afrol News, 12 April - An inquiry commission probing the causes of the 22 March explosion in Mozambique’s Malhazine military armoury in the capital Maputo submitted its report to President Armando Guebuza. The commission blamed “human error, soaring temperatures, terrible conditions of maintenance, storage and preservation of expired military armaments in the armoury” as the causes of the fatal detonation.

So far, 117 people died of the blast while 500 sustained injuries.

The commission report disagree to claims from some quarters that the explosion was magnetised by fire or attempts, extract mercury or sabotage.

Experts of the Southern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the control of small arms and light weapons issued a preliminary report, advising the Mozambican government to be careful of keeping deteriorated physical and chemical conditions of ammunition and explosives, which might have been possible cause of the explosion.

The commission sealed its report with recommendations asking the Mozambican government to destroy obsolete weapons or ammunitions to avoid a recurrence of future explosions in the military armouries in the country.

President Guebuza has quickly heeded to the advice of the commission and asked its recommendation to be fully implemented without delay. He also ordered the transfer of arms of stockpoles to more adequate military armouries.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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