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YOGYAKARTA - Volcano Merapi erupted again Monday morning sending columns of gas and black smoke thousands of feet into the air and clouds of hot ash cascading down its southern slopes.
Earlier in the morning hundreds of farmers were reportedly returning to their farms on the slopes of the mountain to bring food and water to their livestock. Security forces and local government agencies were sending trucks into the 10 kilometer exclusion zone to evacuate civilians.
Since the volcano erupted last week more than 40,000 inhabitants of villages situated on the slopes of the volcano have been evacuated to schools and community buildings outside an exclusion zone. Local NGOs, the Indonesian Red Cross and local social services are providing basic services to the IDPs.
The volcano is only one of two natural disasters to have hit Indonesia in as many weeks killing more than 500 people. The European Commission decided on Friday 29 October 2010 to provide Euro 1.5 million for emergency assistance to the survivors of the volcanic eruptions in Java and the tsunami in Sumatra.
Photo credit: Mathias Eick, EU/ECHO
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Copyright Mathias Eick, EU/ECHO
