CM – 99 dead in an oil tanker explosion in the capital of Sierra Leone

Rescue workers worked Saturday in Freetown's eastern Wellington suburb to clear the scene where a cremated corpse and blackened grenades from cars and motorcycles blocked the road after the accident.

CAMEROON MAGAZINE - GM07/11/20214 Mins read52 Views

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People gather around the charred oil tanker that exploded in Freetown, Sierra Leone after being hit by a truck. AP

At least 99 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the capital of Sierra Leone late Friday after large crowds gathered to collect spilled fuel, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.

Rescue workers worked on Saturday in Freetown’s eastern suburb of Wellington to clear the scene where a burned corpse and blackened grenades from cars and motorcycles blocked the road after the accident.

The explosion occurred late Friday when the tanker According to the National Disaster Management Agency, it collided with another truck as it pulled into a gas station near a busy intersection in Wellington, east of the capital, Freetown.

This photo shows the tanker as a truck in after the explosion Freetown, Sierra Leone, crashed into it.

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The injured were treated in hospitals and clinics across the capital, Deputy Health Minister Amara Jambai told Reuters.

Hospital officials called in as many doctors and nurses as possible overnight to take care of the wounded To take care of. The country’s health sector is still recovering from the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic that killed many doctors and nurses in the West African nation.

The victims included people who flocked to collect fuel for the had leaked from the broken vehicle, said Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the port city, in a post on Facebook, although this post was later edited to remove the reference.

« We have so many victims, burned corpses » said Brima Bureh Sesay, director of the National Disaster Management Agency, in a video from the scene shared online. « It’s a terrible, terrible accident. »

This video frame shows firefighters working to put out a fire in Freetown, Sierra Leone. AFP

President Julius Maada Bio, who attended the UN climate talks in Scotland on Saturday, lamented the “terrible loss of life”.

« My deepest condolences go to the families who have lost loved ones and to those who have lost them as a result, « he tweeted.

Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh visited two hospitals overnight and said the National Disaster Management Agency of Sierra Leone and others would » work tirelessly « following the emergency.

» We are everyone is deeply saddened by this national tragedy, « he said on his Facebook page.

Images posted on social media showed a number of victims lying badly burned on the streets of Freetown with shops and houses burning nearby.

The explosion occurred on Thursday at Chenjiagang Industrial Park in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, and the fire was finally brought under control at 3:00 a.m. (1900 GMT) on Friday, state television said.

Fifteen others were injured in the attack near the village of Yadud, about seven kilometers outside the provincial capital Daraa, the British observer said.

Nine other people were injured in the gas explosion on Monday afternoon that occurred in a mine owned by the Shanxi Pingyao Fengyan Coal & Coke Group Co, the official Xinhua news agency said.

A sudden explosion occurred on Sunday morning at the Abaiskaya coal mine operated by ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a Kazakh unit of the steel giant in the Karaganda industrial region of the Central Asian country.

Two suspects were arrested in connection with the killings last week, a senior Taliban security official Qari Sayed Khosti and an employee of the killed activist said on Saturday.

A spokesman for the commander in chief of the Iraqi armed forces said the security situation in Baghdad’s fortified green zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, has been stable after the drone attack.

Dozens of events are planned around the world to call for reductions in fossil fuel consumption and immediate aid to communities already affected by climate change, especially in poorer countries.

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