At least 78 people have died following a stampede as residents flocked to receive charity handouts from local merchants during Ramadan.
Daily Report Nigeria reports that dozen were also left injured in the crowd surge in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital on Wednesday.
Mutahar al-Marouni, the director of the Houthi-run Health office in Sanaa disclosed that the stampede was due to a lack of coordination by officials.
He said:
“What happened tonight is a tragic and painful accident, as dozens of people were killed due to a large stampede of a number of citizens caused by a random distribution of sums of money by some merchants and without coordination with the Ministry of Interior.”
It was gathered that hundreds of people had crowded into a school to receive donations of 5,000 Yemeni Riyal (about $9).
It was a random giving away of Zakat al-Fitr, or the Zakat of Breaking the Fast of Ramadan to people who are in need.
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This was done a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The police and rescue team who arrived at the scene said:
“The dead and injured people were transferred to hospitals, and two merchants in charge of the matter were arrested.”
The head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, ordered an investigation into the incident on Thursday.
The Houthi-run General Authority for Zakat announced in a statement it would give one million Yemeni Riyal ( about $4,000) to each family of the crowd surge victims.
Additionally, the General promised to take care of the treatment of those injured and pay 200,000 Yemeni Riyal ( about $800) to each injured person.
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