Nigeria: 100 People Killed in Pipeline Blast in Lagos!

Over 100 people have been killed in a pipeline blast Thursday afternoon, in the Ijegun suburb on the outskirts of Lagos. The fire started when the oil pipeline was ruptured by a road construction bulldozer. Several people, houses and schools nearby were engulfed by the flames and fumes of the pipeline fire as it spread. Many residents have fled the location and the injured have been taken to nearby hospitals in Lagos.

More than 200 people were killed in a similar pipeline fire on Friday May 12, 2006, and they were given a mass burial.

Pipeline explosions are common in the world's eighth-largest oil exporter where over 2, 000 people have been killed in previous oil pipeline explosions often caused by ruptured pipelines vandalized by illegal oil bunkerers.

The oil pipelines run through the swamps and creeks from the Niger Delta and crisscrossing villages and towns to reach other parts of the most populous country in Africa where the majority of the people are poor and cut off from modern civilization.

Violent disputes over oil revenues and kidnappings of foreign and local oil workers have cut oil supplies from Africa's leading oil producer by 25 percent.

PREVIOUS PIPELINE EXPLOSIONS IN NIGERIA:
December 2007: At least 40 people killed in Lagos
December 2006: At least 250 killed in Lagos
May 2006: At least 150 killed in Lagos
Dec 2004: At least 20 killed in Lagos
Sept 2004: At least 60 killed in Lagos
June 2003: At least 105 killed in Abia State
Jul 2000: At least 300 killed in Warri
Mar 2000: At least 50 killed in Abia State
Oct 1998: At least 1,000 killed in Jesse