The reason for the explosion was unclear. Reuters
The reason for the explosion was unclear. Reuters

Violent explosion shakes Yemen's Aden refinery



A fire has ripped through a storage tank at the main oil refinery in Al-Buraika city in Yemen's Aden on Friday evening.

The fire erupted in a pipe line and leaked into one of the reservoir tanks in the refinery, the head of the fire brigade which rushed to deal with the blaze told the National.

"We have been fighting the fire for more than 3 hours because the flames were extremely large. We couldn't extinguish it entirely so far, but were able to prevent it leaking to the other reservoir tanks" Captain Sultan Mujahed said.  He said the reasons behind the fire were "still unknown so far".

Captain Mujahed confirmed that the fire ignited in a reservoir tank holding 7000 tonnes of diesel causing a lot of damage in it. The impact of the fire on the whole refinery is still not known.

The spokesperson of Aden Security Forces Captain Abdulrahman al Nakeeb said the director of Aden Security Forces brigadier Shallal Ali Shaiya has ordered a team from the Criminal Investigation Department to carry out a detailed investigation to reveal the reasons behind the fire eruption in the refinery,

"The team has arrived in the place and is going to draft a report about the reasons behind the fire eruption in the few coming hours" Captain al Nakeeb said

The oil refinery in Aden stopped operating after it was captured by the Houthi militia in 26 March 2015 and resumed seven months after the liberation of Aden. Production was suspended again due to technical problems and for maintaining the power station of the refinery up to today.

A source inside the refinery confirmed to the National that the refinery reservoir tanks have been hired by Ahmed Al-Aiasi the prominent Yemeni Oil merchant since 2016.

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HIV on the rise in the region

A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.

New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.

Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.

Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.  

Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.

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Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
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Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

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The Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council was established in 1988 and is the highest governing body in Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas industry. The council formulates, oversees and executes the emirate’s petroleum-related policies. It also approves the allocation of capital spending across state-owned Adnoc’s upstream, downstream and midstream operations and functions as the company’s board of directors. The SPC’s mandate is also required for auctioning oil and gas concessions in Abu Dhabi and for awarding blocks to international oil companies. The council is chaired by Sheikh Khalifa, the President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi while Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, is the vice chairman.

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