Death toll from S. Sudan fuel tanker explosion exceeds 200

September 22, 2015 (JUBA) – The death toll from last week’s oil tanker fire at Maridi in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state has reached 203, the health minister disclosed.

Riek Gai Kok said more than 90 other people were nursing wounds in hospitals.

“We are providing the best medical assistance that we can and some of the wounded are being transferred to Juba,” said Kok.

The oil tanker veered off road while traveling from Juba to Yambio, some 250 km west of the capital, last week. The leaking fuel attracted huge crowds of villagers to siphon oil.

South Sudan observed three days of national mourning to remember the victims while the national assembly set up a committee to investigate the cause of the explosion.

Kok, who met president Salva Kiir this week, described the inferno as a “national tragedy.”

(ST)