Fire sparks explosions at Sudan arms dump

JUBA, Sudan, May 19 (Reuters) A fire at a munitions dump sparked a wave of explosions outside the southern Sudanese capital of Juba today, injuring several people and rattling nerves in the region that suffered two decades of civil war.

The fire caused intermittent explosions for about 90 minutes from 4 pm (1830 IST) 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.

A spokesman for the former rebel Southern People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) went on local 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.

''You could see a cloud of smoke and the explosions were coming from the south-west edge of Juba,'' an eyewitness said.

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 told Reuters.

''Smoke is still coming out of that place.'' REUTERS DKS BD2152