April 20 (Portal) – At least 78 people were killed in a stampede in the Yemeni capital Sanaa as hundreds gathered at a school for help, witnesses and Houthi media said on Thursday.
Several people were injured, including 13 in critical condition, Al Masirah TV, a television news agency run by the Iran-allied Houthi movement, reported, citing the health director in Sana’a.
The rush took place during the distribution of charity donations by traders in the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the spokesman for the Houthi-controlled Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Hundreds of people had crowded into a school to collect the donations, which totaled 5,000 Yemeni riyals, or about $9 per person, two witnesses involved in the rescue operation told Portal.
A video posted to the Telegram messaging app by Houthi Television showed a crowd crammed together, some shouting and shouting, reaching out to be escorted to safety.
The Home Office also said in a separate statement that the two merchants responsible for organizing the fundraiser had been arrested and investigations were ongoing.
Yemen is locked in an eight-year civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people, ruined the economy and pushed millions into starvation.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis toppled the government from the capital Sana’a in 2014. The conflict was widely viewed as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi Revolutionary Supreme Committee, said the onslaught was the result of the Yemeni people’s “worst-ever global humanitarian crisis” after eight years of fighting.
“We hold the aggression countries responsible for what happened and for the bitter reality that the Yemeni people are living in due to the aggression and blockade,” he said on Twitter.
Riyadh and Tehran agreed in March to resume diplomatic ties, which were severed in 2016, and prisoner exchanges between the two sides this month have raised hopes of a resolution to the conflict.
The chief negotiator of Yemen’s Houthi movement said recent peace talks with Saudi Arabia had made progress and further talks were being held to iron out remaining differences.
Reporting by Hatem Maher Edited by Chris Reese
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