(N’Djamena) The fire which ignited the main ammunition depot of the Chadian army and caused chain explosions during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in N’Djamena left at least nine dead and 46 injured, according to the government.
This first quantified assessment may not be definitive, because the injured are in an “extremely serious” condition, Minister of Public Health Abdelmadjid Abderahim told the press at midday.
He did not give details of the number of civilian and military victims.
“I would like to tell my compatriots that the situation is under control and to remain calm,” Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno told reporters during a visit to the site of the explosion.
“This is not the first time that there have been explosions of ammunition stores. This should give us lessons so that from now on we can no longer build a store in the middle of the city,” added the head of state who ensures that an investigation is open to determine the causes.
PHOTO JORIS BOLOMEY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Members of the Chadian security forces watch as an armored vehicle drives around the scene of a fire at an ammunition depot in N’Djamena.
According to the first elements, the origin of the disaster is “not criminal”, Abderaman Koulamallah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and government spokesperson, told AFP earlier.
For two hours, in the dead of night, countless very powerful explosions set the sky ablaze above the arsenal in the Goudji district, in the north of the Chadian capital, and shook buildings up to 6 or 7 km around, according to testimonies from AFP journalists.
Not far away, these same journalists saw gutted buildings and at least one gigantic crater within the military camp, as well as countless unexploded shells and other munitions littering the ground and charred carcasses of what looked like armored military vehicles. As if the place had been devastated by war, they testified.
“I call on the population to be calm and serene and to avoid handling any object that has landed” on their land “or in public spaces,” indicated the Minister of Regional Planning, Mahamat Assileck Halata, specifying that “miners are at work”.
“Carbonized”
Sitting on a mat in front of ruined houses, a family from the Amsinéné district, which borders Goudji, mourns the death of a six-year-old girl.
A shell fell in the child’s bedroom and took his life, a cousin of the child told AFP, without wanting to give his name. “She burned to death, we were unable to evacuate her” from the devastated house, he laments.
At the ammunition depot, “the soldiers had time to evacuate vehicles, heavy weapons, etc. and were able to take shelter themselves,” said Mr. Koulamallah.
The Goudji arsenal is located near important garrisons and the army headquarters, the Hassan Djamous international airport and the Adji Kosseï military base which houses elements of the French Forces in the Sahel (FFS) . No French soldier was injured, an FFS official assured AFP during the night, and the French base suffered no damage.
PHOTO ISRAEL MATENE, REUTERS
Army officers stand around the explosion damage after last night’s fire.
Iron hand
During the night, President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno presented his condolences to the families of the victims, without specifying the number. On Wednesday morning, his convoy rushed through the imposing security cordon deployed all around the disaster site, noted an AFP journalist.
The young 40-year-old general was elected president on May 6 with 61% of the vote in an election boycotted and contested by the opposition.
He took power on April 20, 2021, upon the death of his father, Marshal Idriss Déby Itno, killed by rebels on his way to the front after ruling Chad with an iron fist for 30 years.
Mahamat Déby was immediately named transitional president by a junta of 15 generals and led the country by repressing, sometimes very violently, all opposition before being elected head of state in an election deemed “not credible” by NGOs. international.