Dozens of moaning and badly burned survivors from a massive tanker blast that killed at least 230 people recovered in hospitals and clinics across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) on Sunday, two days after the wrecked fuel truck exploded on a rural highway.
DR Congo President Joseph Kabila declared a two-day national mourning period and Red Cross workers sprayed chlorine and poured disinfectant powder over the blackened scene of the explosions in the village of Sange, where priests prayed during a brief memorial service on a barren soccer field.
In a conflict-strewn corner of one of the world’s most unstable countries, the shocking tragedy on Friday last week was a devastating blow for residents in a still lawless region who survived back-to-back wars that lasted from 1996 to 2002.
PHOTO: EPA
“It’s a miserable, poor life we have here in Congo,” said Muke Ndengwa, whose 15-year-old son was nearly killed in the blast.
“When we had the war here, we had everything stolen from us. Now we have lost so much again,” he said.
Troubles began when the tanker hauling fuel from South Kivu province’s capital, Bukavu, overturned as it tried to pass a minibus in Sange, a small village near the Burundi border.
Tipped on its side, the wrecked vehicle began gushing gasoline beside three flimsy television halls made of brick and wood, where hundreds of people had gathered to watch the World Cup.
Crowds gathered around the wreck and dozens of people began trying to collect the leaking gasoline with jerry-cans and plastic buckets, ignoring pleas from UN peacekeepers to move away because of the danger.
Within an hour, a fire started — nobody is sure exactly how — and a massive explosion suddenly engulfed the three TV halls and a nearby market.
Jackson Ndengwa, 15, was inside one of the makeshift halls to watch one of his favorite teams, Ghana, play Uruguay.
“The hall was full of people,” he said from his hospital bed in the lakeside town of Uvira, about 30km to the south. “We never expected that there could be a fire like this.”
“There were people with petrol on their clothes and skin and they started catching fire,” Ndengwa said. “As we were so close together, I got burned, too.”
Ndengwa managed to escape through a window, but sustained serious burns to his legs and stomach.
His father hired a car early on Saturday to transport him to Uvira where 46 wounded between the ages of 12 and 40 were brought for emergency treatment, doctor Kumba Mupepe, said.
In the hospital’s intensive care ward, one badly burnt man screamed continuously in agony, as relatives tended to other victims nearby, their bodies covered head to toe in purple antiseptic.
Burn victims and their families also filled the small, packed health clinic in Sange on Sunday.
“We are still in shock and it’s too early to say how life can continue here,” said Kahurwa Mugirigiri, 68, who lost his wife and many relatives in the blast. “But we will never forget what happened.”
UN spokesman Madnodje Mounoubai told reporters on Sunday at least 231 died and 195 were injured in the explosion. The Red Cross said at least 61 children and 36 women were among those killed.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS