Army spokesperson says houses, buildings, vehicles \u200band military equipment were destroyed in ammunition depot blast.<\/p>\n
Published On 1 Apr 20261 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
Burundi\u2019s army says that at least 13 civilians have been killed and 57 others were wounded when ammunition exploded due to an electrical short circuit at a military base in the economic capital Bujumbura.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouses were damaged in various neighbourhoods as well as private vehicles. Military equipment and facilities burned and were destroyed,\u201d army spokesperson General Gaspard Baratuza said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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The army did not specify if any soldiers had been killed, but said three were among those wounded.<\/p>\n
The explosions erupted late on Tuesday at the main ammunition depot of the Burundi National Defence Force (FDNB) in Musaga, a southern suburb of Bujumbura.<\/p>\n
The arsenal in Musaga is located in a densely populated area and adjoins the Higher Institute for Military Cadres (ISCAM), where aspiring army officers are trained and housed.<\/p>\n
Burundi, ranked by the World Bank as the world\u2019s poorest country by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 2023, has faced years of deep economic crises, including a severe fuel shortage.<\/p>\n
A senior police officer present at the site, who joined the firefighting team late Tuesday, said efforts were immediately slowed by a water shortage.<\/p>\n
He said property had been destroyed by the \u201cmassive inferno\u201d and that the \u201cbase camp was reduced to ashes\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday afternoon, fire and smoke could still be seen, according to the police officer.<\/p>\n
President Evariste Ndayishimiye, in a message on social media, expressed his \u201csympathy\u201d to \u201call those who have been victims of the fire\u201d.<\/p>\n
Burundian authorities urged citizens to report unexploded munitions by phone, warning: \u201cBe careful and DO NOT TOUCH\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Army spokesperson says houses, buildings, vehicles \u200band military equipment were destroyed in ammunition depot blast. Published On 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5684,214105,43,14207,44,41,39,42,40,8725],"class_list":{"0":"post-576136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-burundi","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-military","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-weapons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}