Dangerous Depots: The Growing Humanitarian Problem Posed by Aging and Poorly Maintained Munitions Storage Sites around the World

[Some information in the historical timeline in this fact sheet was drawn from a list entitled "Major Ammunition Accidents--1916 to 2008" compiled by Colonel George Zahaczewsky, U.S. Army (Retired). Colonel Zahaczewsky was formerly the Director of the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense's Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program. Information was also drawn from "Recent Explosive Events in Ammunition Storage Areas," a report of 137 incidents released in June 2007 by the South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (www.seesac.org)].

On March 15, 2008, a series of massive and deadly explosions ripped through an Albanian government munitions depot in the village of Gerdec near Tirana, resulting in 24 deaths, injuries to over 300 more people, and catastrophic damage to hundreds of homes and other civilian structures within a 2.5 kilometer (1.5 mile) radius. Contributing factors to the initial explosion, which triggered a cascade of further explosions, involved old, unstable ammunition, improper storage, and unsafe handling. Sadly, this was not a unique incident.

Catastrophic explosions at other munitions storage depots in populated areas in Uzbekistan and Bulgaria have since occurred. They are the latest in a series of incidents spanning many years and among the most recent manifestations of an international problem that has worsened since the end of the Cold War--government arms depots filled with ageing, unstable, poorly maintained, improperly stored, and weakly guarded munitions. These "dangerous depots" have the potential to create even more casualties on an annual basis than landmines and explosive remnants of war.

The Landmine Monitor recorded a total of 5,751 known casualties in 2006 from landmines and explosive remnants of war worldwide. Yet in one afternoon alone in 2007, a catastrophic explosion at a munitions depot outside of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, killed and injured over 600 people, far more than the 35 people reportedly killed by landmines and explosive remnants of war in Mozambique the previous year. …

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