Five people have been killed in an explosion at an illegal refinery in Rivers State, Nigeria, on April 26 after a fire ignited in an area where illegally refined fuels were stored.

According to a statement released by The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) – signed by the organisation’s president Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface – the victims included four women and one man, who had all been burned “beyond recognition”. The group added that the inferno had occurred in “a house where people purchased and stored illegally refined petroleum products including condensate for resale in the area”.

YEAC continued to warn against participating in the illegal trade, noting: “While calling for investigation into the incident, the Advocacy Centre warns residents and youths against involvement in pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refineries and trading in illegally refined petroleum products including home storage to avoid ugly incidents of this nature”.

Explosions within Rivers State – a hotspot for illegal refining and crude theft – are not rare occurrences, due to non-existent safety regulations and improvised refining methods.

In 2023, around 12 people were killed in an explosion near an illegal oil refinery in the Niger Delta when illegal refinery operators attempted to steal oil from a pipeline in the area.

At the time, Fyneface noted that a spark from the exhaust pipe of a bus loaded with oil had ignited and exploded as the driver was departing. “Everybody in about five vehicles there was all burnt” he said.

As is typical in many of these incidents, victims in the explosion were mostly young, and were looking to siphon and transport oil from the pipeline to the illegal refinery nearby.

With this latest accident, YEAC has moved to highlight alternatives to provide locals in the area with better opportunities – calling on the Nigerian government to legalise artisanal (currently illegal) refineries in the Niger Delta through the establishment of the proposed Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) or the Modular Refineries for artisanal Refiners in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region initiative, which could potentially “mitigate incidents of this nature” in future, according to the group.