100 charred bodies, others missing in Nigeria pipeline fire

ABUJA, Nigeria - More than 100 charred bodies, many of them children in school uniforms, lay scattered among burned palm and rubber trees Tuesday after a damaged gasoline pipeline exploded in southern Nigeria, killing villagers scavenging fuel with buckets and chamber pots.

The death toll was expected to climb. About 100 villagers were seriously injured; 100 others were reported missing, witnesses and state television said. The cause of the explosion was not known.

Some local newspaper reporters who visited the scene estimated between 150 and 250 people were killed.

Officials said the blast occurred Monday morning when the punctured 12-inch pipeline caught fire near the villages of Adeje and Oviri-Court, in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The fire continued to burn Tuesday and clouds of black smoke hung over the area. State petroleum company workers and firefighters were trying to extinguish the flames.

The pipeline was carrying gasoline from a refinery in Warri to northern Nigeria.

The accident resembled a similar tragedy in nearby Jesse, where more than 700 people were killed in October 1998. Since then, the government has tried to educate villagers about the danger of ''scooping,'' the illegal practice of scavenging fuel from pipelines. But absolute poverty in the region means many people remain willing to risk death for fuel.

''This really wasn't a surprise. Our people know the danger of scooping for petrol. But they have to survive,'' said Austin Obaseki as he grimly observed the carnage.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's spokesman, Doyin Okupe, meanwhile, called the disaster an ''avoidable tragedy'' and blamed greedy business operators for encouraging dangerous pipeline vandalism.

''It is driven by poverty and greed,'' Okupe said. ''They know the risks. It is very difficult for us to (convince people to stop) when people already know the risks.''

Some of the injured were taken to a hospital in Warri. But many others were being treated at home by traditional doctors because they feared arrest. In the past, the government has prosecuted and even threatened to shoot pipeline vandals on sight.

The blast destroyed fields and buildings within a one-mile radius. Burned corpses lay scattered about the area Tuesday - some still clutching containers used to collect fuel - while villagers began burying other bodies in shallow graves.

Sola Adebayo, a reporter for Lagos' Daily Times newspaper, counted 100 bodies before giving up. Other reports estimated the dead at 150 to 250.

Dan Akpele, a farmer living near Oviri-Court, said in a telephone interview that he heard a loud explosion early Monday and saw swarms of people running and screaming.

Many were unable to outrun the leaping flames, other witnesses said.

''There was total confusion. We were all shocked and confused,'' Akpele said. ''I just thank God all 13 of my children are safe.''

What sparked the explosion remained unclear although witnesses said the pipeline had been punctured by vandals days earlier. Children and adults flocked to the area from surrounding villages each day to gather the gasoline in buckets and sell it along roadsides, the witnesses added.

State petroleum corporation managing director Gaius Obaseki said Tuesday the company would step up security patrols and education programs to ''let people know that this wanton destruction of lives is unnecessary and the nation can ill afford it.''

An Information Ministry statement issued late Monday said ''several lives'' were lost and ''a vital petroleum products pipeline'' destroyed.

''The government sympathizes with the families of those who lost their lives in the incident,'' the statement added.

Some cases of sabotage are carried out by militant activists trying to force the government and oil companies to give compensation to communities for land use and alleged pollution. In other cases, villagers collect the gushing fuel to make a crude mixture of oil and gasoline for cheap generators and other motors.

Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter, accounting for about one-twelfth of the oil imported by the United States. Sales of crude oil account for more than 80 percent of the government's revenue, and disruptions caused by sabotage are especially painful at a time when oil prices have skyrocketed from 1998 lows.