More than 160 people died when an overturned fuel tanker in northern Nigeria exploded. Witnesses and relatives of victims said poverty had driven most to try to collect the spilled gas.
The driver of a fuel tanker was transporting 45,000 liters of gasoline on an unlit road in northern Nigeria on Tuesday night when a van carrying tomatoes veered into his lane. The driver lost control of his vehicle as he tried to avoid the van.
The tanker capsized.
The driver, Yusuf Mohammad, emerged from the truck uninjured, as did the driver of the van. But within minutes, hundreds of residents swarmed around the overturned tanker to scoop up the spilled gasoline, an increasingly expensive and scarce commodity in Nigeria.
The decision cost them their lives. The tanker exploded an hour later and killed 168 people in the state of Jigawa, according to emergency officials. It was one of the deadliest road accidents ever recorded in Nigeria. Over 90 others remained hospitalized as of Thursday evening.
On Thursday, mourners circled around the area where most of the victims had been buried in the town of Majia, 70 miles away from Nigeria’s second-largest city, Kano.
By The New York Times
The burned tanker, covered in soot, still lay on its side, just yards away from the burial and charred crops of sorghum.
