At least ten people, including four children, were killed in a stampede during a Christmas campaign by a local church in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Saturday morning. A second Christmas campaign in Okija, in the southeast of the country, also went wrong later in the morning: three more people were killed and twenty injured. News agencies Reuters and AP report this.
More than a thousand people had come to the church in Abuja to receive Christmas parcels. The incident occurred because those present were jostling each other. It is not known how many people were injured. The action in Okija was an initiative of a single resident. He distributed rice, oil and money.
Christmas promotions
Earlier this week, several children were killed in a similar incident in Nigeria when parcels were distributed in the city of Oyo. Christmas promotions like these have become increasingly common in the West African country in recent years.
Under President Bola Tinubu, the economic situation in Nigeria has deteriorated sharply, AP writes. In November, inflation in the country was high 34 percent; the high costs have led to massive protests in recent months. In August, for example, twenty people were killed during a demonstration and hundreds of demonstrators were arrested.
To prevent recurrence of incidents such as in Abuja and Okija, the police have announced that organizers of Christmas actions must first obtain permission from local authorities.
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