A far away disaster of which we know too little
In the quiet of the early morning on Sunday, 4 March, Brazzaville, the capital city of Congo, suffered a vast and overwhelming man-made disaster. It killed perhaps 400 people and injured 2,000. Some 100,000 people were displaced.
The cause of this harrowing devastation was the detonation of one of the country’s main ammunition and military storage depots. The two craters left by the explosion – one of which was eight metres deep – extended 70 to 80 meters across.
This was a catastrophe that barely rated a note in European media outlets, but I have now spoken to an expert who has been to the site to try to piece together what happened and what the implications are for the future.
Photographs of the site conjure the imagery of a tsunami. Urban housing blown to pieces; vast quantities of exploded and unexploded ordnance; and rows of Russian built tanks and armoured cars smashed beyond repair. 
Close by, a school – the school of the revolution – in which, had it not been a Sunday, some 5,000 pupils could have been present. The church of St Francois de Francais levelled and the hospital battered beyond use.
Nobody knows exactly how many people died. The army is secretive about how many people were in the facility at the time of the explosion. The International Red Cross talks of 280 bodies in the morgue. Locals told my friend that the true death toll was probably nearer 400.
At least 2,000 people, were injured, some very seriously. At the time of writing some 14,000 are in makeshift shelters and perhaps 100,000 are in homes and guest houses around the capital – others have returned to their rural villages.
The military facility itself fell far below the storage rules set out in international law. It should never have been within range of so dense an urban development.
As the UN continues to try to forge the Arms Trade Convention to which John Major, as prime minister, was one of the early signatories, Congo Brazaville’s agony begs many questions. Not the least of which will be the mutual interest of the government there, and the arms dealers to replenish what was lost. Will international law ever force the arms trade to ensure that a recipient regime has the resource to handle safely what they are selling?
And what of the dead, injured and displaced people of Congo Brazzaville? They do not fit easily into any aid provision. The government there is attempting some chaotic compensation. But as the international community hardly knew it had happened, if at all, what chance that any cries for help will ever be heard?
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Pictures courtesy Simon Conway