- Shanghai stocks soar to extend stimulus rally amid Asia-wide drop
- Australia moves to expand Antarctic marine park
- Tragedy of Madrid street sweeper highlights how heatwaves kill
- Survivors wait for aid as Trump's lies help cloud Helene response
- Fleeing Israeli bombs, Lebanon's displaced met with suspicion
- Jila Mossaed, from refugee poet to Swedish Academy
- Will Tesla's robotaxi reveal live up to hype?
- Drugs, people smuggling at heart of Mexico's raging violence
- 'Invisibility' and quantum computing tipped for physics Nobel
- Musk says he is 'all in' on Trump in US election
- Category 5 Hurricane Milton roars towards storm-battered Florida
- Carpenter bomb stuns Guardians as Tigers level series
- Harris, Trump and Biden mark Oct. 7 attacks as US election looms
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- US judge orders Google to open Android to rival app stores
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights 'sacred' multi-front war
- Nobel scientist uncovered tiny genetic switches with big potential
- Grammy-winning Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney, dies at 91
- UN biodiversity summit in Colombia aims to turn words into action
- Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights multi-front war
- Mexican mayor murdered days after taking office
- Intensifying to Category 5, Hurricane Milton targets Florida
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Biden, Harris mark Oct. 7 with call for Mideast peace
- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
- Man Utd battling to improve fortunes, says Evans
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Masood, Abdullah centuries lift Pakistan to 328-4 in first England Test
- Hurricane Milton strengthens fast, threatens Mexico, Florida
- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ | |
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ |
More than 30 die in stampede at Nigeria church food event
More than 30 people were killed in southern Nigeria Saturday after a stampede erupted during a crowded church charity event where food was being distributed.
Shoes and slippers lay scattered on the ground after the disaster in Port Harcourt city in southern Rivers State when people tried to force their way into the event, police and witnesses said.
A local Kings Assembly church organisation was offering food and gifts for the impoverished at the Port Harcourt Polo Club when a "mammoth" crowd got out of control, Rivers State police said.
"Unfortunately, the crowd became tumultuous and uncontrollable, and all efforts made by the organisers to bring sanity proved abortive," the police said in a statement.
"A total of 31 persons lost their lives in the stampede."
Images posted on social media and verified by AFP showed families crying and attending to injured people, many of them children, outside the city's military hospital.
Witnesses described frantic pushing and trampling as people trying to get into the entrance were forced back.
"They were telling people 'Go back, go back, go back,'" said witness Chisom Nwachukwu. "Some people that were pushing from backwards were marching on those people."
Police said a criminal investigation was underway.
National Emergency Management Agency southern region coordinator Godwin Tepikor told AFP church members had been seated inside when the crowd of people rushed in.
"A huge crowd from outside surged into the club through a narrow gate, resulting in the stampede," he said.
Representatives of the church could not immediately be contacted for comment.
Nigeria has seen several stampede tragedies over food distribution in recent years, including an aid agency food programme in north Borno State where seven women were trampled to death last year.
Saturday's early morning disaster happened as the opposition People's Democratic Party leaders were gathering in the federal capital Abuja to select their candidate for the 2023 presidential race, with Rivers State governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike among the hopefuls.
Port Harcourt is the main oil hub in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and the continent's largest petroleum producer.
Despite its oil wealth, as many as four out of 10 Nigerians live below the national poverty level, according to a recent World Bank Report.
The Ukraine crisis has also pushed up the cost of food and fuel across the continent as wheat and gas supplies are impacted, with aid agencies warning about worsening food insecurity in Africa.
F.Pedersen--AMWN