The holiday season should be a time to be with family and loved ones. But two separate stampedes at Christmas left 13 people dead. That included four children.
The incident happened in Nigeria. Far from the Black Friday firestorm sales in America, these events distributed essential items like food and clothing to the community. So in haste to not be left out, people ended up creating stampedes and trampling over each other. The stampedes happened only days after another stampede.
Local officials are casting criticism over the way that charities and churches are handling these donation events for Christmas. Right now, many in the country are desperate and need aid. In the first of two stampedes, 10 people died at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama. More than 1,000 people had to evacuate the church.
Stampedes At Charity Events
The crowds tried to break down the gates of the church to get to where the items were held. "The way they were rushing to enter, some people were falling and some of them were old," Loveth Inyang, a witness. He managed to rescue a baby during the stampede. Meanwhile, three others died in the second of two stampedes. The incident happened in the southeastern Anambra state's Okija town.
"The event had not even started when the rush began," police spokesman Tochukwu Ikenga said. Authorities are still tallying what the death toll may be. But both incidents were scenes of carnage.
As a result of the stampedes, the church ended up canceling the charity event. Meanwhile, Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu also sent his sympathies and condolences to the families. He's asked for the strictest possible crowd control measure to prevent other tragedies. However, critics believe that it is too little, too late.
These stampedes follow another one earlier this week. A well-attended funfair ended in tragedy when several children ended up dead at the event. Due to these tragedies, authorities are demanding prior permission to hold charity events. It's a sad situation for the country and its residents. The holidays should be a time of joy, not tragedy.
