Fuel tanker explosion leaves at least 150 dead in Nigeria

Kano, Nigeria: More than 150 people were killed in northern Nigeria on Tuesday after an overturned fuel tanker exploded, according to a police spokesperson, in one of the deadliest road disasters ever recorded in Africa's most populous country.

While the death toll was exceptionally high, the incident followed an all too common pattern on Nigeria's roads: A truck driver lost control of a fuel tanker, and people rushed in to collect the spilled gasoline from the overturned vehicle. Shortly after, an explosion turned into a deadly inferno.

As residents in the town of Majia, where the explosion occurred, mourned their dead Wednesday during a day of mass burials, more than 100 injured people remained hospitalised, according to the police spokesperson, Lawan Shiisu.

Two emergency services officials said the preliminary death toll would likely rise.

"Multiple households have suffered devastating casualties, losing more than one family member," said Mu'azu Rabiu, a resident of Majia who witnessed the incident.

Fuel tanker explosions make up a small portion of reported road-related deaths in Nigeria, a country of about 220 million people where more than 5,000 people died and 31,000 others were injured in traffic accidents last year, according to government data.

Poorly maintained roads, aging vehicles and loosely enforced safety regulations such as a lack of adherence to speed limits are among the main causes.

But fuel tanker explosions kill bystanders and pedestrians, while injuring others with severe burns.

In early September, at least 59 people died when a passenger truck and two other vehicles hit a toppled-over fuel tanker that had caught fire. In April, more than 100 vehicles burned in a similar explosion. And in July last year, at least eight people died as they were trying to siphon fuel from an overturned truck in the country's southwest.

The disaster Tuesday night was set off when the driver of a fuel tanker swerved to avoid colliding with a truck on an expressway in the northern state of Jigawa, according to Shiisu.

The tanker overturned near Majia, spilling fuel onto the roadway. Local residents rushed to scoop it up in what seemed like an easy way to collect an increasingly expensive commodity in Nigeria.

Fuel prices have more than tripled over the last year as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration has moved to abandon a costly government fuel subsidy that for decades gave Nigerians access to some of the cheapest gasoline in Africa.

Higher fuel prices have been a key factor behind nationwide protests over the rising cost of living that have embroiled Nigeria for months.

On Tuesday, despite police warnings and attempts to cordon off the area around the overturned tanker, many people gathered to collect the spilled fuel in the dark, according to Shiisu.

"The tanker, loaded with petrol, ignited shortly after the crash, causing an inferno that engulfed numerous people in the vicinity," Shiisu said.

Videos shared by Nigerian news outlets showed a truck engulfed in flames and a trail of fire along the road.

According to a World Health Organization report published this year, sub-Saharan African countries accounted for nearly 20 per cent of road fatalities globally in 2021, even though they hold only 3 per cent of the world's vehicles.

Last month, the Nigerian government introduced a mobile app designed to prevent road accidents in the country. The fuel tanker explosion Tuesday was at least the second road accident to cause dozens of deaths since then.