Don’t touch any missile, weapons – Military chief warns residents of Michel Camp

Ghana’s military high command is warning residents living in and around one of its bases where an armoury explosion occurred not to touch any missile or weapons they may find in the vicinity as it could be dangerous.

One of the military store houses a the Michel Camp Base Ammunition Depot (BAD) containing “high explosives” sparked fire causing huge explosions in the area that caused some metal objects including fragments of weapons to fly into people’s homes in the vicinity.

Fear-gripped residents who could not withstand the level of explosions which happened few minutes of midnight were forced to flee the zone to safety.

No casualties were recorded

Military investigators upon preliminary assessment of the early Wednesday incident have declared the zone as safe, noting they do not expect an escalation of the situation which has now been brought under control.

Chief of Defence Staff Lieutenant General Obed Akwa who visited the scene told journalists “the destruction is serious” but did not state the extent of damage and the quantity of weapons that have been destroyed.

He said they “don’t expect any escalation of the situation” which has since caused the zone to be cordoned off”.

The shell of what looks like a missile which landed in a resident’s home As at Wednesday morning, some remnants of weapons, including what looked like a shell of a fired missile which landed in people’s homes during the explosion were yet to be retrieved by the military.

This object, which appears to be a missile head was found in a home around the explosion area “…those who live within this community, if they should come across any foreign object they should not touch it; they should not touch it! If you find any missile or anything that is foreign within your community don’t touch it,” he warned.

Discovery of such objects, he said, should be reported to the Commanding Officer at Michel Camp, for experts from BAD to be dispatched immediately “to go examine it and defuse it”.

“As at now, everything is under control,” the military chief said, assuring that “there is no threat to the people living within this settlement”.

The Chief of Defence Staff indicated that a major investigation into the incident will commence immediately to establish what caused the explosion.

A weapon from the explosion penetrated this wooden structure serving as home for a resident

“…that is going to be immediate. Within the next couple of weeks we shall come out with our findings and any measures that we need to take to prevent its [future] occurrence,” Lt. Gen Akwa assured.

Swift intervention

The military chief said personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces were quick to bring the explosion and fire under control, noting fire tenders were brought within 15 to 20 minutes after the explosion.

“The fire was brought under control; actions were taken to ensure that other store houses containing high explosives were isolated from the main incident spot.