Onghumbula
The Oshikoto Regional Police have warned road contractors to consult the police’s explosive control unit before starting with earthworks.
The warning was made on the basis that the Okankolo area is a former war zone and still might have undetected explosives buried in the soil or lying around in fields and bushes.
Explosives were discovered last week at the construction site of the Okankolo-Onkumbula road. Construction workers discovered the explosives in a ditch they were digging for the erection of a fence alongside the construction site.
According to Chief Inspector Stephan Nuuyi the chief community affairs officer for the Oshikoto Region the area is a former war zone and bombs and other unexploded ordnance could still be underground and claim human lives if they are not cleared by experts like the explosives unit of the police.
“Three 81mm mortar bombs of South African origin and 18 rounds of ammunition were discovered and detonated,” said Nuuyi.
The police said the area was not cleared before construction work began.
Nuuyi advised road contractors and people wishing to build and electrify their houses around Okankolo settlement to consult the police before doing so.
Nuuyi further advised parents to inform their children not to touch or play with anything they suspcet to be a bomb or other ordnance but to report it to the nearby police station.