Niger stampede kills 20 at handout for the displaced

NIAMEY, Niger — Fifteen women and five children were trampled to death on Monday in a stampede for food and money for refugees in the West African country of Niger, a regional governor said.

The incident occurred at a youth and culture center in Diffa, the main town of a region of the same name that hosts more than a quarter of a million refugees and internally displaced people.

Issa Lemine, the regional governor of Diffa, announced the death toll on television after visiting the injured in hospital.

The region, which abuts Nigeria and Chad, has been repeatedly hit by attacks by Nigeria’s Boko Haram militant group since 2015.

It hosts 119,000 Nigerian refugees, 109,000 internally displaced people and 30,000 who have come home from Nigeria because of the instability in its northeast, according to UN figures released in October.

The aid being distributed had been given by Babagana Umara Zulum, the governor of Borno state in northeast Nigeria, a Nigerian official told media. He had come to the region to visit camps for refugees and the displaced, and had already left the town when the stampede occurred.

A large amount of food, cooking oil and clothing, as well as money, was due to be distributed, a Diffa municipal worker said. “Thousands

of people were in the courtyard of the MJC (Culture and Youth Center) and nearby,” he said.

“As soon as the first people received their rations, the compressed crowd started to get excited, the organizers were swiftly overwhelmed and then it all kicked off — women, children and the fit ones started to push,” the employee said.