Another deadly pipeline explosion in Nigeria

by wsws (reposted)

Fri, Dec 29, 2006 6:20AM

Hundreds of people were killed December 26 when a gas pipeline exploded in a poor neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, the latest in a series of similar tragedies that have claimed the lives of thousands of people in the oil-rich yet impoverished African nation. The blast occurred as hundreds of residents of the Ebule Egba district of Lagos surrounded the punctured state-owned pipeline, and were collecting the gasoline in cans, buckets and plastic bags.

Red Cross officials counted 269 dead and many more severely burned, but the number of casualties could rise sharply once all of the injured are accounted for. Residents say many of the wounded have not sought medical care for fear that they would be arrested and prosecuted for tampering with the pipeline, or simply because they are too poor to afford hospital treatment.

Tuesday’s explosion was followed by another pipeline blast in Lagos on Thursday. There was no immediate word on casualties. Adeola Adefolabi, a Lagos government official, said the blast was in a northern neighborhood of Nigeria’s largest city. A Nigerian Red Cross official, Ige Oladimeji, said his workers were heading to the site, but had no information on injuries.

More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/nige-d29.shtml

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