Nigeria
Tanker explosion kills at least 70
ABUJA — At least 70 people have died in north-central Nigeria after a gasoline tanker exploded, the country’s emergency response agency said. The blast happened in the early hours of Saturday near the Suleja area of Niger state after individuals attempted to transfer gasoline from one tanker into another truck using a generator. The fuel transfer sparked the explosion, resulting in the deaths of those transferring the gasoline and bystanders, Hussaini Isah, of the National Emergency Management Agency, told the Associated Press. Search and rescue operations were underway, Isah said. With the absence of an efficient railway system to transport cargo, fatal truck accidents are common along most of the major roads in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. In September, an explosion killed at least 48 people in Niger state after a gasoline tanker collided with a truck conveying cattle. There were 1,531 gasoline tanker crashes in 2020, resulting in 535 fatalities and 1,142 injuries, according to Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps. (AP)
Spain
Dozens hurt in ski lift accident
BARCELONA — At least 30 people have been injured in a ski lift accident at the Spanish resort of Astún, in the Pyrenees mountain range, emergency services for Spain’s northern Aragon region said Saturday. Regional emergency services said that 10 people needed to be treated in hospitals, including two who were seriously injured. State TV channel TVE reported that around 80 people were trapped on the chairlifts in the immediate aftermath. “It’s like a cable has come off, the chairs have bounced and people have been thrown off,’’ one witness told TVE. Fernando Beltrán, a representative of Spain’s government in Aragon, later posted on X that “all the skiers affected by the accident’’ had been evacuated and those who were injured were receiving medical treatment. The cause of the incident is unknown. Several helicopters were deployed to the area to rescue those trapped and transfer the injured to nearby hospitals. Social media images and video appeared to show a number of people lying on the snow beneath the ski lift. (AP)
Kenya
More police are deployed to Haiti
NAIROBI — Kenya’s interior minister said the east African nation had deployed another 217 police officers to Haiti as part of a multinational force to curb gang violence. Kipchumba Murkomen said in a statement Saturday that the police officers departed Kenya Friday. “The Kenya-led mission has made tremendous progress in reducing gang violence, earning praise across the globe,’’ said Mukomen, who shared a photo of himself with some of the officers aboard a plane. Kenya’s “commitment to this historic mission is unwavering,’’ he said. Kenya first sent troops to the Caribbean nation in June and the total deployment now exceeds 600. Kenya’s President William Ruto has pledged to deploy 1,000 troops as part of the United Nations-backed force in Haiti. Gang violence has left more than 700,000 Haitians homeless in recent years. More than 5,600 people were reported killed across Haiti last year, according to the UN. (AP)
