans nearly 3,500 metres high and straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.