LAGOS: The death toll from the explosion of a petrol tanker truck in Nigeria that killed people rushing to gather fuel has risen to 86, emergency services said on Sunday.

The truck carrying 60,000 litres (nearly 16,000 gallons) of gasoline exploded after flipping over on a road in the centre of the country on Saturday, authorities said.

“The final death toll from the tanker explosion is 86,” said Ibrahim Audu Husseini, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in Niger state.

“We buried 86 burnt corpses between 12pm yesterday to 2am of today,” he said, updating an earlier toll of 70.

“It took us 14 hours to bury the bodies because we couldn’t get excavators and had to get locals to dig the mass grave manually.”

The blast struck at the Dikko junction on the road linking the federal capital Abuja to the northern city of Kaduna.

In October, more than 170 people died in a similar accident in Jigawa State, in northern Nigeria.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2025

Opinion

Editorial

No time left
Updated 06 Feb, 2025

No time left

Climate change concerns continue to remain a footnote as politics dominates national discourse, surfacing only when disaster strikes.
Karim Aga Khan
06 Feb, 2025

Karim Aga Khan

PRINCE Karim Aga Khan was a man who straddled various worlds and cultures. Beyond his role as spiritual leader of ...
Cotton production
06 Feb, 2025

Cotton production

PAKISTAN’S cotton crop is on the ropes. The crop output has been falling since FY15, when the country harvested a...
Kashmir question
Updated 05 Feb, 2025

Kashmir question

The important thing is to continue dialogue process, on bilateral disputes, Kashmir issue, and move beyond rigid positions.
Letters from jail
05 Feb, 2025

Letters from jail

OVER the past week, former prime minister Imran Khan has directly addressed his concerns to both the chief justice ...
Agriculture tax
05 Feb, 2025

Agriculture tax

WITH Sindh and Balochistan finally approving changes to their agriculture income tax laws to harmonise their AIT...