Hundreds die in DR Congo fuel blast

At least 220 people are thought to have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a lorry loaded with oil exploded, setting fire to a village in the east of the country, UN and local officials say.

Marcellin Cisamvo, the governor of Kivu province, where the accident took place late on Friday, said children were among those killed.
“Some people were killed trying to steal the fuel, but most of the deaths were people who were indoors watching the [World Cup] match,” Cisamvo said on Saturday.
Vincent Kabanga, a spokesperson for the South-Kivu regional government, said the tanker, which was coming from Tanzania, overturned in the village of Sange.
“There was a crush [of people] and a petrol leak, [then] there was an explosion of fuel oil which spread throughout the village,” he said.

Deadly leak

Katrina Manson, a journalist with the Reuters news agency in the DRC, told Al Jazeera that once the fuel started leaking “it ran absolutely everywhere, once it caught fire, the trap was already set”.
Dozens of homes, mostly constructed with earth and straw, were engulfed in the blaze.
Sange is located around 100km from the town of Bukavu, near the border with Burundi.
A police officer based in Bukavu said the accident had been caused by the lorry’s “excessive speed”.
Leonard Zigade, an official with the Red Cross, said that the organisation has people on the spot and the search for victims is continuing.
The UN has made three helicopters available to evacuate residents and has alerted hospitals at Bukavu and Uvira, a source said.
Madnodge Mounoubai, a spokesperson for the UN stabilisation mission in the DRC, told Al Jazeera that about 35 people have been air-lifted to Bukavu for treatment.
Survivors “in the village need water, food and maybe psychological assistance”, he said.
The UN had initially said that five of its peacekeepers were killed in the blaze, but later said that no peacekeepers died.
Manson, the Reuters journalist, said that other medical staff have also been sent to the scene from Uvira.
“Congo is no stranger to transport-related accidents, whether on road, rail or on rivers, but this is one of the worst,” she said.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies