FiTI office severely damaged by explosion, staff is safe

The FiTI would like to inform its members, partners and friends that while its headquarter offices in the Providence Industrial Area of Seychelles have been severely damaged by an explosion yesterday, all of its staff are safe and operations remain intact.

The massive explosion happened just after 02:00 a.m. Seychelles time at a construction and quarrying company, where explosives were being stored in several containers. The blast caused massive damage to the Providence Industrial Area and the surrounding areas. The explosion, along with major destruction caused by flooding due to heavy rains, led to a state of emergency being declared by Seychelles’ President Wavel Ramkalawan, which has now been lifted.

The FiTI’s only global office, which is located in the Providence Industrial Area close to the quarrying company, was severely damaged and it is currently unclear whether the offices can be reoccupied at a later point in time.

According to Mr Sven Biermann, Executive Director of the FiTI International Secretariat “While we lost our entire physical infrastructure, I am beyond grateful that none of the FiTI team members got injured. We are still counting our blessings that the explosion occurred in the middle of the night, and not while everyone was in the office”.

Given that the Secretariat comprises of a globally distributed team of fisheries and governance experts, located in several countries as well as in its Seychelles-based headquarter, which is supported by a cloud-based IT infrastructure, no information or documents were lost during the blast, and the operations of the FiTI remain intact.

During its 22nd meeting, the FiTI International Board also expressed its condolences to all the other people affected by the explosion and the flooding, their homes and business livelihoods, and the human tool of this tragedy. The International Board requested the Secretariat to explore ways on how to support the Seychelles community in this difficult time.