World
Kazakh defence minister resigns after 15 die in arms depot blasts
(Last Updated On: August 31, 2021)
Kazakh Defence Minister Nurlan Yermekbayev resigned on Tuesday, the office of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said, days after a fire and a series of blasts at an arms depot killed 15 soldiers and firefighters.
Dozens of people were wounded by the blasts which forced the authorities to evacuate nearby settlements in Kazakhstan’s southern Zhambyl province on August 26. The cause of the fire remains unclear, Reuters reported.
The fire and blasts provoked a public outcry, especially because the explosives at the base in question had been relocated there from a facility in the town of Arys after a similar incident there in 2019 which killed four people.