Explosion at a Sugar Factory in Eastern Tanzania Kills 11 Workers, Including 3 Foreigners

BY ALI SULTAN

3:00 PM EDT, May 23, 2024

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — An electric short at a sugar factory in Tanzania on Thursday morning set off an explosion that killed 11 workers, including three foreign nationals, police said.

The electrical fault caused a steam pipe to burst as a technical team was readying machines to start production for the day at the privately owned Mtibwa Sugar Factory in the Morogoro region in eastern Tanzania, regional police chief Alex Mkama told the media.

The three foreigners were from neighboring Kenya, Brazil and India. Two other workers were injured in the blast and were treated at the Morogoro hospital. The doctor in charge there, David Ruchamisa, said they were later rushed to the capital, Dodoma, for further treatment.

Mtibwa is one of the country’s major sugar producing factories, producing at least 70,000 metric tons of sugar annually, according to government data.