At least 30 people were killed when a petrol pipeline caught fire and exploded in southeast Nigeria after a raid by suspected oil thieves, a survivor and officials said on Saturday. The incident happened in the town of Aba on Friday when vandals burst the pipeline operated by the state-run Pipeline and Product Marketing Company. The spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said the victims were vandals attempting to scoop petrol from the pipeline. Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and exporter, runs a network of pipelines that transport crude and petrol across the vast nation. Hundreds of lives have been lost in recent years due to oil vandals bursting pipelines to steal petrol, sometime resulting in explosions.

Source: The Guardian October 13, 2018 11:09 UTC