Okrika, Nigeria: At Least 37 Dead From Toxic Fumes
In Nigeria's Rivers State, at least 37 people died after inhaling toxic fumes while loading fuel at night from a punctured pipeline near Okrika, the worst such incident since 2023.
At least 37 people died in the early hours of Thursday, September 3, after inhaling toxic fumes while trying to draw fuel from a punctured pipeline at the Okari waterfront in Okrika, a municipality in Nigeria’s southern Rivers State. The tragedy unfolded thousands of kilometers from Belgrade, yet it is a reminder of how firmly West Africa remains fixed on the global oil map despite the distance. Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil producer and a member of OPEC, so disruptions in its delta, including pipeline theft and sabotage, stay part of the same worldwide picture that, through energy prices, also touches Serbia.
According to the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Centre, better known by its acronym YEAC-Nigeria, which confirmed the accident through its own network on the ground, more than 100 young men from Okrika and nearby settlements arrived at the waterfront in wooden boats around midnight to draw fuel from a pipeline linked to the Indorama Eleme corridor. Locals, according to the same account, have long called the product “Indorama fuel.” The group took advantage of a moment when a tanker nearby was carrying out its own loading, and oil from the punctured pipe was escaping under high pressure.
The fumes overcame people without warning. Many collapsed on the spot, some fell into the river and drowned, and survivors, according to the same account, suffered severe breathing difficulties and were taken to hospital. The official death toll varies from source to source. YEAC-Nigeria puts it at least 37 dead, while sources within the community itself claim the true figure is 43, with several more missing and bodies later spotted floating in the river. Reuters said it could not independently verify either the death toll or all the circumstances of the accident.
Rivers State police said the victims had been trying to steal petroleum products and that an investigation is underway.
“An investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of the incident and establish the facts,” Rivers State police spokeswoman Blessing Kaborlo Agabe said in a statement carried on September 4.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, known by its acronym NSCDC, said for its part that the figures in circulation have not yet been verified and that the substance behind the poisoning still requires technical confirmation. The agency added that it is working with security services to establish the final number of dead, injured and missing, as well as to determine whether negligence, complicity or criminal involvement played a role in the incident.
Crude oil theft and pipeline sabotage are a chronic problem in the Niger Delta, the region in southern Nigeria where illegal pipeline tapping has for years caused deaths, pollution and losses for the country’s oil industry. What sets the Okrika accident apart from the string of similar incidents is its scale. It is the highest known death toll from such an event since at least October 2023, when a similar pipeline accident in the same region last claimed as many lives.
So far no Nigerian institution has released a final, verified death count, nor has a timeline been given for when one might come. While YEAC-Nigeria and Okrika residents speak of dozens dead and missing, the official police and NSCDC investigation has yet to establish the exact sequence of events that night at the Okari waterfront, and to separate what has been confirmed from what for now remains a community account.
