Over 50 local traders were victims of a gunpowder explosion on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at the Talata-Mafara Central market in Zamfara State, North West Nigeria.
The explosion happened around 3:30 p.m. when the local gun manufacturers were displaying their arms, including dangerously identified gunpowder which exploded due to heat pressure amidst a rowdy market session.
Locally manufactured using deadly content, the gunpowder has helped local fighters combat terrorists ravaging their communities.
“We use sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate including ‘tunfafiya’ to make the powder and install it into a gun,” said Garba Makeri, a blacksmith from Mafara.
Traders and commuters were shattered by the explosion and instant fire flames that engulfed the entire market area. Witnesses say there were several irreparable losses of valuables belonging to traders.
Ahmadu Kabiru, a local vendor from the Matusgi village in Zamfara, said: “I was selling my stuff in the market when we heard fire running within the market surrounding. There was a sudden splitting of the powder across the selling points in the market vicinity. Today’s weather was hot, and the powder could not resist the pressure so it caught fire.”
He added that over 27 people whom he directly knows were burnt.
Officials of the Nigerian Police Force, the Nigerian Red Cross and the staff of Doctors Without Borders were at the scene for a rescue mission.
Yahaya Abubakar Yari, the chairman of the Talata-Mafara Local Government Council claimed that out of over 50 victims, 47 have been identified with severe injuries and currently at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto for emergency treatment.
“Although no case of loss of life was recorded to this moment, I ordered for immediate transfer of 47 victims to UDUTH in Sokoto, because the Chief Medical Director told me that our general hospital in Mafara cannot manage their situation,” the chairman disclosed.
Yari has also ordered the immediate closure of the armed stalls section of the Mafara central market until further notice.