Oil tanker explosion kills more than 100 in South Sudan

More than 100 people have been killed in South Sudan after an oil tanker veered off the road and exploded as people were siphoning fuel, a presidential spokesperson said. Around 50 others have been seriously injured.

The injured "may not survive," a regional official told Reuters on Thursday. 

"We don't have medical equipment and these people may not survive because we do not have the facilities to treat the highly burnt people," Charles Kisagna, the minister of information in Western Equatoria, said.

The people were trying to gather fuel from the tanker when it exploded after going off the road while on its way from the capital Juba to South Sudan's Western Equatoria region on Wednesday.

South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation and one of Africa’s poorest. It has been mired in an internal conflict between government forces and rebels since 2013, having only gained independence in 2011.

According to the presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny, Wednesday's incident was not related to the conflict.