Powerful Blasts Destroy Homes and Spark Panic in Bujumbura

Dozens of people were killed and potentially thousands more injured Tuesday night when Burundi's main military ammunition depot caught fire and detonated in a series of blasts that sent shrapnel tearing through homes, a church, and a prison across Bujumbura's southern suburbs, according to security sources and eyewitness accounts.

The explosions erupted at the main ammunition depot of the Burundi National Defence Force (FDNB) in Musaga, a southern suburb of Bujumbura. Army spokesman Brigadier General Gaspard Baratuza attributed the disaster to "a serious electrical accident in the ammunition store of the FDNB based in Musaga." The blasts lasted several hours, rattling a city of more than one million people long after nightfall.

A high-ranking army officer told AFP: "It is impossible to establish a toll for the moment, but dozens and dozens of people have been killed, and there are hundreds or even thousands of injured." A senior police officer present at the scene confirmed: "There are dozens of dead, but the toll may be higher." A source at Mpimba prison told AFP that eight inmates were killed and several others injured; they were transported to hospital by the Red Cross early Wednesday. Mpimba, the country's central prison, sits adjacent to the Musaga military base.

The geography of the depot amplified the civilian toll. He said several neighborhoods in the city suffered "a lot of material damage," with many homes hit by shrapnel. Resident Anitha Niyonsaba recounted how a projectile tore through her roof, pierced the ceiling, and struck a wall near where she had been resting moments before. A resident of Gasekebuye, located several kilometers from Musaga, told AFP by phone: "In my house, some windows have already shattered." Shrapnel also struck the roof of a church in the Musaga district. A projectile landed close to the national radio broadcaster, stoking fears of a coup among residents living near the building.

The scale of displacement was immediate. One witness from the Nyakabiga neighborhood described explosions erupting while families were inside their homes, forcing them to take cover as debris scattered in all directions. A father living in the neighboring area of Kanyosha returned to find his children and domestic worker gone; he eventually located them far to the south, in the town of Ruziba. SOS Medias Burundi, a platform for independent journalism, warned of "growing panic" in the city, with residents "fearing a rapid deterioration of the security situation." The organization reported that "fear is spreading rapidly among residents, with many continuing to flee their homes," and noted it had received accounts of both heavy and light gunfire, though it cautioned that "the situation remains unclear and highly concerning."

The official response raised immediate accountability concerns. Authorities had yet to provide any casualty figures, and a Western diplomat, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, expressed doubt that "there will be transparent communication," adding: "The regime here is very reluctant to communicate about deaths, especially military." Spageon Ngabo, director of the online journalism platform Yaga Burundi, said approximately 10 deaths had been reported to his organization by citizens.

Musaga sits in the southern suburbs of Bujumbura, the economic capital of a country ranked by the World Bank as the Earth's poorest by GDP per capita in 2023. Bujumbura sits on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, across from conflict-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Burundi has sent troops to help the Congolese government fight the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. Baratuza urged the public to "remain calm and avoid the surrounding areas," adding that "relevant services are currently intervening," but offered no timeline or structural explanation for why the country's primary ammunition stockpile was positioned within a densely populated urban suburb with no apparent buffer from residential streets, a functioning prison, and a national broadcaster.