At least 37 people, including two pregnant women, were burned to death following an explosion at an illegal oil refinery in a community in River State, south-south Nigeria, according to a report.
The incident occurred early Monday morning in the community of Ibaá, in State of the riversReuters reported on Tuesday, citing a local security official and a community leader.
“Thirty-five people were trapped in the fire. Two people who were lucky to escape also died this morning in hospital,” Rufus Welekem, head of community security, told Reuters.
“Relatives identified some of the victims and took them to the burial,” he said.
The report adds that a witness saw the charred remains of 15 people in an open space surrounded by burned palm trees and a motorcycle.
Illegal oil refining involves removing crude oil from pipelines and redirecting it to tanks, usually in bushes and forests, where the crude oil is boiled at high temperatures to convert it into different petroleum products.
In recent times, illegal oil refining has caused serious fatal accidents.
Newslodge reported in April last year how many people were killed when an explosion rocked an illegal crude oil refinery in Abaezi Forest, Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.
This newspaper also reported in March that at least 12 people were confirmed dead following the explosion of a pipeline from an illegal oil bunkering site in Rumuekpe community, Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The Guardian newspaper reported in October 2021 how illegal refining of petroleum products killed 20 people in the Rumuekpe community.
According to the newspaper, youths from the community were pumping petroleum products from several pipelines within the community stretch when an explosion occurred.
Similarly, in April last year, Business Day newspaper reported that more than 60 people were killed in the illegal Imo-River refinery explosion. The incident occurred in the border area of Rivers and Imo states.
In Rivers State, one of the most oil-rich states in Nigeria, air pollution, especially soot in and around Port Harcourt, the state capital, has been attributed to the operation of illegal oil refineries.
Over the years, Nigeria has recorded a rise in pipeline vandalism and incidents of crude oil theft in its oil-producing region, a development that has worsened the nation’s revenue challenge.
Earlier in September, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, said Nigeria lost N16.25 trillion from crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.
He said the threat of crude oil theft had hampered the growth of the country’s oil production, with between five and 30 percent of crude oil production lost daily.
Security officials have frequently discovered illegal refining sites in the country’s oil-producing region.
In September, the Defense Headquarters (DHQ) said Operation Delta Safe troops had discovered and destroyed 89 illegal refining sites in the Niger Delta region in the past two weeks.
Director of Defense Media Operations Edward Buba said troops also discovered and destroyed 21 graves, 56 boats, 138 storage tanks, 235 cooking ovens, six pumping machines, one outboard motor and two speed boats. .
He said troops have recovered about 1.2 liters of stolen crude oil, 452,910 liters of illegally refined automotive diesel, 22,650 liters of Premium Motor Spirit and 3,000 liters.