MADRID Dec. 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The latest official report raises the number of people killed in stampedes during food distribution in Nigeria in the last week to 105, after a spike in these incidents over the weekend, with at least three fatal events.
“These tragic events are a national shame,” said human rights lawyer Femi Falana, who attributes these deaths to “criminal negligence and poverty caused by neoliberal economic policies.”
Falana, president of the Alliance of Survivors of COVID-19 and More (ASCAB), has called for justice for the victims. “They are not just numbers, but human beings desperate due to systemic poverty and the flagrant incompetence of those who should ensure their safety,” he argued in statements reported by the Nigerian newspaper ‘Vanguard’.
On Saturday, at least twelve people died and 32 more were injured while waiting in line to receive rice. That same day, ten more people died at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Abuja, including several children, during a stampede of 3,000 people.
On Thursday, 35 minors were crushed to death during a Christmas fair in Ibadan, Oyo State, specifically at the Basorun Islamic Secondary School.
“These deaths of innocent people make our hearts shrink. It highlights the indignity that poverty imposes on our people,” added Falana, who criticized the “classism” of those who distribute food by throwing it and has announced that they will denounce those who organize this type of acts.
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