A truck with explosives explodes on its way to a mine in Ghana. Many people die, a village is destroyed. Criticism of the behavior of the population in the event of accidents is mixed with the grief.
There are scenes like those from the classic film “Wages of Fear” from 1953. In the West African country of Ghana, a truck loaded with dynamite exploded on Thursday afternoon after an accident, tearing a huge crater in the ground and destroying more than 500 buildings in the town Apiate in the west of the country, killing at least 17 people. Some sources already speak of more than 50 fatalities. More than 100 injured were taken to nearby hospitals.
An oncoming motorcycle had crashed into the truck loaded with explosives for a gold mine in a straight line and caught fire under the vehicle. The burning truck can be seen on several amateur videos distributed on social networks – and numerous onlookers approaching the scene of the accident, including a woman with a small child in her arms. Shortly afterwards: a fireball and screams from the injured, debris flying through the air, the chaotic cell phone recordings eventually break off.
According to eyewitnesses, the truck driver is said to have tried to get the onlookers to flee with screams of warning, but largely without success. The chauffeur, who suffered a head injury in the accident, survived the gigantic explosion. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. The motorcyclist died at the scene of the accident. Other videos also shared on social media show the extent of the disaster. In Apiate there is hardly an undamaged house left, large parts of the town have been razed to the ground. The crater that the explosion tore into the ground has a diameter of well over ten meters and is up to five meters deep. The videos also show dead bodies.
Meanwhile, Kafui Dey, a nationally known radio host in Ghana, called for a debate on how people should behave in the event of accidents. “We love to race to the scene of an accident with the cameras running,” criticized the talk show host on Twitter: “That’s often the last thing you see of us.” Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo described the accident as “sad and tragic”. . The government will do everything to make Apiate habitable again as soon as possible. Many of the town’s residents are temporarily accommodated in the schools and churches in the neighboring communities.
Terrible accidents happen time and again when transporting dangerous goods in Africa. Just three months ago, a fuel truck exploded after an accident in the West African country of Sierra Leone, killing 98 people. It is not uncommon for people to run to the scene of a tanker accident to catch fuel. A spark is then enough to kill dozens of people.
In connection with mining, there are always serious accidents in Ghana. The country is the second largest gold producer on the continent after South Africa. At least nine people died when a tunnel collapsed last June in the north of the country.
The truck that crashed in Apiate was on its way from the dynamite manufacturer Maxam in Tarkwa to the Chirano gold mine, which is operated by the Canadian mining company Kinross, almost 200 kilometers away.
