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Normal life has come back for most of the Congolese although small detonations could still be heard in the district of Mpila where the tragedy happened.
In Mpila, where the blasts leveled houses and shattered window glass panels, police and soldiers could be seen at crossroads, maintaining orders and assisting the local residents to hunt valuable items from the rubbles.
Pedestrians, in silence, were waiting with patience for the traffic to move in streets clogged with private vehicles and taxies loaded with dusty but still decent furniture retrieved from collapsed buildings.
In areas that were less affected by the blasts, shops, schools, supermarkets and banks resumed open. Kids were playing football outdoors.
The blasts, which have so far claimed over 150 lives and wounded over 1,000, were blamed by a short circuit in the arms depot, according to the official statistics provided by the Congolese government. It rocked the city of Brazzaville on Sunday morning, destroying an arms depot between the districts of Mpila and Talangai and leveling nearby buildings.
Rescue operation was still underway. At least seven bodies have been retrieved as of Monday morning as rescuers were busy combing the rubbles near the depot for signs of life.
For those who were reduced homeless in the unexpected mishap, it will take both courage and time to move on.
"I am very sad but life needs to move on and I will live on," said Oleta Sandra, who lost his nine-year-old son in the explosions.
"I want to take good care of my other children and to rebuild my house as soon as possible," he told Xinhua. "But frankly, I have no idea what to begin with now."
A soldier who provided his name as Kava said he is now trapped between a rock and a hard place.
"I want to rebuild my house which was reduced to ashes in the blasts," he said, "But as a soldier, I was commanded to maintain order in the streets."
The traumatized man, whose only belongings is a piece of water pipe, said he would follow the orders as a soldier.
Some hotels in Brazzaville were fully booked as those who work for foreign companies and institutions swarmed in, abandoning their damaged dormitories.
But most people are not as lucky.
They have to rebuild with shreds and patches like the torn metal pieces and broken bricks they could found in the rubbles.
To accommodate the homeless, the Congolese government has announced to set up free settlement in downtown Brazzaville. But a lot more still need to be done.
"I am penniless and I am starving. I have not eaten anything for the whole day," said Dzangue Tatiana, who lost her house in the blasts and was settled at Coeur Sacre Church, the largest settlement in the city.
Tatiana, mother of three children with the youngest being 10 months old, sat in dimmed light behind a make-shift tent. "We need help," she said in despair.
According to Lamin Maneh, a coordinator of the UN system in the Republic of Congo, the settlement has accommodated more than 2,000, who have free access to food and water provided by the local government. But she admitted that the current demands are far beyond the supplies.
"I hope more NGOs can be involved to help the homeless," she said.
She also noted that UN organizations have already started to step in to help the needy in the country.
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