At Least 100 Nigerians Dead in Pipe Blast
A B U J A, Nigeria, July 11 -- The charred corpses of 100 villagers — many of them schoolchildren — were found and many other people were believed missing after a damaged gasoline pipeline exploded in southern Nigeria, witnesses said today.
A reporter for Lagos’ Daily Times newspaper, Sola Adebayo, said he counted 100 bodies at the scene of the blast near the villages of Adeje and Oviri-Court in the oil-rich Niger Delta. He said many of those killed in Monday’s explosion were young children wearing school uniforms.
The cause of the blast remained unclear, but witnesses and reporters said the pipeline had been punctured by vandals. Children and adults had flocked to the area to gather fuel in buckets and sell it along roadsides, the witnesses said.
Dan Akpele, a local farmer near Oviri-Court, said he heard a loud explosion and saw swarms of people running and screaming.
“There was total confusion. We were all shocked and confused,” Akpele said in a telephone interview. “I just thank God all 13 of my children are safe.”
Blaze Continues
This afternoon, a petroleum fire continued to rage and clouds of black smoke hung over the area. State petroleum company workers and firefighters were at the scene trying to extinguish the blaze.
A government statement issued late Monday said “several lives” were lost and “a vital petroleum products pipeline” destroyed.
“The government sympathizes with the families of those who lost their lives in the incident,” the statement said.
The explosion occurred close to the town of Jesse, where more than 700 people died in a similar disaster in 1998.
Punctured in Protest — or Desperation
Pipeline sabotage is common in poverty-wracked Nigeria, and vandals have triggered numerous explosions in the past. At least 497 cases of vandalism were recorded last year, according to the state petroleum company — each forcing costly shutdowns andrepairs.
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