Images of drones broadcast on state television showed block after block of public housing in the coastal city, either completely destroyed or close to it, the remains of their roofs and walls scattered on the dirt roads of the neighborhood.
“There are many children without parents,” said a Bata teacher, who asked not to be called for fear of reprisals from authorities in the strictly controlled Central African country. “In the long run (what) do we do with those children?”
The government exclusively blamed the explosions caused by fires by farmers living near the military base and the careless handling of dynamite stocks by the military unit guarding them.
It declared three days of national mourning on Wednesday, declared Bata a disaster area, unblocked 10 billion ($ 18.19 million) CFA francs in response and called for international aid.
Firefighters continued to comb the debris Wednesday for corpses as spectators wept, state television reported. Authorities appealed for blood donations and basic goods.
A five-year-old girl was pulled on Wednesday from the rubble of a house in the military camp where the explosion took place, the Ecuadorian press AhoraEG said.
Officials were forced to use refrigerated containers to store their bodies, said Professor and Alfredo Okenve, a human rights activist living in exile in Europe.
Okenve said his information indicated that the death toll was between 150 and 200, significantly higher than the government’s official number of 105.
Virgilio Seriche, an information ministry official, denied that the bodies were stored in containers and said authorities were providing up-to-date information on the number of confirmed deaths.
“Reliable data is being released by the government on this incident, not what comes from other sources,” he told Reuters.
Traumatized residents
Bata residents are traumatized by the blasts that lasted for hours on Sunday and are afraid of further explosions.
The first explosion “was so great that everyone around us shouted,” This is a bomb, this is a bomb! “” Said the professor.
“People were crying, shouting, running away, trying to stay somewhere, but it was panic. We started to see police cars, firefighters and people bleeding. It was awful.”
The Ministry of Health said in a tweet that it carries out missions of psychiatrists and psychologists.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that the World Health Organization and the UNICEF children’s agency had mobilized teams to control the infection and provide logistical support. Spain sent a first batch of emergency aid.
It is the worst tragedy in the Central African country in recent memory, and while the government, charities and private citizens have kept everyone fed and sheltered for the time being, most of the 1.4 million people in Equatorial Guinea live in poverty. .
The country is also suffering a double economic shock due to the coronavirus pandemic and a drop in the price of crude oil, which provides about three quarters of state revenues.
State media provided wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster, including calls for lost children, a rarity in a country that human rights activists consider one of the most repressive in Africa and where bad news is rife. often suppressed.
Okenve said the scale of the tragedy had left the government without options.
“If there is information that comes out, it’s because it’s impossible to control,” he said.