ABIDJAN, Jan 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Officials at the Ivorian port of Abidjan said Saturday they were taking precautions ahead of the arrival of a ship carrying 20,000 tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate.

Campaigners have expressed concern about the condition of the cargo, which is arriving Monday on the Barbados-flagged Zimrida.

"Following allegations of damage to the cargo transported and as a precaution to protect the population and property", the ship would remain in the outer harbour, said the port authority.

On Monday morning port and customs officials will meet with owners of both the cargo and the vessel to examine the situation in depth, the statement added.

The port is due to unload 3,000 tonnes of the controversial cargo.

Although normally used as an agricultural fertiliser, ammonium nitrate can also be used to make explosives.

It was an explosion of ammonium nitrate in Beirut that killed more than 220 people, injured at least 6,500 and devastated swathes of the Lebanese capital in 2020.

- A long journey -

It is not the first time this particular cargo has raised concerns.

Last August the Ruby, a Handymax bulk carrier, left Russia carrying the 20,000 tonnes of fertiliser.

Having left the port of Kandalaksha on August 22, it ran into a storm in the Barents Sea and limped, damaged, into the Norwegian port of Tromso for inspection.

But it was ordered to leave and proceed with the aid of a tug to another port elsewhere for repairs.

After being turned away by Lithuania -- which wanted it to unload its volatile cargo before docking -- it anchored off southeast England for several weeks.

In early December, French ecologist group Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) and several British media reports said the cargo had been transferred to the Zimrida at the English port of Yarmouth.

Abidjan's port authority said in its statement Saturday that it wanted to "reassure the Ivorian population that all merchandise entering or leaving the Ivorian ports is subject to strict checks".

Many here still remember the August 2006 Probo Koala disaster.

Toxic residues on board the Panamanian-registered freighter arrived in Abidjan for treatment after the Dutch port of Amsterdam had refused to receive them.

An Ivorian sub-contractor dumped the waste on the city's garbage sites and in at least 18 other locations.

Ivorian judges say that more than 500 cubic metres (18,000 cubic feet) of spent caustic soda, oil residues and water killed 17 people and poisoned thousands more.