Sana’a: Atleast 85 people were killed and dozens were injured in a stampede during a ceremony organized to distribute Zakat aid in the month of Ramadan in Yemen’s capital Sana’a on Wednesday night.
According to the Houthi rebel-run Interior Ministry, the incident occurred at a school in the Old City in central Sana’a where hundreds of poor people gathered for a zakat distribution event organized by merchants.
Ministry’s spokesman, Brigadier Abdul Khaliq Al-Aaghri, said the incident occurred as a result of ‘random distribution’ of funds without cooperation with local authorities. Dozens of injured were shifted to nearby hospitals. A top health official in Sana’a, Mutahar al-Maauni, gave the death toll and said at least 13 were seriously injured, according to the Houthis’ al-Masira satellite TV channel.
The rebels immediately sealed off the school where the event was organized and prevented people, including journalists, from approaching. Eyewitnesses, Abdul Rahman Ahmed and Yahya Mohsin, said that the armed Houthis fired in the air in an attempt to control the crowd, causing an electric wire to fall down and causing a stampede among the people gathered there.
The Houthi-run Interior Ministry said it had detained two organizers and the matter was under investigation. Yemen’s capital is controlled by Iran-backed Houthis.
