CYANGUGU, Rwanda (AFP) — The earth shook and the Rwandan congregation, who had been in the middle of prayers, looked upward to see the heavy wooden frame of their church come crashing down.
At least 10 people were killed in the church in the small town of Shangi, one of the worst hit districts from the two big earthquakes that struck Central Africa on Sunday.
The biggest quake struck as many churches were packed for Sunday services and several collapsed under the force. At least 43 people were killed and more than 450 injured in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"We felt heavy shaking. Part of the roof timbers fell on the women's side, and I was hit on the chest and head," said 20-year-old Dative Mukanyhita who was inside the Shangi church.
She just remembers the cries, the incomprehension and the clamour of the wooden beams engulfing the congregation. Her brother, seated in the men's section, left unscathed. "Praise be to God", added the girl, whose swollen face is partially covered by bandages.
"It was the parishioners who got me out of the rubble. Then the Red Cross arrived," she said.
Like dozens of the injured, Dative was brought the two-hour journey to the Gihundwe general hospital in Cyangugu -- a lakeside city near the border with the DR Congo.
Roman Catholics are the dominant religion in the region and most were in mass on Sunday morning when quake measuring 6.0 on the open-ended Richter scale hit.
Salima Mukamugwere, 42, sat at the bedside of her 10-year-old son Idie will be saved. Idie was at Kamende Koranic school, near Cyangugu, where most of the city's Muslim children attend. He was trampled by the crowd as it rushed out of the school, fearing the building would collapse.
"I took him home but he had difficulty breathing. I called the Red Cross who came to fetch him. I have hope, because the care is free. And the government promised that if he is not okay, he will be evacuated to Kigali," she said.
Dozens of patients have already been evacuated by army helicopters to the general hospital in Kigali, according to Prince Byadunia, a doctor from Gihundwe hospital.
"Here, we do not keep those who are seriously injured," said Byadunia. Ten people who could not be moved died at the hospital on Sunday.
Two officers and the provincial governor are discreetly present in the hospital corridors, reassuring patients who see them as a sign the government is mobilising.
The relief effort has been well-supervised and organised. The Red Cross, which distributed emergency kits including soap and blankets, was waiting Monday for the authorities to double-check the list of beneficiaries so they could hand out more relief.
In the streets, businesses and banks have re-opened and people were clearing debris from the front of their homes. A lot say there have been more deaths in Rwanda than in neighbouring Congo, because there are more permanent houses in the former.
"Here, we have a state that helps us," said a passerby, who thinks the damage will disappear much more quickly in Cyangugu than in nearby Bukavu in the DR Congo, where authorities on Monday were still evaluating damage and the victims' needs.
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