At least six people died and dozens were injured this Friday in western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) due to a human stampede that occurred during a rally by the country’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, in the province of Central Congo.
The president had addressed thousands of supporters at the Papa Kitemuku stadium, in the city of Mbanza-Ngungu, when a crowd that occurred for yet unspecified reasons unleashed a stampede around it, reports the Congolese news portal Actualité.
“We tried to clear an entire lane but the area was very crowded. People ended up crushed and so far we have confirmed six deaths from suffocation,” the administrator of the Mbanza-Ngungu territory, Willy Makumbani, explained to the Congolese media.
Tshisekedi is seeking re-election in the upcoming elections on December 20, in which the opponent Moise Katumbi appears as one of his main rivals.
During the day on Tuesday, a member of Katumbi’s party died in the context of the repression of an electoral campaign event in the southeast of the country, the first fatality since the start of the campaign.
Tshisekedi, son of the historic Congolese opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, won the presidential elections held in December 2018 and succeeded Joseph Kabila after two years of electoral postponements and the impossibility of the former president running for a new term. .
Source: Ambito
