N’Djamena (Reuters) -A fire at a military ammunition depot in Chad’s capital N’Djamena triggered a series of blasts on Tuesday night, Foreign Affairs Minister Koulamallah Abderaman said.
The depot was in the north of the city in the neighbourhood of Goudji, Abderaman said on X, calling on the population to remain calm.
A Reuters witness could still hear explosions one hour after the Abderaman’s post.
A resident of a neighbourhood next to Goudji said he could see flames at a military camp where explosives are stocked.
“Loud blasts woke us up,” Moustapha Adoum Mahamat told Reuters via telephone.
“Our house was shaking as if someone were shooting at us. Then we saw a big fire at the military camp and smoke and things exploding in the air,” he said. “We could see artillery fly over us.”
The fire broke out just a few kilometres away from Chad’s main international airport.
Media posted images of spent artillery shells that fell in people’s homes. Another video, filmed from the tarmac of the airport, showed a huge fire and explosions lighting up the night sky at a distance, while an aircraft idled on the tarmac in the foreground.
Reuters has not authenticated the images.
(Reporting by Mahamat Ramadane; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Bate Felix and Stephen Coates)
