At least 31 people were crushed to death in the capital of the Republic of Congo after a frantic rush to get past a stadium gate for an army recruiting event, according to officials on Tuesday.
A prosecutor said that he had launched an inquiry into the tragedy that occurred when thousands of young people arrived at the Michel d’Ornano stadium on Monday night in the hopes of securing one of the 1,500 army jobs.
According to security personnel, a gate was attempted to be forced open, leaving victims dead inside.
Some allegedly attempted to break through the gate, while others attempted to scale a wall and enter the stadium.
The government later updated the death toll from 37 to 31, although several of the 145 injured were listed as critically ill, according to authorities.
A 24-year-old man, who declined to be named, told AFP how people were pushing to get through the gate, sparking a stampede. “There were people injured far worse than me,” said the survivor, who dislocated his foot.
Another survivor, who also requested anonymity, said: “There was a row of people in front of me. The people fell. I fell on top of them and other friends fell on top of us.”
He said he lost conscious and only woke up in an ambulance.
Several videos on social media appeared to show dozens of bodies in a city morgue.
Others showed injured people being admitted to hospitals in Brazzaville.
The army said in a statement read on national television that the recruiting drive had been indefinitely suspended.
Tresor Nzila, head of local rights NGO, called for a full investigation and to hold the Congolese government responsible for not evaluating the risks of a call-up.
“The Congolese government is incapable of creating other employment opportunities,” he said. “The defence and security forces have become the main job providers”.
The Republic of Congo, which is also known as Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from its larger neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo, is an impoverished country of about five million people — despite its rich oil and gas reserves.
Youth unemployment is about 42 percent, according to the World Bank.
Congo-Brazzaville’s state prosecutor Andre Ngakala Oko said he had launched an investigation.
Congo has witnessed similar disasters. Seven people died in a stampede at a music festival in Brazzaville in 2011.
And at least 150 people were trampled to death in the capital in 1994 when worshippers crammed into a church to avoid a storm.
