10 killed by explosions at Dar armoury
By VINCENT MNYANYIKA and ZEPHANIA UBWANI Posted Wednesday, April 29 2009 at 20:19
More than 10 people, among them five soldiers, were killed on Wednesday in bomb explosions at Tanzania's Mbagala military base. According to Red Cross personnel, about seven people were found dead at the site while three bodies were counted at the Temeke Municipal Hospital which had more than 100 injured victims admitted.
More than 300 victims were also admitted at a specially created space at Mbagala Saba Saba. The bomb explosions from four out of 11 armouries at the 671 camp of the Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF) caused panic and paralysed activities for about six hours.
The explosions destroyed houses forcing people to flee. More than 200 children were reported missing. Some of the injured were taken to Temeke District Hospital as the Tanzanian government called for calm. The deputy minister for Defence and National Service, Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi, told reporters that everything was being done to bring the situation under control.
Dr Nchimbi, who was attending the East African Community heads of state summit at a lodge outside Arusha, flew to Dar es Salaam to attend to the crisis. The Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), General Davis Mwamunyange, confirmed bombs had exploded at an army base in Mbagala but could not shed more light on what triggered the explosions.
"I have just heard that bombs have exploded. As we are speaking now, I have already ordered a contingency of bomb experts to go and start investigating what went wrong," he said.
Three camps
At that time, Gen Mwamunyange was also not certain as to which army base the explosions had occurred as there are three army camps in Mbagala suburb. Unconfirmed sources said that the minister for Defence and National Service, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, was outside Dar es Salaam during the explosions which occurred at Mbagala armouries from around 11.45am.
He said President Jakaya Kikwete, who was attending the Arusha summit at the time of his press conference, had been adequately briefed and was concerned about the situation. Dr Nchimbi urged people living close to the TPDF installations to keep off the area and to avoid collecting strange metallic objects.
News of the explosions reached Arusha as the five EAC heads of state - President Kikwete, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni - were consulting before the summit.
Source; Daily Nation