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Ammo dump explodes in Congo, killing 60


By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 12:05 PM EST, Sun March 4, 2012
(CNN) -- A series of explosions at an ammunition depot in Brazzaville, the capital of Africa's Republic of Congo, killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds more, Congolese and U.S. officials said Sunday.

Betu Bangana, a Congolese government official, said a fire at the depot set off a cache of tank shells, destroying numerous homes in the neighborhoods around the installation. He said at least 60 people had been killed in the blasts.

The explosions occurred shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday (2 a.m. ET). The cause of the fire was not confirmed Sunday, but authorities are treating it as accidental, said Bangana, the director of protocol for President Denis Sassou-Nguesso.

James Jeffers, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Brazzaville, said American diplomats had seen hundreds of injured being treated in local hospitals.

The force of the explosions broke windows up to 5 km (3 miles) away in Kinshasa, the capital of the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DRC's military responded by putting tanks and troops on the streets and the banks of the Congo River, which separates the two cities, until it became clear that no attack on the capital was under way.


http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/04/world/africa/congo-explosion/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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One of my old 'stomping grounds". Sure hate to see something like this. The poor Congolese have suffered enough over the past few decades.

If the explosion blew out windows across the river in Kinshasa .... some 5 km away ..... must have been one hell of a party in Brazzaville!