May 20, 2006 (Juba) - A fire at a munitions dump sparked a series of explosions outside the southern Sudanese capital of Juba yesterday, injuring at least 10 people. The fire caused intermittent explosions for about 90 minutes from 4 pm and sent a plume of smoke into the air on the edge of Juba, where the government of southern Sudan is based, witnesses and UN staff said.

The Sudanese Red Crescent said 10 civilians had been injured.

A spokesman for the former rebel Southern People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) went on radio to reassure residents it was not an attack but a fire. The region suffered 20 years of civil war until a 2005 peace agreement, and inhabitants remain jittery.

Some UN staff in the area said a Russian UN staff member and three civilians were injured in the blasts.

Yashpal Singh, a senior UN security official in Sudan, said he had heard two Sudan Armed Forces members were hurt.“It was an ammunitions dump in a garrison that caught fire accidentally. There was an explosion,” he said.

[ENDS]