About 170 people have been reportedly killed in South Sudan after an oil tanker veered off the road and exploded as people were siphoning fuel. Many were also said to be injured and according to a regional officer, the injured ‘may not survive’, the Reuters reports. "We don't have medical equipment and these people may not survive because we do not have the facilities to treat the highly burnt people," Charles Kisagna, the minister of information in Western Equatoria said.
The people were trying to gather fuel from the tanker when it exploded after going off the road while on its way from the capital Juba to South Sudan's Western Equatoria region on Wednesday.
Such incidents have happened before in the east African region where fuel tankers often have to travel long distances along potholed roads and pass through poor communities. There are almost no tarmac roads in South Sudan. Also, South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation and one of Africa’s poorest. It has been mired in an internal conflict between government forces and rebels since 2013, having only gained independence in 2011.
According to the presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny, Wednesday's incident was not related to the conflict, the RT reports. It was simply an accident!
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