A car plowed into a crowd of supporters of politician Joseph Boakai, who was declared the winner of Liberia’s presidential election just hours earlier, in Monrovia on Monday evening, killing at least two people and injuring many, hospital sources said. Police and politics.
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A police official interviewed by AFP did not comment on the causes of the tragedy. A spokesman for Mr Boakai’s party said he had little doubt it was a deliberate act.
The driver of the vehicle had disappeared, the police officer said.
“There are two deaths and one person is in critical condition,” Sia Wata Camanor, a manager at John F. Kennedy Hospital, the main hospital in Monrovia, told AFP overnight. Twenty people were injured, she added.
These facts occurred on the same evening that the National Electoral Commission announced Mr Boakai’s narrow victory in the second round of the November 14 presidential election against the outgoing George Weah.
A vote that was marked by fears of violence after the results were announced, but whose foreign partners welcomed Liberia’s peaceful behavior, in a country that emerged from years of civil war in 2003.
Supporters of Mr. Boakai were celebrating the victory outside party offices in the center of the capital when, between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time (and GMT), a vehicle parked nearby flashed its headlights, then turned off its lights and sped into the crowd, reported Mohammed Ali, spokesman for the Unified party, based on witness statements.
Videos posted on social media show many bloodied people lying on the ground, some receiving help and others limping.
Mohammed Ali initially mentioned the deaths of ten people, but this number was later not confirmed.
“We don’t know who did this but we find it difficult to believe that the car had a mechanical problem or that its brakes failed as we were told it was parked (nearby) by the beacon “The fans called and ran towards them,” the spokesman added.
Officer Melvin Sacko said the vehicle plowed into people and caught fire. He did not comment on the exact number of victims, but said at least 16 people, 12 men and four women, were hospitalized at the same facility.