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At least 32 people were killed in crowd crushes at two separate charity events in Nigeria on Saturday, police say.
Some 22 people were killed at an event held in a community center in Okija in the southeastern state of Anambra, state police said on Sunday.
The event was held to distribute bags of rice to women in need, state broadcaster Radio Nigeria reported. Hundreds of people showed up to receive the rice, it said, leading to the crowd crush when people surged forward to try and reach it.
Victims of the crush include “women, the elderly, pregnant (women), nursing mothers and children,” Christian Aburime, Chief Press Secretary to the Anambra State Governor, said in a statement.
The event was held by the eastern Nigerian Obi Jackson Foundation with “the noble intention of sharing relief materials with less privileged members of the community during this festive season,” Aburime said.
“However, the resulting tragedy underscores the urgent need for a more structured and safer approach to distributing such assistance,” she continued.
On the same day as the tragedy in Anambra, ten people, including four children, were killed in a crowd crush in Maitama, a district of Nigeria’s capital city Abuja.
The incident took place at a food distribution event for the vulnerable held in a local church, police said in a statement Sunday. More than a thousand people turned up to the event, the statement read.
The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, called the crowd crush a “devastating blow to our community,” and said he was mourning the dead with “profound shock and sadness.”
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu cancelled his appearance at a boat regatta in Lagos after the tragedies on Saturday, his special adviser said in a statement.
“Commiserating with the victims of the unfortunate incidents in Anambra and the Federal Capital Territory, President Tinubu urged states and relevant authorities to enforce strict crowd control measures immediately,” Bayo Onanuga said.
“In a season of joy and celebration, we grieve with fellow citizens mourning the painful losses of their loved ones,” Tinubu said, according to the statement.
Saturday’s deaths come just days after a crowd crush in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria, killed at least 35 children. The organizers of the free event expected to host 5,000 children under the age of 13, where they could win prizes like scholarships, according to local radio station Agidigbo FM.
In 2023, Tinubu became president, and implemented economic reforms that included the revoking of fuel subsidies, which nearly tripled the price of gasoline.
Though there was an “urgent need” for economic reform, the World Bank said in a report published in October, “Nigerians have experienced intensifying hardship” since it was enacted. Prices and exchange rates have adjusted, adding to cost of living pressures that were already in place.