Death toll rises in South Sudan tanker blast

The explosion on Wednesday happened after a crowd rushed to collect petrol from a leaking tanker that overturned in an accident on a road some 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of the capital, Juba, outside the town of Maridi in the Western Equatoria state.

Local media reported that a cigarette is believed to have caused the blast, yet the cause of the tanker's overturn remains unclear.

The injured were taken to local hospitals, but chances of their survival were rather low to begin with. "We don't have medical equipment and these people may not survive because we do not have facilities to treat highly burnt people," Charles Kisagna, information minister for the state of Western Equatoria, told journalists after the blast.

Patrick Raphael Zamoi, the governor of Western Equatoria, said the death toll is likely to rise even further because the official count only includes those who died on the spot or in hospital. Others may still be unaccounted for or may have died at home, he said.

South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, has almost no asphalt roads and fuel tankers often travel along poorly maintained paths. Deadly fuel tanker explosions are also quite common in East Africa, where poor residents living near highways converge around fuel tankers after accidents to steal gas.

dr/cmk (AP, dpa)