Nearly 200 killed, 5,000 made homeless by Congo blast

The death toll from powerful explosions at a Congo munitions dump neared 200 on Tuesday, two days after the blasts that also wounded over 1,300 people and left 5,000 homeless. The explosions, blamed on a short-circuit, flattened hundreds of houses in Brazzaville and were felt as far away as Kinshasa, the capital of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, across the Congo river.
Fire-fighters brought under control blazes that had threatened another munitions dump and the unexploded ordnance scattered across the disaster zone of debris, crumbled homes and twisted corrugated iron roofs. International aid started to pour into the central African country to assist over-stretched medical facilities, and the army began searching for unexploded munitions that had been sent flying over a wide area.
The government declared a period of national mourning from Tuesday until the victims' official funeral at a date yet to be announced. The number of dead "is close to 200", the communications minister Bienvenu Okiemy said on television Tuesday evening. Health Minister Georges Moyen earlier told reporters that 180 bodies had been taken to morgues around the city, while the number of injured was put at 1,340.
Firemen on Monday put out the last two blazes which had raged close to another munitions depots in the Mpila barracks, in the capital's east, said Colonel Jean-Robert Obargui, a spokesman for the defence ministry. "But one can't say for certain that a munitions' depot, about 100 metres (yards) from the one that exploded, no longer presents a risk," he said.
The post-explosion blaze at the first depot had threatened to spread to the second dump, according to the military. An operation to make all munitions safe was to start Tuesday, Obargui said. "It's all about defusing and removing the munitions from where they are and taking them out of town to destroy them," he said. The operation would be aided by the Mines Advisory Group, a British non-governmental organisation that specialises in the clearance of landmines and other unexploded ordnance.