At least 20 dead and 600 injured in military warehouse explosions in Equatorial Guinea

At least 20 dead and 600 injured left four accidental explosions of arms and ammunition depots on Sunday in a military camp in Equatorial Guinea, literally razing several residential neighborhoods.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled this small Central African country for nearly 42 years, accused farmers of allowing agricultural fires to spread and of “neglecting” the military responsible for guarding the arsenal.

In an impressive radius around this military camp in Bata, the economic capital, several houses and buildings were destroyed and the streets were strewn with enormous rubble for hundreds of meters., according to the images of the public television station TVGE.

Many children, women, men and the elderly fled – sometimes aided by others or limping – from a dark landscape, shrouded in thick clouds of smoke and dust after at least four terrifying explosions.

In a hospital in Bata, many injured, some on the ground and with serum, received first aid in a chaotic environment, according to TVGE footage.

“The town of Bata was the victim of an accident caused by the negligence of the unit responsible for guarding the dynamite, explosives and ammunition depots of the Nkoa Ntoma military camp, which caught fire due to the fires caused in the fields by farmers who eventually caught fire. blow up these deposits successivelyExplained Obiang Nguema, who at 78 is the living president who has been in power for the longest time.

Nguema mentioned 17 dead and 500 injured but the Defense Ministry updated the toll: at least 20 dead and 600 injured.

According to a statement from this portfolio, “explosions (…) of large caliber ammunition “caused” shock waves which completely destroyed many neighboring houses“.

The city of Bata is home to about 800,000 of the approximately 1.4 million inhabitants of this small country rich in oil and gas, but where the majority of the population is poor.

The military camp in the Nkoa Ntoma district houses members of the special forces and the gendarmerie.

According to a tweet from the Ministry of Health, many residents of the surrounding neighborhoods must be under the rubble of their houses or buildings. TVGE showed footage of civilians and firefighters digging children and adults out of concrete and scrap piles.

The Head of State ordered an investigation and “called on the international community to support Equatorial Guinea in these even more difficult times due to the conjunction of the economic crisis due to the fall in oil prices and the pandemic of covid-19. “.

For hours, it was difficult, if not impossible, to communicate by phone between the port of Bata and the capital, Malabo., which is located on the island of Bioko.

TVGE footage showed Vice President for Defense and Security Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, nicknamed Teodorin, the president’s son and believed to be his dolphin, walking through the rubble alongside a handful of his usual Israeli bodyguards.

Equatorial Guinea is one of the most hermetic countries on the African continent. Opponents and international organizations accuse Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s regime of committing human rights violations.

Malabo claims to have foiled a coup attempt in December 2017 for which the courts sentenced, on June 1, 2019, 130 people to between 3 and 96 years in prison, half of them in absentia.

The authorities accuse a group of foreign mercenaries of having wanted to attack, on December 24, 2017, the head of state who was in one of his palaces near the borders that the country shares with Gabon and Cameroon.. On the 27th, the Cameroonian police arrested around 30 armed men at the border. Malabo accused them of being the leaders of the attempted coup.

With information from AFP

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