Teodoro Obiang attributes the explosions in the Bata military arsenal to “negligence”: 17 dead

At least 17 people died this Sunday and another 420 were injured due to a chain of explosions that occurred due to “negligence” in a military barracks in Child, the most populated city and economic capital of Equatorial Guinea, informed the Government.

“The city of Bata has been the victim of an accident caused by the negligence and carelessness of the unit in charge of the care and protection of the dynamite and explosive deposits attached to the munitions of the Nkoantoma military barracks, which caught fire from the burning of the farms in its vicinity by the neighbors, “said the country’s president, Teodoro Obiang.

In the statement, read on state television TVGE, Obiang pointed out that “the shock waves from the explosions caused great damage to almost all the buildings and shops in the city of Bata” and, “considering the magnitude of the damage caused”, has requested help nationally and internationally.

The president has expressed his “deepest condolences and consternation to the families” of the deceased and his “full support and solidarity” for the injured and those who have suffered material losses.

Likewise, it has indicated that it has requested that the incident be investigated for “the total clarification of what happened and the clarification of responsibilities.”

Four explosions

At around 3 p.m. local time this Sunday, three successive explosions occurred and a fourth occurred two hours later. All of them shook the Army’s rapid intervention barracks, in the Nkoantoma neighborhood, which has an armory.

The Nkoantoma barracks are near a social housing area, and dozens of people fled the scene, several of them injured, state television showed.

“It is being a titanic company that is testing the capacity of Equatorial Guineans and the Government,” admitted the Deputy Minister of Health, Dámaso Mitoha Ondo’o, in statements to TVGE from Bata.

In the images broadcast on state television, rescue teams are seen pulling people, including children, from the rubble and victims who bleed and are treated in hospitals.

As a Spanish resident in Bata, a city in the continental part of the country with more than 300,000 inhabitants, explained to the Efe agency, there was “a huge explosion.”

“All the windows were opened,” he continued, “we have taken all the children out of the house and gone out into the garden. We have seen a column of smoke and suddenly there has been a second explosion and a little more, the last two more. weak”.

After the explosion, telecommunications were cut off and the population panicked as they were unable to contact their families by phone, although they were later reestablished.

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