An explosion at an illegal oil refining depot in Nigeria’s Rivers state killed over 100 people overnight, a local government official and the NGO Youths and Environmental Advocacy Center (YEAC) said on Saturday.
“The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition,”the state commissioner for petroleum resources, Goodluck Opiah, said.
Unemployment and poverty in the Niger Delta have made illegal crude refining an attractive business but with deadly consequences.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Crude oil is tapped from a maze of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks.
The hazardous process has led to many fatal accidents and has polluted a region already blighted by oil spills in farmland, creeks and lagoons.
Read more:
UN says 20 million risk starvation as Horn of Africa drought worsens
Joint West African force says more than 100 insurgents killed in recent weeks
Nigerian air strikes kill 70 ISIS-linked terrorists
