World

Officials: 200 Dead in Nigeria Blast

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 11, 2000 / 9:26 AM EDT / CBS

Authorities in Nigeria have confirmed 200 dead bodies Friday from a pipeline explosion earlier in the week.

Ministry of Health official Chris Oghene Chovwen said "at least 200" were confirmed killed near the villages of Adeje and Oviri-Court in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.

No details were available but Okpe municipal government chairman Fullman Akpere said about 180 were killed on the spot and 20 others died later of their injuries.

Many of the bodies had been hastily buried by villagers and were not immediately discovered by authorities.

Nigerian Red Cross workers on Friday were still trying to convince injured villagers to seek medical treatment. An undetermined number have gone into hiding, fearing arrest in connection with the blast. Witnesses said many of the injured including those with serious burns were being treated by traditional doctors.

A single injured man with oozing burns on his arms, legs and face turned up at a mobile station set up by the Red Cross team in Adeje. Between 30 to 40 others were believed to be in hiding not far away, the health workers said.

Sunday Tumewo, 25, said he had been afraid to go to a nearby hospital and instead treated his burns himself for several days using a simple antiseptic.

"I was afraid," Tumewo said without elaborating. "I don't want to think about what happened."

Niger state Gov. James Ibori on Thursday urged the injured to go to doctors, promising they would not be punished. But the villages near the blast remained practically empty Friday, as were area hospitals.

What sparked the blast was unclear, but the state petroleum company said the pipeline had been cut open by vandals who were part of an organized smuggling network that collected and sold salvaged gasoline.

Many of the victims mainly impoverished villagers, including schoolchildren had been gathered close to the pipe to collect the fuel and sell it by the bucket along roadsides, witnesses said.

The true death toll may never be known. Witnesses saw at least 100 corpses the day after the accident.

Some local reporters have estimated as many as 250 were killed, but that figure could not be independently confirmed. Many of the bodies were hastily buried in shallow graves by fearful villagers.

On Thursday, firefighters continued to fight the fire, which was still smoldering after damaging or destroying many buildings within a one-mile radius. Bodies still lay in the field nearby. The area was filled with the overpowering stench of gasoline and rotting flesh.

Earlier in the week, the government statement, signed by Information Minister Jerry Gana, said Nigeria has spent "enormous resources" to educate people about the need to "protect installations and oil pipelines so as to avoid these tragic accidents which have always resulted in loss of lives and property." It called on Nigerians to cooperate with the state petroleum company to safeguard the pipelines.

Pipeline sabotage is common in poverty-wracked Nigeria, and vandals have triggered numerous explosions in the past.

Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter, accounting for about one-twelfth of oil imported by the United States.