The 2007 Maputo arms depot explosion were a series of explosions, which occurred in the afternoon of March 22, 2007, from around 16:45 to at least 18:00, in the Malhazine suburb of

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the Capital city, capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a popul ...

, capital city of

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. At least 93 people were killed, and hundreds more were injured in the blasts.

Background

The arms depot was constructed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1984. The building housed Soviet-manufactured weapons used during the

Mozambican Civil War The Mozambican Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Moçambicana) was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the Mozambican Civil War possessed local dynamics but was a ...

. In addition, a heat wave and drought had been affecting the area for much of the summer, with temperatures around 35 °C (93 °F) being reported. The same heat wave was blamed for a much smaller explosion at the depot on January 28, 2007.

Casualties and damage

Health Minister Ivo Garrido said on March 23 that 83 fatalities (later updated to 93) were reported and that more than 300 people were injured. Most of the casualties were either military personnel working at the depot or civilians, many of them children, who lived in a nearby poor neighborhood. As a result, the government announced three days of national mourning and declared that flags be flown at half mast. The Interior Ministry ordered police to seal off the area to prevent looting of homes in the area abandoned after the explosion. The explosions could be heard all over the city, and even 9 km (about 5.5 miles) from the building, windows exploded.

Cause

The Defense Ministry blamed the explosion on high temperatures.

Reaction

The Interior Ministry ordered police and firefighters to aid the military in destroying the remaining ammunition at the depot, which had not been used since the country's civil war and was considered obsolete.

References

External links