At least 20 people have been killed and more than 600 injured in a series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea.
The explosions were due to the ‘negligent handling of dynamite’, according to a statement from President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, which was read on TVGE. He said the explosions took place at 16:00 in the barracks near Mondong Nkuantoma in Bata. He said the impact had damaged almost all the buildings in the country’s capital.
The Ministry of Defense on Sunday declared that a fire in an arms depot in the barracks caused the explosion of high-caliber ammunition. It is said that the preliminary toll was 20 dead and 600 injured, adding that the cause of the explosions will be fully investigated.
State television showed a large plume of smoke rising above the blast site, presumably from at least five explosions, as the crowd fled, with people shouting: ‘We do not know what happened, but everything was destroyed. ‘
Images in local media showed people screaming and running through the streets surrounded by rubble and smoke. Roofs of houses were ripped off and wounded people were taken to a hospital.
The Ministry of Health tweeted that workers were treating the injured at the scene of the tragedy and in medical facilities, but feared people were still buried under the rubble.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice president in charge of defense and security, appeared on the scene at the scene of the explosions investigating the damage, accompanied by his Israeli bodyguards.
Teodorin, as he is known, is increasingly seen as the president’s designated successor in the oil-rich Central African nation.
Bata is the largest city, with about 800,000 inhabitants of the country’s 1.4 million inhabitants – most in poverty. While sitting on the mainland, the capital is Malabo on Bioko, one of the country’s islands off the West African coast.
Equatorial Guinea has been ruled by 78-year-old Obiang Nguema for almost 42 years. Opposition figures and international organizations regularly accuse him of human rights violations.
A doctor calling TVGE, who named Florentino by his first name, said the explosions were a ‘moment of crisis’ and that hospitals were overcrowded. He said a sports center set up for Covid-19 patients would be used to receive less serious cases.
Broadcaster Radio Macuto said on Twitter that people were evacuated after 4 km outside the city because the fumes could be harmful.
Following the blast, the Spanish embassy in Equatorial Guinea on Twitter recommended that Spanish citizens “stay in their homes”.
Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report