Greater than 150 folks, together with youngsters, had been killed and dozens of others wounded after an overturned gasoline tanker exploded in northwestern Nigeria.
The crash happened on an expressway in Jigawa State. Folks then rushed to the automobile to gather the gasoline, police spokesman Lawan Shiisu Adam mentioned.
Lethal tanker accidents are frequent in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which lacks an environment friendly railway system to move cargo.
Folks usually salvage gasoline with cups and buckets – particularly due to hovering gasoline costs, which have tripled for the reason that authorities ended pricey gasoline subsidies final 12 months.
The newest accident occurred at midnight on Tuesday in Majiya city when the driving force misplaced management of the automobile on a freeway, Adam mentioned on Wednesday. Residents rushed to the scene earlier than the “large inferno.”
A lot of the our bodies had been unrecognisable, emergency providers mentioned.
As mass burials had been held on Wednesday and Thursday, Dr Haruna Mairiga, head of the Jigawa emergency providers, mentioned a lot of the victims had been “burned to ashes” on the scene.
Greater than 1,500 accidents involving gasoline tankers occurred in Nigeria in 2020, leading to 535 deaths, in response to Nigeria’s Federal Highway Security Corps.
At the least 48 folks had been killed in September when a gasoline tanker collided with one other truck in north-central Nigeria.
The newest accident revived questions concerning the implementation of security measures and site visitors rules within the nation.
