BRAZZAVILLE - Around 200 people, including four Chinese workers, have been killed and many more injured in a series of explosions in Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic, according to a senior official in the presidency, citing hospital sources.
"According to sources at the central hospital we're talking of around 200 dead and many injured," Betu Bangana, head of protocol in the president's office in Brazzaville, told Reuters by telephone.
Congolese officials earlier said the blasts occurred after a fire started in an arms depot in a military base in the riverside capital.
Xinhua News Agency, quoting the Chinese embassy in Brazzaville, said four Chinese, who belonged to the Beijing Construction Engineering Group, were killed and dozens were injured in the explosions.
Around 130 staff of the company were working on the nearby construction site when the blasts hit the munitions depot, Duan Jinzhu of Chinese embassy said.
About 80 Chinese workers have been transferred to safe areas, Duan added.
The powerful blasts also shattered the windows of the Xinhua bureau office and severely damaged the dormitory of Huawei, a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company.
The explosions shook houses in Brazzaville and echoed across the Congo River to the capital of the neighboring country.
Didier Boutsindi of the presidential office said the explosions killed an untold number of people, including churchgoers who were killed in the debris of the collapsed building.
"Many of the faithful are trapped in the debris of the church," he said. "Several of the dead have been taken out and I confirm there are more deaths inside."
He said his uncle was killed when his home collapsed on him.
"It's like a tsunami passed through here," said Christine Ibata, a student.
Defense Minister Charles Zacharie Boawo appeared on national television on Sunday to urge calm in Brazzaville and in the neighboring capital of Kinshasa.
Witnesses said the explosions came from the north of the city and that the impact of the blasts threw open doors of houses in the city center. The explosions also prompted some residents of the northern part of the city to flee south.
Hardest hit was the neighborhood of Mpila, according to government authorities, where many houses and buildings were flattened.
The Mines Advisory Group, or MAG, which was working with authorities to deal with the crisis, said Monday that the blasts scattered ammunition across the city, and that the munitions were continuing to explode, causing more fatalities.
“The location means that this explosion is devastating, involving a huge number of casualties and enormous damage to the area," said Lionel Cattaneo, a MAG official in Brazzaville, in a statement. He added that it was critical to work quickly to avoid more loss of life.
"Educating people about the risks, and removing and destroying these deadly items, are of critical concern," Cattaneo said. "We have the full support of the Republic of Congo government and have teams responding as a matter of urgency to help avoid further loss of life.”
According to a Small Arms Survey briefing paper last November, 210 people were killed last year in Africa by explosions at munitions depots. There were 35 explosions internationally, the most serious a March blast in Yemen that killed 150. The next most serious incident last year was a July blast in Turkmenistan that killed 100.
It's a global problem: From 1998 to October 2011 there were 38 similar incidents in Africa, along with 57 in Eastern Europe and 138 in Asia.
The problem is exacerbated when huge munitions depots are located in crowded urban settings, in particular African or Asian cities. An incident in 2002 in Lagos, Nigeria, killed about 1,000.
“The suffering and damage caused by these incidents underlines the importance of storing munitions safely and also the importance of providing states with the technical support that can enable them to do so," Mines Advisory Group director Nick Roseveare said in a statement. “It’s far easier to avoid these incidents than to deal with the deadly fall out."
People crowded outside the Brazzaville city morgue and a major hospital Sunday and Monday, searching for missing relatives.
5 March 2012
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-03/05/content_14755075.htm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/aftermore-than-200-died-in-sundays-devastating-blasts-at-a-munitions-depot-in-the-republic-of-congo-capital-brazzaville-mor.html
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