At Least 17 People Dead, 420 Injured After Explosions Hit Equatorial Guinea’s Bata, Authorities Say
According to local media reports, a series of 5 explosions shook the city with a small interval of time in between each one, with the first blast occurring at around 2 pm local time. Authorities evacuated the houses around the base as the detonations continued, although with progressively less impact.
At least 17 people died and 420 were injured in the explosions that occurred on Sunday at a military base in Equatorial Guinea’s biggest city, the Ministry of Health data revealed.
The incident occurred in the port city of Bata, in the northwest of the country. Emergency and rescue services reportedly took the victims away from the site.
Local media also shared the country’s president Teodoro Obiang’s statement on the accident, in which he said that the explosions were triggered by “negligence and carelessness” in handling dynamite deposits.
“…the city of Bata has been the victim of an accident caused by the negligence and carelessness of the Unit in Charge of Care and Protection of the Dynamite and Explosive Deposits attached to the ammunition depots of the Nkoatama Military Barracks, which caught fire from the burning of the farms in their vicinity by the neighbors, eventually exploding the dynamite, explosives and ammunition depots,” the statement reads.
