Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing Niger Delta have made illegal oil refining an attractive business with deadly consequences.
According to official figures, more than 100 people died in an explosion at the depot of an illegal oil refinery in Nigeria overnight. The victims were burned beyond recognition, Rivers State Oil Commissioner Goodluck Opiah said Saturday. A representative of the non-governmental organization Youth and Environmental Advocacy Center (YEAC) confirmed the accident.
The refinery was located in the Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, in the Abaezi Forest, which is on the border between the two states. Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing Niger Delta have made illegal oil refining an attractive business with deadly consequences. Crude oil is extracted from a network of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks. The dangerous process resulted in countless deaths and polluted a region already scarred by oil spills on farmland, streams and ponds.
According to the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Center, the explosion set fire to several vehicles waiting in line to buy illegal fuel. In recent weeks, the governor of Rivers state has taken action against illegal refineries to reduce growing air pollution. “The Governor of Rivers State recently made an effort to end illegal refining in Rivers so that he has to move to outlying areas and neighboring states. There have been several raids in the last couple of months and some of the security officers involved have been arrested.” , said Ledum Mitee, former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).
An explosion and fire at another illegal refinery in Rivers state in October killed at least 25 people, including some children. n February, local authorities said they had launched an operation to stop the refining of stolen crude, but with little success.
Government officials estimate that Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and exporter, loses an average of 200,000 barrels of oil a day – more than 10 percent of production – to pipelines that are being drilled or damaged.
Barra bombing
Eleven people were injured in a bomb attack on a bar in the village of Nukkai, in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Tarabaim, late on Friday. “The explosive device, hidden in a plastic bag, was left in the bar by an unknown person during a power outage,” a police spokesman told AFP on Saturday. Ten men and one woman were injured. Jihadists claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack.
“Caliphate soldiers detonated an explosive device in a bar in Nukkai,” the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) group said on the Telegram online service. Police said six people were killed and 16 others were injured in an explosion at a bar in the nearby town of Iware on Tuesday. Here, too, the ISWAP claimed responsibility for the attack.
If the militia is really behind this, it would be the first time they’ve appeared in Taraba. ISWAP generally focuses on the Lake Chad region. In Taraba and other northern Nigerian states, on the other hand, criminal gangs have been active for a long time, using violence primarily for financial reasons. Concerns have recently grown about possible links between jihadists and these so-called bandits.
(APA/AFP/Reuters)