diff --git a/cpp/particles/p2p/p2p_ghost_collisions.hpp b/cpp/particles/p2p/p2p_ghost_collisions.hpp
index 1e1d619fb1e36f5b1a633b87258823ba53d52ff6..b89fe8574d20620cfca8320b4f9fbebc0ef85405 100644
--- a/cpp/particles/p2p/p2p_ghost_collisions.hpp
+++ b/cpp/particles/p2p/p2p_ghost_collisions.hpp
@@ -127,9 +127,9 @@ public:
         {
             DEBUG_MSG(("local IDs of vec: "+std::to_string(collision_pairs_vec_local[0])+" "+std::to_string(collision_pairs_vec_local[1])+"\n").c_str());
         }
-        int * recvcounts;
+        int * recvcounts = NULL;
         int vec_len_local = collision_pairs_vec_local.size();
-        int * displ;
+        int * displ = NULL;
         if (myrank == 0)
         {
             recvcounts = new int[nprocs];