At least 78 people died Wednesday evening in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, crushed or asphyxiated in the chaos that erupted Wednesday evening during an event that involved the distribution of donations to the population. Local authorities say there are also 73 injured, of which at least 13 are in serious condition.
Hundreds of people had gathered near a school where some local traders had announced the distribution of money equal to about 10 euros per person on the occasion of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. According to the first reconstructions, based on testimonies of some witnesses gleaned from APSome soldiers belonging to the Houti rebel group, who have controlled the city and the north of the country since 2014, allegedly fired into the air to try to control the crowds. One of the shells allegedly hit some electrical wires, causing an explosion and causing part of the crowd to stampede. The uncontrolled crush that followed would have caused the massacre.
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In the minutes immediately following the incident, Houti military surrounded the area, also blocking access to journalists, but some videos posted on social media show the moments of the incident, with dozens of people on the ground, apparently lifeless, and images of many shoes and clothes left on the site where the chaos was caused.
(Warning: the video below shows images that may be unpleasant for the most sensitive people).
Shocking images of the stampede that killed 78 people in #Sanaa #Yemen pic.twitter.com/OrfFNP0AUy
– Sami AL-ANSI Sami Al-Ansi (@SamiALANSI) April 20, 2023
The two traders belonging to the charity that had organized the event were arrested. The authorities accuse them of not having agreed the distribution with the police force. It is quite common in Yemen, and beyond, for businessmen and wealthy people to publicly distribute food and money during Ramadan.
In Yemen it is estimated that about 80 percent of the 33 million inhabitants are in need of humanitarian aid: the country was already very poor, nine years of war have further complicated the situation. According to the UN, at least 17 million Yemenis are in “particularly vulnerable” conditions.
An image from the video with moments of chaos (AL-MASIRAH TV CHANNEL via AP)
The crisis in Yemen began in September 2014, when the Houthis, an Iranian-backed Shia militia from the mountains in the country’s north, occupied Sana’a and much of the north of the country, establishing a new government. Within months, the occupation of the Houthis prompted a military intervention in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia with backing from the United Arab Emirates and other Sunni Arab countries (Iran, like the Houthis, is majority Shia). . The coalition saw the Houthis as a dangerous tool of their main regional adversary, Iran, and for this reason the war in Yemen was often referred to as a “proxy war”.
Saudi Arabia and its allies ended up controlling the southern part of Yemen, while the Houthis controlled the capital Sana’a and the north. Meanwhile, ports and airports were blocked, the country was heavily bombed and a cholera epidemic also began, killing thousands of people.
In early March, Saudi Arabia and Iran re-established their diplomatic relations after seven years, in an agreement considered historic in many ways: the rapprochement had the effect of an immediate restart of negotiations between the two parties in Yemen, which gradually intensified and led to a prisoner swap last week. The new international situation between Saudi Arabia and Iran could favor a process of returning to a stable peace, in previous years no ceasefire attempt had been successful.