At 4pm on 2nd August 2017, the lives of grandmother Elena and her family were shattered when an explosion ripped through a weapon store close to their home village of Primorsky, Abkhazia. Thousands of bombs and explosives were thrown across the surrounding area, creating complete devastation. Three people were killed and 64 injured.
For the past two years, ӣɬ has been working to make the area safe and the village is beginning to rebuild.
However, the trauma of that day has had a lasting impact on Elena and, most especially, her five-year-old grandson, Agop. Their story shows the vital importance of ӣɬ’s work to secure and make safe obsolete weapons stores—preventing other families from experiencing the terror of Primorsky.
“I moved to Primorsky 45 years ago. I live here with my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Myeldest grandson,Agop,is five years oldand mygranddaughter,Milena,is four. Myyoungest grandsonisSergeiand heis just two years old.
Whenthe explosion occurred,Iwaswith my son and daughter-in-lawvisitingourneighbor.Mydaughter and grandchildrenwere at home. At first, I thought it was an earthquake. Weran outsideandwere told to hide. Someone saidthe warehousehadexploded.
ThenI saw a bigflash and a large plume of smoke which reminded me of the mushroom cloud seen in Japan following the nuclear bombings during the Second World War. We were frightened and hidinsidethe barn so that nothingwould fallon us. Everythinglanded in ourvillage andinthe forest.
When the explosions had stopped,we ran home. There was no time to escape so we rushed the childrenand our dogs to our neighbour’s basement before eventually moving everyone to the next village to stay with my parents.Our house was heavily damaged with all the windows blown out and cracks running down the walls inside.
We were lucky that the childrenwere not hurt.Usuallythey always playhereintheyard, buton that day my son had parked his carthereand the children went to play at our neighbour’s house.During the explosion,his car was struck by falling ordnance andthe windshield was broken. Itis goodthey were not playing here.
I was very worried about my grandchildren—we wouldn’t let them go outside after dark for a long time. Agop has not spoken since the explosion—he has been silent for two years.
There were explosive items everywhere after the accident. Myson checked theyardbutwe did not gointo the kitchen gardenuntilӣɬ cleared it.
ӣɬhas comeand cleared our kitchen gardenand our neighbours’ kitchen gardenand cleared the village of shells. Ifsomeonefound something,ӣɬ would come at once and take itaway.If they had to destroy an item, they always warned us and made sure we felt secure.
I would like to thank everyoneat ӣɬwho caredabout us.It was so terrible but now everything issafe.”
ӣɬ's work in Primorsky has been made possible thanks to the local authorities and all our supporters, including the Government of the United States, the UK Government through CSSF and the European Union.
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