Explosion at illegal Nigerian oil refinery kills more than 100 people
- The blast, which destroyed a section of a nearby forest, came months after a blast at another illegal refinery in Rivers state killed at least 25
- Nigeria’s president said he would intensify the clampdown on illegal refineries after what he described as a ‘catastrophe’ and ‘national disaster’
Charred bodies were left scattered among burnt palms, cars and vans on Sunday after a weekend explosion which killed more than 100 people at an illegal oil refining depot on the border of Nigeria’s Rivers and Imo states.
Flip flops, bags and clothing belonging to those who died littered the ground, which was blackened by oil and soot while still emitting smoke in some places despite overnight rain.
“There are so many people that died here. I’m pleading to the government to look into this,” Uche Woke, a commercial bike rider, told Reuters at the scene of the blast on Saturday night.
The Nigerian Red Cross Society was on the scene on Sunday to assess the blast, which destroyed a section of the Abaezi forest, which straddles the border of the Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo state with Rivers state.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement that he would intensify the clampdown on illegal refineries after what he described as a “catastrophe” and “national disaster”.
Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing Niger Delta have made illegal refining attractive, but with often deadly consequences. Crude oil is tapped from a web of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined in makeshift tanks.
The process has led to fatal accidents and polluted a region already blighted by oil spills in farmland, creeks and lagoons.