Not less than twenty women and several children have been killed during a stampede in Niger State, Minna.
The stampede occurred during the distribution of food and money to refugees in Southeast Niger on Monday 17th February, 2020.
A medical source at the accident scene said, “We have a provisional toll of 20 dead with 12 other people injured.”
He added that most of those trampled to death in the rush for food were women and their children.
The food and sum of N5000 being distributed were donated by Babagana Umara Zulum, the governor of Borno State in Northeast Nigeria.
Governor Babagana came to the region to visit the camps for refugees and the displaced and had already left the town when the stampede occurred.
“Thousands of people, most of them refugees, heard about the handout and left the camps, sometimes travelling up to 100 kilometers to get to Diffa,” a source said.
“Even ordinary inhabitants of Diffa rushed there in hope of getting the handout,” said one of the residents
