The ministry said more than 400 people had been injured and many more were missing under the rubble after Sunday’s massive blast.
Resident Carmen Alebeso said the scenes sounded like an atomic bomb explosion. Albeso told CNN that the first blast occurred at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday when she was in her car.
“It was a very loud noise and everyone got out of their cars and we were all in shock. We saw a typical picture of an atomic bomb in front of us. It was a confusing and frightening situation, people were screaming and crying,” she said.
He added that all the buildings in the area were completely destroyed and bodies were being exhumed from the rubble of houses in the area on Monday.
Albeso added that those who need it most do not get medical help.
“We have three main hospitals and they have all collapsed. A lot of people have been injured, it was horrible. People were trying to go for treatment. It was a horrible situation.”
“We ask for the contribution of blood donors,” the health ministry said on Twitter, inviting volunteer health workers to visit Bata Regional Hospital.
It said health workers and the fire brigade were caring for the victims and evacuating people with serious injuries to hospitals.
In a statement read to local media late Sunday night, President Teodoro Obiang Nugma Mbasogo blamed the country’s military for mis-selling dynamite and other explosive devices under his supervision – which he said people suspected of setting up farmers. Fire in the border area of a military base.
“Baka was the site of an accident due to the negligence and carelessness of the unit for the care and protection of dynamite and explosives stores next to ammunition at the Ancontoma military base, which contained a fire burning in a nearby land.” Neighbors, dynamite and explosives then explode. “The statement said.
President Mbasago appealed to the international community to help his country repair the public and private infrastructure damaged in the blast – which he said would involve “significant economic resources.”
The president said the tragedy comes at a time when Equatorial Guinea is still reeling from the economic effects of the coronavirus epidemic.
In a statement later Sunday, the Spanish embassy in Equatorial Guinea called on its citizens to “stay at home.”
The embassy did not provide further details on the stay-at-home advisory. However, it did issue emergency numbers for all Spanish citizens in the country.
Equatorial Guinea is one of the smallest countries in Africa, with a population of only 850,000. Bata is one of the two cities in the country with a population of over 1,000,000, and the other is the island-based capital Malabo.
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