At least 53 people have been killed in a stampede that broke out in Sanaa in Yemen. (representative)
Sanaa:
More than 80 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a deadly stampede that erupted in Yemen’s capital during a charity distribution, Huthi officials told AFP on Thursday.
The latest tragedy to hit the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula came days before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
At least “85 were killed and more than 322 injured” following the stampede in Sanaa’s Bab al-Yemen district, a Huthi security official said.
“The dead included women and children,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
A second health official confirmed the toll.
An AFP correspondent in the Huthi-controlled capital said the incident took place at a school where aid was being distributed.
Security forces were deployed en masse to the area as people flocked to the crime scene in hopes of locating relatives, but were denied access to the site.
The dead and injured have been transferred to nearby hospitals and those responsible for the distribution have been taken into custody, the interior ministry said in a statement issued by the rebels’ Saba news agency.
Authorities have called for an investigation.
The Huthi’s interior ministry did not give an exact toll, but said “dozens of people died as a result of a stampede during an arbitrary distribution of money by some merchants”.
Videos circulating on social media showed bodies lying on the floor in a large complex as people around them screamed.
AFP could not independently verify the images.
– Widespread poverty –
Civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014 when Iranian-backed Huthi rebels took Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to step in the following year to support the internationally recognized government.
Since a UN-brokered six-month ceasefire last year, fighting has eased dramatically, even after it ended in October.
But the war unleashed what the United Nations describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian tragedies.
According to the UN, more than two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line, including government employees in Huthi-controlled areas who have not been paid public salaries for years.
More than 21.7 million people – two-thirds of the country – are in need of humanitarian aid this year, according to the UN.
The stampede tragedy dampens the cheers of a massive prisoner exchange between the country’s warring factions, which saw nearly 900 prisoners released over the weekend.
On Monday, more than 100 other prisoners of war were flown from Saudi Arabia to Yemen.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
