Nigerian Pipeline Blast - 8th in 8 Years
Since 1998 there have been at least eight major pipeline blasts in Nigeria, many of them due to nationals breaking the lines open in order to obtain fuel.
This time more than 200 people have been killed in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, the Red Cross says though they caution that officials are still counting bodies. They fear that the death toll could be higher.
The BBC reports that the blast in the Abule Egba area happened as hundreds of people were scooping fuel from a pipeline punctured by thieves, officials said.
Some 2,000 people have died in similar incidents in the past decade.
The secretary general of Nigeria’s Red Cross, Abiodum Orebiyi, told the BBC that a number of houses had been destroyed, along with a mosque and a church.
NIGERIA PIPELINE DISASTERS
May 2006: At least 150 killed in Lagos
Dec 2004: At least 20 killed in Lagos
Sept 2004: At least 60 killed in Lagos
June 2003: At least 105 killed in Abia State
Jul 2000: At least 300 killed in Warri
Mar 2000: At least 50 killed in Abia State
Oct 1998: At least 1,000 killed in Jesse