He was speaking the day after the arsenal exploded, throwing shrapnel and projectiles across the city, and killed at least 72 people.
Visiting the neighbourhood of Hulene, one of the Maputo suburbs where homes were destroyed by the projectiles fired out of the blazing arsenal, Guebuza told reporters "the arsenal must go from there. It's going to be removed".
But he gave no time frame for moving the arsenal. The idea that such arsenals should not be in densely populated areas is not new: back in January a couple of days after a series of less serious explosions, Defence Ministry spokesman Joaquim Mataruca also promised that the arsenal would be moved.
Guebuza described the devastation as "serious, sad and worrying". He noted that among the rubble "there are many bodies and explosive devices still to be removed".
As for complaints of delays in pulling the dead (and possible survivors) from the ruins of their homes, "it is not easy for the rescue teams to respond to all the demands at the same time".
He said that the authorities are doing everything in their power to normalise the situation, and promised all possible assistance and support for the families affected.
Guebuza also visited some of the 370 wounded in Maputo Central Hospital. More injured are expected to arrive, since it is quite likely that rescue teams will find severely wounded people trapped in rubble.
This crisis is placing an enormous strain on blood stocks at Maputo hospitals. Health Minister Ivo Garrido has urged anyone who can donate blood to do so at once.
Collecting all the projectiles thrown out of the arsenal promises to be a delicate and difficult job. They landed in a radius of ten kilometres, but they did not all explode. This unexploded ordnance poses a threat, particularly to children who might start playing with it.
Defence Minister Tobias Dai put the cost of moving the arsenal to an unpopulated area, or eliminating all the devices it still contains, at 600 million meticais - an extraordinarily high figure, since it is equivalent to 24 million US dollars at current exchange rates.
Meanwhile Maputo International Airport, closed on Thursday because of the explosions, has re-opened to traffic. An airport source told AIM the airport was reopened, after the area, notably the runway, was cleaned by a specialist team.
The airport management stressed that the airport was closed solely for technical reasons, and not political ones. The closure of the airport meant that scheduled flights from Johannesburg and from the central Mozambican city of Quelimane to Maputo had to be cancelled.
A spokesperson for Mozambique Airlines (LAM) told AIM that the national carrier will resume its flights on Friday, and will do all it can to ensure that passengers affected by the Thursday closure will reach their destinations as soon as possible .
SOURCE: AIM
