At least 105 people have been killed and more than 600 others are injured after multiple explosions at a military camp in Equatorial Guinea.
The West African nation is a close partner to Uganda in a number of areas including but not limited to security, Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technical Cooperation.
The state television channel TVGE broadcast footage of wrecked and burning buildings, with people -- including children -- being pulled from the rubble and the wounded lying on a hospital floor.
It showed images of a thick column of black smoke, which TVGE said was coming from the Nkoa Ntoma military camp in the economic capital Bata.
The first blast occurred in the early afternoon and in the early evening of Sunday.
"We hear the explosion and we see the smoke, but we don't know what's going on," one local resident, Teodoro Nguema, told AFP by telephone.
It is not yet known what caused the blasts, but early reports suggested they might have come from the camp's armory, according to a journalist with the TV channel.
The camp houses among others elements of the army's special forces and the paramilitary gendarmerie, the journalist said.
Bata is the largest city in the oil- and gas-rich nation, with around 800,000 of the nation's 1.4 million population living there.
While it sits on the mainland, the capital Malabo is on Bioko, one of the country's islands off the west African coast.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, at the funeral of some of the victims promised to bring those responsible to account and warned Equatoguineans against spreading false news on social media, which he said was being used to politicize the incident.
“This tragic accident ... showed one more time that peace is very fragile and can be broken at any moment by irresponsible, ignorant and incompetent behaviour,” he said.
Uganda-Guinea relations
Equatorial Guinea has a close relationship with Uganda marked by security cooperation and bilateral trade among other areas.
In 2017, Uganda sent a team of 100 officers to Equatorial Guinea to help build capacity and professionalization of the west African nation's army.
The Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) training and mentoring team was to help in training, equipping and building capacity in a bid for the country to have a professional army.
The UPDF team was led by Lt. Col. Wycliff Keita and was in the west African country for one year under a bilateral agreement and a Pan Africanism cause.
"It's true we have sent our troops in line with section 40 of the UPDF and Pan African goals in helping, supporting and building capacity of each army," Brig Richard Karemire, the then UPDF spokesperson said.
Uganda has been helping in building the capacities, equipping and training of regional armies and police forces.
The Ugandan military helped train and build capacity of the Somalia soldiers in its bid to help pacify and stabilize the volatile Horn of African country.
