At least 50 killed in fuel tanker explosion in Nig...

At least 50 killed in fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria

Zim Now Writer

At least 50 people died on Sunday after a fuel tanker collided head-on with another truck in Nigeria causing an explosion.

The fuel tanker was also carrying cattle in the Agaie area in north-central Niger state and at least 50 of them were burned alive, director-general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Abdullahi Baba-Arab said.

Baba-Arab said initially that 30 bodies were found but in a later statement an additional 18 bodies of victims who were burned to death in the collision were found. He said the dead had been given a mass burial.

Mohammed Bago, governor of Niger state, said residents of the affected area should remain calm and asked road users to "always be cautious and abide by road traffic regulations to safeguard lives and property.”

With the absence of an efficient railway system to transport cargo, fatal truck accidents are common along most major roads in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.

According to Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps, 1,531 gasoline tanker crashes resulted in 535 fatalities and 1,142 injuries in 2020 alone.