Explosions at Equatorial Guinea military base devastate Bata

Equatorial Guinea

Dynamite explosions at military base devastate Bata

At around 2 p.m. on Sunday March 7, three huge blasts and a series of smaller explosions from the Nkoantoma Military Base levelled much of Equatorial Guinea’s largest city and sent thousands of people fleeing into the countryside.

The first explosion “was so big that all of us and the people around us were shouting: ‘This is a bomb, this is a bomb!’” said a teacher in Bata, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the authorities in the tightly-controlled central African country.

Preliminary analysis of satellite images from the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) suggests 243 structures were completely destroyed by the explosions.

Damaged structures near explosions

ATL ANTIC OCEAN

Bata

Nkoantoma Military Base

243 structures were damaged or completely destroyed within and surrounding the camp

1km

Equatorial

Guinea

Nkoantoma Military Base 243 structures were damaged or completely destroyed within and surrounding the camp

ATL ANTIC OCEAN

Bata

1km

Equatorial

Guinea

Preliminary imagery analysis from UNOSAT not yet validated in the field.

Three days on, residents of Bata were still coming to grips with the full scale of a disaster that has killed at least 105 people and injured more than 600. A total of 482 people had been discharged from hospitals but many remained untreated.

Satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies via Reuters and preliminary analysis by UNOSAT show the obliteration of buildings on the base, the destruction of other nearby structures and scorched vegetation.

Satellite image analysis of Nkoantoma Military Base

Potential blast epicentre

Maxar satellite images from two days after the explosion show what is believed to the epicentre of the blast, according to the United Nation’s preliminary assessment.

After the blast

March 9, 2021

February 17, 2019

The satellite images also show the completely destroyed structures on the military base.

Outside of the barracks completely destroyed structures were also detected.

Potential blast epicentre

Maxar satellite images from two days after the explosion show what is believed to the epicentre of the blast, according to the United Nation’s preliminary assessment.

After the blast

March 9, 2021

February 17, 2019

The satellite images also show the completely destroyed structures on the military base.

Outside of the barracks completely destroyed structures were also detected.

Potential blast epicentre

Maxar satellite images from two days after the explosion show what is believed to the epicentre of the blast, according to the United Nation’s preliminary assessment.

February 17, 2019

March 9, 2021 after the explosions

The satellite images also show the completely destroyed structures on the military base.

Outside of the barracks completely destroyed structures were also detected.

Potential blast epicentre

Maxar satellite images from two days after the explosion show what is believed to the epicentre of the blast, according to the United Nation’s preliminary assessment.

February 17, 2019

After the blast March 9, 2021

The satellite images also show the completely destroyed structures on the military base.

Outside of the barracks completely destroyed structures were also detected.

The military camp where dynamite and other explosives were stored was originally built far from the city, according to a Reuters analysis of historical satellite images. But Bata expanded and Nkoantoma Military Base was in a densely populated area when the explosions went off.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said it was an accident caused by negligent handling of dynamite. The explosions, he added, damaged almost all homes and buildings in Bata, a city of just over 250,000 people.

Locally captured scenes of the blast

Images of the devastation at Nkoantoma Military Base stitched together from Equatorial Guinean state television channel TVGE footage via Reuters.

The government said the military unit guarding dynamite had been negligent in handling the explosives, and also blamed the explosions on fires set by farmers living nearby.

Obiang said Equatorial Guinean courts will lead an investigation into the explosion, but campaign group Human Rights Watch has called for an independent and international inquiry.

How the blast compares

In Lebanon last year, at least 190 people died when a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate, stored unsafely for years, detonated at Beirut’s port. From 1979 to 2019 almost 30,000 casualties were recorded from unplanned explosions at munitions sites resulting from incidents, according to the Small Arms Survey.

Incidents per year of accidental explosion of stockpiles of ammunition and explosives at storage sites since 1979

37

33

35

30

29

25

15

5

0

1979

1984

1988

1992

1997

2003

2011

2016

2019

Casualties per year recorded from unplanned explosions at munition sites

7,416

6,000

3,974

4,000

2,699

2,369

1,686

2,000

945

922

870

495

524

407

641

444

394

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2019

How Bata and Beirut death tolls compare to explosions at munitions sites

Lagos, Nigeria

6,500 deaths

Brazzaville, Congo Rep.

3,777

Beirut, Lebanon

191

Bata,

Eq. Guinea

105

2019

2021

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Incidents per year of accidental explosion of stockpiles of ammunition and explosives at storage sites since 1979

37

33

35

30

29

25

15

5

0

1979

1984

1988

1992

1997

2003

2011

2016

2019

Casualties per year recorded from unplanned explosions at munition sites

7,416

6,000

3,974

4,000

2,699

2,369

1,686

2,000

945

922

870

495

524

407

641

444

394

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2019

How Bata and Beirut death tolls compare to explosions at munitions sites

Lagos, Nigeria

6,500 deaths

Brazzaville, Congo Rep.

3,777

Beirut, Lebanon

191

Bata,

Eq. Guinea

105

2019

2021

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Incidents per year of accidental explosion of stockpiles of ammunition and explosives at storage sites since 1979

37

33

35

30

29

25

15

5

0

1997

1979

2003

2011

2019

Casualties per year recorded from unplanned explosions at munition sites

7.4k

6,000

3.9k

4,000

2.7k

2.4k

1.6k

2,000

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

How Bata and Beirut death tolls compare

to explosions at munitions sites

Bata,

Eq. Guinea

105

Brazzaville,

Congo Rep.

3,777

Lagos, Nigeria

6,500 deaths

Beirut,

Lebanon

191

2020

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

It is the Central African country’s worst tragedy in recent memory, and while the government, charitable organisations and private citizens have kept everyone fed and sheltered for now, most of Equatorial Guinea’s 1.4 million people live in poverty.

Sources

United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT); Maxar Technologies via Reuters; Datawrapper; Small Arms Survey; Ministry of Public Health of Lebanon; Reuters

By

Michael Ovaska and Samuel Granados

Additional reporting by

Aaron Ross

Edited by

Jon McClure, Andrew Heavens