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An NGO said Saturday that several people were feared burned to death overnight after an explosion at an illegal oil refinery in southern Nigeria. Police confirmed the explosion, saying it occurred late Friday, but did not provide any details on casualties. “Several bodies burned beyond recognition lay on the ground, while others who may have tried to flee for safety are seen hanging from tree branches,” said Fyneface Dumnamene, Executive Director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC).
According to local media, over 100 people were killed in the blast, which was the latest in Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer.
Late Friday, an explosion occurred at the site of an illegal refinery where operators and their patrons had gathered for business, according to police.
“The incident occurred on the border between Rivers and Imo states,” Rivers state police spokesperson Grace Iringe-Koko told AFP, without going into further detail.
Illegal crude refining is common in the southern oil region, where oil thieves vandalise pipelines in order to steal crude, which they then refine and sell on the black market.
Despite being the continent’s largest oil producer, with around two million barrels per day, the majority of people in the oil-producing Niger delta live in poverty.
Pipeline fires are common in Nigeria, owing in part to poor pipeline maintenance, but also to thieves who vandalise pipelines in order to syphon off petrol and sell it on the black market.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the past as a result of petroleum product theft and illegal refining, a practise known locally as bunkering.
As part of efforts to prevent the theft of the country’s oil resources, the government has implemented the military to raid and decimate illegal refineries in the Niger delta.
