An Afternoon of War Flashbacks in Maputo

I don't know if this has made the news where you are, but Maputo is being rocked by explosions since about 16h this afternoon. Apparently heat-sensitive weapons in an army depot in the Malhazine neighborhood near the airport became unstable and started exploding. At first it was just a series of low, distant explosions. We thought perhaps it was the skeleton of the Four Seasons Hotel skyscraper being demolished along the coast (set to happen any day now), but when we walked to a lookout point we saw the building still standing. A security guard informed us that it was a paiol (weapons depot) exploding.

On our way back home, Rico and I saw scenes of chaos along Av. Julius Nyerere, one of the main streets in Maputo. Many windows and shopfronts had shattered, the ceiling of our bank branch had fallen in, and people had run down to the street from the top stories of apartment buildings. Here in our apartment building things seemed okay (we are about 5km from the weapons depot), just 2 very frightened cats and lots and lots of explosions.

From our varanda you could see a huge black cloud rising above the city. The explosions got increasingly louder, to the point where a couple of them scared me so much that I instinctually dropped to the floor and covered my head. There are some serious arms going off - think small bombs and missiles. At one point, after a particularly loud boom, a black mushroom cloud rose over Maputo.

The news is all over the TV. People frightened and running into the streets in mass, traffic jammed up, utter chaos. No reports of injuries are in yet, but there are sure to be several, especially in the areas close to the depot.

Now that the sun has gone down, you can see the flashes of light from the explosions. There are big flares that rise up in cloud form, as well as streaking flames that look like the sparks rising from a prodded campfire. Explosions of varying intensity have been going on for nearly 3 hours straight. This is insane.

Not 2 months ago, another paiol exploded, this one in the neighbor city of Matola. Apparently it wasn't as intense as this one. It is not very reasurring to know that weapons leftover from a brutal civil war are not only still stockpiled in the country, they are stored in obviously unstable conditions.

If this situation is scary and upsetting for us, I can only imagine what it must be like for the Mozambicans that lived through 16 years of civil war and are now having graphic reminders of the sounds and sensations of that period. I can also only begin to imagine what it must be like to live in a place like Baghdad or Mogadishu, where these explosions are part of a daily soundtrack and associated not with a freak accident, but with destruction of a country and death of loved ones.

Ricardo and I are fine, just waiting for this all to finish.