Officials attribute the disaster to “overcrowding” during a cash distribution, but some witnesses say gunshots caused the crowd to move.
At least 85 people were killed and more than 322 injured on Thursday in Yemen in one of the deadliest stampedes of the last ten years, during a charity action in the capital Sanaa, in the hands of the rebels.
This tragedy occurs in the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, scarred since 2014 by a conflict between Houthi rebels, close to Iran, and pro-government forces supported by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
“Eighty-five people were killed, and more than 322 were injured” in the stampede that erupted overnight during a charity operation organized in the neighborhood of Bab el-Yemen, according to a Houthi security official in Sanaa.
A “chaotic” distribution
This report was confirmed by an official of the local medical authorities. “Children are among the deceased” and around 50 injured are in serious condition, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, not being authorized to speak to the media.
This crowd movement, which comes a few days before the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, took place in a school in the district of the old city, where hundreds of people gathered to receive financial aid.
The Sanaa authorities spoke of “a chaotic distribution of sums of money by certain traders”.
Fire
In a video broadcast by the rebels’ television channel, Al-Masirah, we see bodies piled up and people climbing on top of each other in an attempt to clear their way.
Some try to push their hands away from their faces so they can breathe, the rest of their bodies completely engulfed in the dense crowd, while armed fighters in military gear try to push them in the opposite direction.
A senior Houthi official attributed the disaster to “overcrowding” in the narrow street leading to the school. When the doors opened, the crowd rushed up the stairs leading to the schoolyard where the distribution was planned, said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the rebels’ Supreme Political Council.
But some witnesses say gunshots caused the crowd to move.
Investigation
The victims were transported to nearby hospitals and the organizers of the event arrested, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the rebel news agency, Saba.
A crowd of relatives gathered outside a hospital but the security forces prevented them from entering the establishment where senior officials had gone.
The chairman of the rebels’ Supreme Political Council, Mehdi al-Mashat, announced the “creation of a commission to investigate the causes of the accident”, according to Saba.
“Three traders were arrested,” said a Houthi official.
Humanitarian crisis
This stampede is among the deadliest crowd movements for ten years, according to an AFP count. It comes as the war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and plunged the population of some 30 million into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN.
In a context of epidemics, lack of drinking water and famine, more than three quarters of the population depend on international aid, which nevertheless continues to decline. In rebel-held areas, including the capital Sanaa, many civil servants have not been paid for months.
A UN-brokered six-month truce was not renewed when it expired in October, but the situation remained calm on the ground, offering respite to the population.
Last week, a Saudi delegation, accompanied by Omani mediators, traveled to Sanaa for talks aimed at reviving the truce and laying the groundwork for a more durable ceasefire. In this context, the government and the rebels have exchanged nearly 900 prisoners in recent days.
