LAGOS, 22 June 2003 — More than 100 Nigerian villagers were burned alive when an oil pipeline exploded as they were looting fuel, the head of the Nigerian Red Cross said yesterday.
“Over 105 people are known to have died. We expect a lot more deaths to be reported,” Red Cross President Emmanuel Ijewere said, adding that the blast had been triggered accidentally on Thursday.
“Whole families were wiped out,” he said. More villagers suffered severe burns and are being cared for in local hospitals and private homes around the scene of the tragedy, near the town of Ovim in the southeastern state of Abia, he said.
Ijewere said the pipeline had begun leaking around six weeks ago. At first it had been carrying kerosene, then diesel and later the more volatile petrol.
According to Nigerian press reports, when petrol began pouring out, a large crowd descended on the area to try to siphon it off in jerry cans and bottles.
Ndu Ughamadu, public affairs manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, confirmed the pipeline had been carrying petrol and said that engineers had been sent to the scene.
“We have received reports that thieves vandalized the pipeline. Villagers went there to try and scoop up gasoline, and a spark set off the explosion,” he told AFP by telephone. “We understand that there were casualties. We cannot confirm the numbers,” he said.
The pipe was carrying fuel from the southern city of Port Harcourt to Enugu, the commercial center of the southeastern region, he said.
