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An explosion at an ammunitions store in the Somali capital Mogadishu killed at least one person and injured three but it was not an attack, a spokesman for warlord Hussein Aideed said.
The blast occurred on Saturday at the former presidential palace, which is under the control of militia loyal to Aideed and his Somalia National Alliance (SNA) group.
“The damage is small and not due to sabotage but the negligence of staff responsible for storing and keeping the explosive materials,” SNA’s acting chairman Abukar Ibrahim Ganey said.
Ganey said stockpiles of heavy artillery including rocket-propelled grenades had been housed at the weapons compound over the past 30 years.
Mogadishu is partly run by a transitional government while numerous warlords including Aideed hold sway everywhere else.
The overthrow of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991 led to the disintegration of Somalia into fiefdoms controlled by rival warlords.
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