S/Sudan: Int’l help reaching tanker blast survivors

Aid organizations and the UN peacekeepers in South Sudan have been deployed in Mridi city to survivors of an oil tanker explosion killed over 150 people on Wednesday.The local authorities on Saturday called for international humanitarian intervention to help those seriously wounded and provide medical assistance.South Sudan government has announced an official three day national mourning for the Maridi victims beginning on Friday.

According to the latest reports on Saturday, most victims of the tanker fire are receiving treatment in Maridi Hospital, which the authorities said lacks sufficient staff and other resources to adequately handle the situation, after it was looted during a conflict in the county in June.

UN radio operating in South Sudan reported that the UN mission in south Sudan (UNMISS) has provided a helicopter to evacuate the critically injured to Juba and to transport a delegation, including doctors from the mission.

Workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have also arrived on the ground in Maridi to find ways to help the victims who continue to die of their wounds.

South Sudan had appealed for intervention by international aid organizations working in the country as the death toll from the oil tanker explosion exceeds 150.

Eyewitnesses and medical sources told APA that at least 60 people were killed and more than one hundred injured on the spot as the tanker exploded in the middle of a crowded local market.

“The truck coming from Juba to Yambio overturned and began leaking. Then people rushed to the scene to collect petrol from the leaking tanker and moments later it exploded” one eyewitness said.

A medical source said that the number of deaths is on therise due to victims with life-threatening injuries.