A resident stands outside with his belongings after a series of explosions destroyed homes and buildings in the Mpila neighbourhood of Congo Republic's capital Brazzaville March 5, 2012.
Image by: STRINGER / REUTERS
The death toll after Sunday's blasts at a Brazzaville arms depot has risen to 236, local media reported on Tuesday, with more than 2000 people wounded in the explosions and subsequent fires, believed to have been caused by an electrical short-circuit.
Emergency aid from France and Morocco arrived in Brazzaville, the capital of the oil-rich Republic of Congo, on Monday evening. Hospitals are still struggling to cope with the number of patients and blood donations are still required.
Aid agencies have provided essential items to people affected by the blasts, including soap, blankets, cooking kits and jerrycans. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said on Tuesday that members of its staff were donating their own blood.
According to Imtiaz Sooliman of South Africa-based NGO Gift of the Givers, the affected parts of Brazzaville "resemble a war zone, with thousands of homes, businesses and two churches destroyed."
"Windows shattered four kilometres away and civilians were trapped under rubble ... The paucity of resources, underdeveloped infrastructure and a legacy of civil war has compounded an already tragic situation," Sooliman told dpa.
He added that an estimated 5000 people have lost their homes as a result of Sunday's blasts. "Africans have to respond to Africa as we are faced with yet another African challenge," he said.
Security forces began pulling bodies and injured people from wreckage sites on Monday, but according to local television, the main depot is still too dangerous to enter. With hundreds of people still missing, rescuers fear that time is running out for those who may still be trapped beneath the rubble.
Speaking to local media in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, 40-year-old Brazzaville resident Louise said she had lost her two children after the blasts. She told Kinshasa-based Radio Okapi, which is separated from Brazzaville by the River Congo, that her two girls, aged four and eight, have been missing since Sunday.
Thousands of people such as Louise have been gathering in schools, offices and even Brazzaville cathedral, scanning lists of missing and found children, and looking for relatives. A special television programme has been dedicated to reuniting parents and children.
Kristalina Georgieva, a Kinshasa-based representative of the European Union - which has donated 200,000 euros in humanitarian assistance since Sunday - told Radio Okapi that the situation is "catastrophic."
"We sent experts to help assess people's needs," she said. "We are ready to send in another team who can help identify ongoing risks and assist in decontaminating the site."
- Times Live
No comments:
Post a Comment