A team of experience engineer personnel of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) headed by Colonel A. B. S Bah has on Tuesday 20th June, 2017, detonated 34 RPG7, one 81-millimetre and one 60-millimetre mortar bombs at the Peace Mission Training Centre at Hastings, in Freetown.
According to the Commander, Engineer Regiment of RSLAF, Colonel A. S Bah, the activity was carried out mainly to execute safe disposal of the unexploded ordinances that resulted from either military trainings that including the firing of diverse types of weapons oras a result of the eleven years civil war in the country. He explained further that the manufacturing factories of these weapons do not carry out a 100% complete work and sometimes it possesses serious threat to officers firing them and it led to the non-detonation of these unexploded bombs. He added that the percentages of the none detonation of these weapons ranges between 10-40%.
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| Unexploded RPG7 Bombs ready for detonation |
Colonel Bah continue that these weapons are so dangerous as they sometimes get possible detonation because even though they are not fully detonated even when they are being fired and that made the bomb itself very unstable, so it can be detonated by touch, fire and even by radiation from television or mobile phone or when heated with hard metal.
Colonel Bah disclosed that they are currently disposing these ordinances now because, though they have well trained personnel to undertake the exercise, but they ran out of the required demolition accessories to do so earlier. He however thanked UNDP through the Small Arms Commissionwho provided funds to get the demolition accessories and additionally, OCTIA Mining Company in Kono supported them with additional demolition accessories that has capacitated them to undertake the detonation exercise.
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| RSLAF Engineer Captain Charles & team preparing detonation accessories |
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Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
