Live ammo found at Moz rubbish dump
2013-02-18 13:43
Maputo - Workers have unearthed hundreds of rounds of live
ammunition at a garbage dump in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, local press
reported Monday, years after a deadly explosion at a nearby weapons depot.
The 259 rounds included machine gun magazines and anti-aircraft
munitions, according to independent daily CanalMoz.
"Machine gun magazines were found in the trash. The
Municipal Police removed them," police spokesman Joshua Lai told the
paper.
The ammunition was live and capable of exploding, he said.
"These are dangerous. They can cause immediate
deaths," he said.
Young garbage pickers made the surprise find at the weekend
while sorting through the soccer field-sized Hulene dump in a densely populated
neighbourhood.
"What concerns us most is that there is always trash on
fire here, the fires never go out. It is very dangerous if the flames had
reached the ammunition, it would have been a tragedy," an un-named garbage
picker told CanalMoz.
Many weapons and bombs remain stashed in the southern
African nation over two decades after a crippling civil war ended.
At least 100 tons of ammunition exploded at a weapons depot
outside the city in 2007, killing close to 100 people and injuring hundreds
more.
The vast open-air Hulene pit provides a livelihood for many
of the city's poorest residents who make a living picking through the garbage.
Authorities have been under pressure to move the rubbish for
some time because the smoke from smouldering trash poses a health hazard.
- SAPA
