Eight people were killed in a fire yesterday that broke out near an oil pipeline damaged by sabotage in the west of war-torn Yemen, a government official said.
“Dozens of people had gathered at the site of the pipeline with bowls and other containers to fill with petrol spilling from the pipeline” in Hodeida on the Red Sea, the official in Yemen’s recognised government said.
He said the fire broke out because of the use of an electricity generator, leaving eight dead and 13 others with burns. Medical sources in Hodeida said at least eight people died.
More than 7,700 people — most of them civilians — have been killed in fighting between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government backed by a coalition since March 2015, according to the United Nations.