Explosions Slam Equatorial Guinea’s Largest City

Clouds darken over La Paz hospital in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Bata was the site of devastating explosions that left many dead and injured. (Creative Commons)

A series of four explosions rocked Bata, the largest city in Equatorial Guinea, on March 7. Authorities say the blasts, which took place at a military base at around 1 pm local time, killed at least 98 people and injured another 615. 

Government sources think the explosions were accidental. Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo accused army officers responsible for guarding munitions of “negligence and inattention” involving the supervision of dynamite, which ignited when fires at nearby farms spread to the military base. He has ordered a full investigation into the sources of the catastrophe. 

The base, which houses members of Equatorial Guinea’s armed forces and paramilitary gendarmerie, is located in Bata’s Nkoantoma district. According to Obiang Nguema, the explosions’ impact extended far beyond Nkoantoma, and it damaged almost every home and building in the city. As of March 9, more than 60 people have been rescued from the rubble. 

The government has put out a plea for international support. “It is important for us to ask our brother countries for their assistance in this lamentable situation since we have a health emergency (from COVID-19) and the tragedy in Bata,” said Foreign Minister Simeón Oyono Esono Angue after meeting with foreign ambassadors. The first shipment of humanitarian aid has already arrived from Spain, in order to provide essential medical supplies to hospitals treating the injured. 

This tragedy comes at a very trying time for the Central African country, which is home to about 1.3 million people. Heavily dependent on oil exports, Equatorial Guinea’s economy was hit hard by the worldwide slump in oil prices caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This exacerbated a pre-pandemic trend of falling oil revenue and gross domestic product in the country. Equatorial Guinea has also struggled with endemic corruption, ranking near the bottom of Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perception Index. These issues have contributed to severe deficiencies in Equatorial Guinea’s healthcare system that will make responding to the Bata explosions much more difficult. 

For now, the government is focused on attending to the wounded and beginning to rebuild the neighborhoods most affected by the blasts. Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, son and widely expected successor of =Obiang Nguema, tweeted, “This is a pain that we all suffer, and we will overcome this together like the great family that we are.”