Skip to main content

Senegal seeks to move huge ammonium nitrate stock from Dakar port

Dakar port (file photo)
Dakar

Senegalese officials say they have asked for 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - the chemical which caused a huge explosion in Beirut - to be removed from Dakar.

The amount in Dakar's port, which is near residential areas, is nearly as much as was in the Lebanese capital.

Officials say the chemical is part of a 3,050-tonne consignment destined for neighbouring Mali.

Port officials say 350 tonnes has already been transported there.

The government says the owner of the consignment has asked to store the chemical in a warehouse at Diamniadio, about 30km (20 miles) from Dakar.

But the ministry of environment has not yet approved the request, saying the site has not met all the required conditions, including carrying out an environmental and social impact study.

"We have asked the owner to make arrangements so that the product can be transported outside Senegal," one of the ministry officials Baba Drame told the AFP news agency.

It is not clear who the owner of the consignment is and what they intend to use it for in Mali.

Port officials have not disclosed the date when the shipment arrived at the port.

Moving the consignment to Mali poses a challenge given the current political uncertainty after the recent military coup there, which overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The explosion in Beirut devastated the city centre, killing more than 200 people, and damaged buildings across the city.

                                                               Credit-BBC

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Killings: Group demands resignation of Police IG

                              A human rights group, National Intervention Group of Nigeria, has called for the resignation of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, for alleged loss of morality to continue in office given his inability to tackle killings across the country. The convener of the group, Segun Akinloye, made this call on Tuesday at a press conference in Abuja on the state of the nation. Mr Akinloye said “the lives of Nigerians, even in Nigeria appears nowadays to be cheaper and more worthless than ever before witnessed or recorded in history.” He frowned at the powerlessness of the police to abate the killings, warning that Nigeria may be heading to division and eventual collapse if urgent steps are not taken. He made reference to the killings in Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Plateau and Kaduna St...

Kano Hisbah Board destroys 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 m

                                   The Kano State Hisbah Board has seized and destroyed 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 million. In a statement released on Tuesday December 25th, the board’s Public Relations Officer, Adamu Yahaya, said that the cartons of beer were destroyed on Monday evening December 24th after interception at Kalebawa on Danbata Road in Dawakin Tofa area. “The Kano State Law No. 4 of 2004 has banned the manufacture and use of intoxicants in the state. Furthermore, an order was given by a magistrates’ court for us  to go ahead with the exercise,” the public relations officer said. The worth of a trailer load of beer is between N5.2 million and N5.5 million. The sale of beer and its consumption has been banned in Kano state.

Police rescue young lady from the hands of ritualists in Delta State

Officers of the Delta State police command, on Thursday, rescued a lady from suspected kidnappers/ritualists in Asaba. The lady was said to be returning from Ogbegonogo market when she boarded their tricycle. Two other gang members later joined her from both sides, leaving her in the middle. Trouble, however, started when the rider refused to stop at the victim’s destination, forcing her to raise an alarm that attracted some policemen who gave them a hot chase and eventually rescued the girl and arrested the suspects. An eyewitness said one of them in a bid to disappear threw a ring suspected to be magic ring in his mouth and attempted to vanish but the Police diffused the charm.  Irate youths who gathered at the scene made efforts to go on jungle justice but the police prevented them.