Facilities are stretched at the main hospital in Nigeria's southern oil city of Warri, Delta State, where more than 40 victims of adulterated kerosene explosions have been hospitalised in the past two weeks. At least 20 people have died.

Kerosene is the most popular cooking and lighting fuel in Nigeria, used by the overwhelming majority of its 140 million population. However, supply shortages and rising prices have led to unscrupulous dealers adulterating it with highly flammable materials, causing the explosions in the Warri area.

Some 17 women, six men and six children are still hospitalised at the government-run Warri General Hospital where doctors are struggling to keep them alive. Hospital officials said several patients brought to the hospital with between 80-90 percent burns died soon after arrival.

“The hospital is overstretched. We need assistance, the patients need special treatment and we need more personnel to provide it,” Peter Oside, the consultant surgeon at the hospital, told reporters.

“Treatments for burns are very expensive. The patients need antibiotics, they need special treatments, drugs, among other things, and these are not readily available now,” Oside added.

Most of the patients said they were trying to light up lanterns during power cuts when the explosions occurred. Others were lighting kerosene stoves to cook meals when the blast was triggered. Many had bought the kerosene from roadside hawkers.

Despite being Africa's leading oil exporter, Nigeria has been forced to rely on imports because its poorly maintained oil derivatives’ sector cannot meet domestic demand. The situation leads to frequent shortages and price increases. Unscrupulous dealers often use the opportunity to introduce cheaper but more deadly kerosene.

Inefficiency in the state-run power utility has led to perennial power cuts, lasting several hours each day, forcing many people to rely on candles and kerosene lanterns to light their homes at night.

Gangs siphoning condensate?

The state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which oversees fuel imports, said it has launched an investigation to identify the source of the adulterated kerosene. Privately, however, officials of the company allege criminal gangs have been siphoning condensate, a by-product of crude petroleum which looks like kerosene, from pipelines and mixing it with kerosene.

During a visit to the Warri General Hospital last week, Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, donated 50,000 naira (US$400) to provide temporary assistance to the victims and urged the NNPC to act urgently to withdraw the deadly kerosene from circulation. The NNPC has in turn warned members of the public to buy kerosene only from authorised deadlers in filling stations and avoid roadside dealers.