Congo blasts kills at least 200 People

Series of large explosions kills at least 200 people in Brazzaville and shatters windows across the Congo river in Kinshasa



At least 200 people have been killed and many more injured in a series of explosions in the capital of Congo-Brazzaville, according to a senior presidency official.
"According to sources at the central hospital we're talking of around 200 dead and many injured," said Betu Bangana, the head of protocol in the president's office in Brazzaville.
The blasts took place on Sunday after a fire started in an arms depot at a military base.
Panic spread from Brazzaville across the Congo river to Kinshasa, where windows were shattered by the force of the blasts. The river separates the former French colony of Congo-Brazzaville from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Both governments called for calm and there was no immediate suspicion of anything but an accident. Congo-Brazzaville is one of sub-SaharanAfrica's top oil producers.
State radio quoted the country's defence minister, Charles Zacharie Bowao, as saying the explosions had been caused by a fire in the arms depot in the Regiment Blinde base in the riverside Mpila neighbourhood.
China's Xinhua news agency cited Chinese officials as saying three Chinese workers had been killed and dozens injured in the explosion.
A witness in Brazzaville said residents had fled the area, which was sealed off by the security forces as a military helicopter flew overhead.
Fleeing residents said houses had been flattened.
"I saw someone being carried to hospital with their intestines hanging out. They had been hit by a shell," one witness said as he was leaving the area.
Television images showed panic-stricken people on the streets of neighbourhoods near the site of the explosions, and injured people being rushed to hospital or being given first aid on the streets.
There were also pictures of crowded hospitals where doctors said they were selecting those who were seriously injured to have immediate surgery.
Health authorities appealed for all medical personnel living in Brazzaville to rush to the city's hospitals.
A mass in Brazzaville's cathedral, about 2.5 miles away, was cut short as the building shook.
"I heard at least five or six good-sized explosions, which blew out the windows and brought down half the ceiling in our hotel," said Patrick Mair, an analyst with Control Risks in Brazzaville.
The main blasts were followed by a series of smaller ones. Hours after the main explosions, a plume of grey smoke still hung over the city, a witness in Kinshasa said.
Congo-Brazzaville has suffered coups and a civil war since it gained independence from France in 1960. It has been mostly peaceful, however, since President Denis Sassou-Nguesso took power in a 1997 coup.

hii kitu inasikitisha sana kwa vile na sisi hapa TZ imetokea siku sio nyingi.

Cha kusikitisha zaidi ni kuwa hivi vifaa (mabomu) yamezigharimu pesa nyingi sana nchi zetu kuyanunua. Laiti hizo pesa zingelielekezwa katika ujenzi wa barabara, shule, maji, afya nk maisha ya wananchi wa kawaida yangelikuwa nafuu sana kulinganisha na sasa hivi.

Kwa kifupi 10% ndio kama hizo tunazosikia ...Trillion 3 kwenye akaunti ya mtu mmoja, Meremeta na mengineyo!

Hizi ni baadhi ya picha za hilo tukio nilizotumiwa na rafiki yangu aliyeko huko Congo Brazzaville, baadhi ni vigumu kuziangalia lakini hakuna jinsi. Ilipotokea hapa taarifa nyingi za wahanga wa milipuko hazikuwa sahihi sana!
Some pictures related disaster in Congo B

omujubi said:

hii kitu inasikitisha sana kwa vile na sisi hapa TZ imetokea siku sio nyingi.

Cha kusikitisha zaidi ni kuwa hivi vifaa (mabomu) yamezigharimu pesa nyingi sana nchi zetu kuyanunua. Laiti hizo pesa zingelielekezwa katika ujenzi wa barabara, shule, maji, afya nk maisha ya wananchi wa kawaida yangelikuwa nafuu sana kulinganisha na sasa hivi.

Kwa kifupi 10% ndio kama hizo tunazosikia ...Trillion 3 kwenye akaunti ya mtu mmoja, Meremeta na mengineyo!

Hizi ni baadhi ya picha za hilo tukio nilizotumiwa na rafiki yangu aliyeko huko Congo Brazzaville, baadhi ni vigumu kuziangalia lakini hakuna jinsi. Ilipotokea hapa taarifa nyingi za wahanga wa milipuko hazikuwa sahihi sana!
Some pictures related disaster in Congo B

Click to expand...

Kwetu imeshatokea mbagala....its same shit...happen in congo brazaville...keeping in congested store for too long...

African countrys now it's the time to say no, of purchasing ammunition from china. His cheap, but
several times was costing a lot of innocents peoples lifes, and their property. Special in Tanzania and
the rest countrys of Africa, china still has a very low technology, and is in a very high country for the
copying technology in the world, and any copying technology must be missed some of the important
and secret hitech contain. So we can accept to all type of goods from china but not ammunition,
special all those type of bombs not to buy, for that reason Tanzania we will remain safe and without any
threats of bombs blasting and kill people to our suburbans area. Kikwete think again.