KAMPALA, Uganda – Hundreds of rescue workers and volunteers scattered through devastated neighborhoods in Equatorial Guinea’s largest city on Monday, looking for survivors the day after a series of massive explosions broke out in the Central African country.
Television footage showed trucks, taxis, vans and ambulances crossing the port city of Bata, carrying people injured in Sunday’s blasts. The explosions were triggered by dynamite improperly stored at a military base near the Atlantic coast, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said on Sunday.
On Monday, the clinics were without beds, according to state media. The country’s Ministry of Health said the confirmed death toll had risen to 98, with more than 600 hospitalized. Authorities said they expect the death toll to rise.
The explosion drew comparisons to the massive Lebanon explosion in the port of Beirut in August, which left 210 people dead and caused about $ 15 billion in material damage, and the 2002 explosion at an arms depot in Lagos, Nigeria, which killed more than 1,000 people
The Equatorial Guinea disaster is a major test for Obiang, the oldest president in the world. On Monday, the main opposition party accused him of dealing poorly with the crisis, which he said was revealing the poor state of the oil-rich country’s health system. The small country of 1.5 million people, home to Africa’s third largest crude oil reserve, has been plagued by years of widespread corruption under the Obiang government, which has been in power since 1979, when Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. United.
Oil revenues – and their small population – propelled the nation to rank among the countries with the highest per capita income on the continent, although economists and human rights groups have long said that the majority of residents live on less than US $ 2 a day. Poor management and corruption left the country unprepared for the drop in oil prices last year, according to Human Rights Watch.
“Seeing the wounded arriving in taxis and vans, without ambulances, is a sufficient indicator that Equatorial Guinea is in terrible hands,” said the main opposition party, Convergence for Social Democracy. “There is no government.”
Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Health said the government sent a team of psychiatrists to assist people who suffered trauma following the explosions, which started on Sunday afternoon and continued until late at night. The government has not responded to concerns raised by the opposition about providing shelter for the large number of people whose homes have been destroyed.
In 2019, the country applied to the International Monetary Fund for a $ 280 million bailout loan, receiving criticism from human rights groups that the country is too rich to deserve the loan. Equatorial Guinea has a per capita income of more than $ 10,000, higher than that of countries like Brazil and China, according to the World Bank.
Officials in Switzerland, the United States, South Africa and France have investigated Obiang about corruption, claiming that the president and close allies have diverted hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds, in a country where about half a million people remain in poverty. In 2019, Swiss authorities seized and auctioned about 25 supercars, owned by Teodorin Obiang Nguema, son of President Obiang, defense minister and apparent heir.
Obiang has faced increasing pressure from international human rights groups and creditors to eradicate corruption, with little success. Its army, made up of about 1,500 military personnel, is poorly trained and ill-equipped, and Obiang has resorted to foreign troops to reinforce his personal security.
In the past three years, Uganda has maintained about 300 soldiers in Equatorial Guinea, providing security for Obiang and the country’s vital facilities. The Obiang family also employs Israeli security guards, who walked with the president’s son while he inspected the wreckage on Sunday.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8