- Fifty-four people were killed and dozens injured when a petrol tanker in Benin caught fire and exploded as they were siphoning petrol, police and hospital sources said.
Police told IRIN that the toll on Friday had risen from 39 to 54, and hospital sources said 10 people remained in critical condition.
Earlier in the day, Boniface Sambieni, director of the Saint Jean de Dieu de Tanguieta hospital, told IRIN that a third of around 60 people injured were in critical condition suffering from third degree burns. Twenty-three people had died on the spot in the accident Wednesday evening in northwest Benin. The remainder died while receiving treatment.
The hospital did not have enough beds or medicine for the injured, some of whom were being looked after in makeshift conditions in a meeting room, said Sambieni. The local government head Paul Tawema said extra staff and medicine were being rushed north to help.
The hospital director said he did not know how the accident had occurred. He had been called to the scene late at night in the village of Tega 700 kms northwest of Cotonou and had helped the evacuate the injured as there were no ambulances available.
A journalist with the Benin national news agency said the driver of the tanker, which was heading to Mali, lost control of the vehicle, which tipped over onto the side of the road. When local villagers arrived to siphon off the petrol, the engine was still hot and a spark ignited the fuel, causing the explosion.
A television correspondent who arrived on the scene later said the accident occurred when a homemade lamp carried by a villager fell over and ignited a fire.
This week’s drama is the latest in a string of disasters in Benin involving petrol.
The tiny West African nation, one of the world’s 20 poorest according to UN figures, with one out of three people living below the poverty line, has been severely short of petrol products due to soaring world prices and hitches in domestic supply.
But with Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, as its neighbour, cheaper petrol has been flowing easily if illegally across the border, easing shortages but triggering successive accidents.
In one such incident late last year, four people turned into human torches and shops and traffic lights were scorched at rush hour in the heart of the main city Cotonou when a motorbike crashed into a petrol smuggler hauling several 50-litre cans of contraband petrol. The cans exploded.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
front page
| news
| countries
| archive
| currencies
| news alerts login
| about afrol News
| contact
| advertise
| español