Drone footage broadcast on state television showed that block after block of public housing in the coastal city was completely destroyed, or that it was nearby.
“There are many children without parents,” said a teacher in Bata who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from the authorities in the strictly controlled country of Central Africa. “What are we doing in the long run (term) with those kids?”
The withdrawing government blames the explosions on fires by farmers living near the military base, and the negligent handling of dynamite supplies by the military unit guarding them.
It marked three days of national mourning on Wednesday, declared Bata a disaster area, exposed 10 billion ($ 18.19 million) CFA francs for the response and called for international aid.
Firefighters continued to comb the debris to bodies Wednesday while bystanders cried, state television showed. Authorities have appealed for donations of blood and basic goods.
A five-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of a house in the military camp where the explosion took place on Wednesday, AhoraEG media in Equato-Guinea said.
Officials were forced to turn to coolers to store bodies, said the teacher and Alfredo Okenve, a human rights activist living in exile in Europe.
Okenve said his information indicated that the death toll was between 150 and 200, significantly higher than the government’s official toll of 105.
Virgilio Seriche, an information ministry official, denied that bodies were stored in containers and said authorities were aware of the number of confirmed deaths.
“The reliable data is what the government is publishing about this incident, not what comes from other sources,” he told Reuters.
Traumatized residents
Residents of Bata are traumatized by the explosions that lasted for hours on Sunday and are afraid of additional explosions.
The first explosion “was so big that we all and the people around us shouted, ‘This is a bomb, this is a bomb!’,” The teacher said.
‘People were crying, shouting, running, trying to stay somewhere, but it was panicking. We saw police cars and firefighters and people flourishing. It was terrible. ‘
The health ministry said in a tweet that it was deploying psychiatrists and psychologists.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that the World Health Organization and the children’s agency UNICEF had mobilized teams to control infection and provide logistical support. Spain sent a first series of first aid.
It is the Central African country’s worst tragedy in recent memory, and although the government, charities and private citizens are all fed and sheltered for the time being, most of the 1.4 million people in Equatorial Guinea live in poverty.
The country is also suffering from a double economic shock as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and a drop in the price of crude oil, which generates about three-quarters of government revenue.
State media has provided wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster, including appeals to the lost children, which is a rare occurrence in a country that considers human rights activists one of the most oppressive in Africa and where bad news often be suppressed.
Okenve said the extent of the tragedy left the government with no choice.
“If information comes out, it’s because it’s impossible to control,” he said.