Yemen stampede during charity distribution kills at least 85

In Yemen, at least 85  people were killed and more than 300 injured in a deadly stampede that broke out in capital Sanaa during a charity distribution on Wednesday.  The Houthi-controlled ministry of interior's spokesman said that the stampede took place during the distribution of charitable donations by merchants during the final days of Ramadan. Calling it tragic, the spokesman said that hundreds of people had crowded into the school to receive the donations. They were set to receive donations amounting to 5,000 Yemeni riyals- about $9 per person.

Shocking images of the stampede that killed 78 people in #Sanaa #Yemen pic.twitter.com/OrfFNP0AUy

— Sami AL-ANSI سـامي العنسي (@SamiALANSI) April 20, 2023

Two merchants who organised the donation event have been detained and an investigation was underway, the interior ministry said in a separate statement. Security forces deployed heavily around the area as people flocked to the scene hoping to locate relatives but they were barred from accessing the site. The dead and injured have been moved to nearby hospitals and those responsible for the distribution were taken into custody, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the rebel’s Saba news agency.

Civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Sana’a, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year to prop up the internationally recognized government. Fighting has eased dramatically since a six-month, UN-brokered truce last year, even after it expired in October. But the war unleashed what the United Nations describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian tragedies.