According to the fire department spokesman, Wilson Baptista, the children aged 7 and 11, “inadvertently and innocently”, handled the explosive device, which was inside a cabin located on their parents’ farm.
“These children went to the fields with their parents and there was a grenade inside the cabin, placed there by their father, who must have found it while he was working the land and decided to put the device away”, said Wilson Baptista, in statements to Public Television.
The official stressed that the brothers came across the ferrous material “and decided to remove it to show their father who was outside the cabin”.
“Unfortunately, this material fell to the ground and caused the explosion that immediately killed these two children, there was no possibility of rescue, because they were completely torn apart by the shrapnel of this grenade”, he stressed.
Angola is one of the countries in the world with the largest territorial extension still contaminated by landmines.
President João Lourenço wants the country to be mine-free by 2027 and announced in October 2024 that around 240 million dollars will be invested in the demining program over the next two years.
