A huge gas blast in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has killed at least two people and injured at least 222.

A lorry carrying gas exploded in Embakasi district around 23:30 (20:30 GMT), “igniting a huge ball of fire”, a government spokesperson said. 

Housing, businesses and cars were damaged with video showing a huge blaze raging close to blocks of flats.

Earlier, the government had said the blast happened at a gas plant. The cause is still being established.

Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said the blast scene had now been secured and a command centre had been set up to help co-ordinate rescue operations.

“Kenyans are hereby advised to keep off the cordoned area in order to allow the rescue mission to be carried out [with] minimal disruptions,” he added.

The blaze is reported to have spread through several apartment complexes, leading to fears the number of casualties could rise further.

Witnesses told local media they had felt tremors immediately after the blast.

One of those hurt, Boniface Sifuna, described what had happened for Reuters news agency: “I got burnt by an exploding gas canister as I was trying to escape,” he said. 

“It exploded right in front of me and the impact knocked me down and the flames engulfed me. I am lucky that I was strong enough to get away.”

An unnamed eyewitness speaking to the Nation newspaper spoke of “huge explosions, huge fireballs, people screaming and running everywhere for fear of more explosions”.

A Nation journalist living in the area said everyone had left their houses after the blast. 

The Kenya Red Cross said on social media that crews had been “tirelessly battling the flames”.

Source :BBC

Six students, three teachers and a bus driver have been kidnapped by unknown gunmen in south-western Nigeria.

In a statement posted online, the Ekiti state government said the victims were attacked in the town of Emure while returning from a road trip on Monday night.

State Governor Abiodun Oyebanji said the authorities are determined “to get the children and their teachers rescued”, meanwhile residents are being urged to remain and share any information that could help the search.

It is not yet clear who is responsible or whether they have demanded a ransom.

Kidnapping for ransom has worsened in Nigeria in recent years with armed gangs targeting road travellers, students as well as residents in rural and urban areas across the country.

Earlier on Monday, about 50 civil society organisations issued a joint call on President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency regarding the security situation. They said over 1,800 people had been abducted since the president assumed office in May last year.

A second day of unrest in the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros on Thursday (Jan. 18) left one person dead and at least six others injured, a health official said.

The protests came after incumbent President Azali Assoumani was declared the winner in an election held over the weekend that was denounced by the country’s opposition parties as fraudulent.

The announcement late Tuesday that Assoumani had won a fourth term triggered violent protests that started Wednesday, when a government minister’s house was set on fire and a car at the home of another minister was burned.

On Thursday (Jan. 18) a curfew was in force from 7PM-6 AM in Moroni (the capital), the Bambao region and Itsandra. In the rest of the country it was from 10 PM-6AM.

The person who died was a young man, said Dr. Djabir Ibrahim, the head of the emergency department at the El-Maarouf Hospital in Moroni. He said that the man likely died of a gunshot wound. One of the injured was in a serious condition, he said.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk appealed for calm and urged authorities to allow people to protest peacefully. His office said that it received reports of security forces firing tear gas at peaceful protesters, including on a march by a group of women earlier this week. Türk also said that he was concerned with repression in Comoros in recent years.

Opposition parties have claimed that Sunday’s vote was fraudulent and say the national electoral commission is biased toward Assoumani, a former military officer who first came to power in a 1999 coup. The opposition has called for the election results to be canceled.

Comoros has a population of around 800,000 spread over three islands.

Assoumani, 65, was reelected with 62.97% of the vote after changing the constitution in 2018 to allow him to sidestep term limits. He has been accused of cracking down on dissent and previously banned protests. He chairs the African Union, where his one-year largely ceremonial term will end next month.

The government said that a number of protesters were arrested, without offering specifics, and accused the opposition of finding “it difficult to accept defeat” and inciting the unrest.

“We know the instigators,” government spokesperson Houmed Msaidie said. “Some of them are in the hands of law enforcement. We will continue to look for them, because there is no question of the state giving way to violence.”

A coalition of opposition parties denied the accusations, saying the unrest shows that people are “fed up” with the government.

When Assoumani changed the constitution in 2018, the move triggered mass demonstrations across the nation and an armed uprising on one of the islands that was quelled by the army.

After taking power in a coup, Assoumani was first elected president in 2002. He stepped down in 2006, but returned to win a second term in 2016.