Yemen crowd crush: at least 85 dead at event to distribute money

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A crowd crush at an event to distribute financial aid in Yemen’s capital killed at least 85 people while dozens more suffered injuries, a Houthi official has said.

The crush took place on Wednesday in the Old City in the centre of Sana’a when hundreds of people gathered at the event organised by merchants, according to the Houthi-run interior ministry.

The ministry’s spokesperson blamed the disaster on the “random distribution” of funds without coordination with local authorities.

At least “85 were killed and more than 322 were injured”, a Houthi security official told the AFP news agency.

Security forces were deployed heavily around the area as people flocked to the scene hoping to locate relatives but they were barred from accessing the site.

The latest tragedy to strike the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country came days ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Witnesses said armed Houthis shot in the air in an attempt to control the crowd, apparently striking an electrical wire and causing it to explode. That sparked panic and people began to run, they said.

The Houthi-run interior ministry said it had detained two organisers and an investigation was under way.

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 recognised 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.

More than two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN, including government employees in Houthi-controlled areas who haven’t been paid civil servant salaries in years.

Over 21.7 million people – two-thirds of the country – need humanitarian assistance this year, according to the UN.