Cape Town – At least seven women were crushed to death on Thursday in north-east Nigeria during a food distribution drive by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
According to local media reports, most of the women were either pregnant and/or breast-feeding.
BBC News reported that the crush occurred when thousands of people in a camp for people who fled their homes because of the Islamist insurgency rushed to receive food aid.
According to a medical worker and residents, thousands of people filled the distribution site in the town of Monguno in Borno State to receive aid from the ICRC, but according to eyewitness accounts the situation turned chaotic, leading to a stampede, the sources said, as reported by Nigerian online news outlet Punch.com.
The town of Monguno, which is about 140km north of the state capital Maiduguri, houses tens of thousands of internally displaced people who fled their homes to escape jihadist attacks and live in camps, according to AFP.
According to reports, the ICRC said it was shocked and concerned at the loss of life and had offered its support to local health authorities to help treat the wounded.
Fatima Sator, ICRC spokesperson in Nigeria, said the event was one of the agency’s routine distributions of nutrition for pregnant and breast-feeding women.
In February 2020, 20 people were trampled to death in a stampede for food and money for refugees in the south-eastern Nigerian town of Diffa, according to local media reports.
Nigeria’s jihadist conflict has killed 40,000 people and forced around two million out of their homes since 2009.
African News Agency (ANA)