More than 30 die in Nigerian church stampede

ABUJA－More than 30 people were killed in southern Nigeria on Saturday after a stampede erupted during a crowded church charity event where food was being distributed.

Shoes and slippers lay scattered on the ground after the disaster in the city of Port Harcourt in southern Rivers State when people tried to force their way into the event, police and witnesses said.

A local Kings Assembly church organization was offering food and gifts for the impoverished at the Port Harcourt Polo Club when a "mammoth" crowd got out of control, Rivers State police said.

"Unfortunately, the crowd became tumultuous and uncontrollable, and all efforts made by the organizers to bring sanity proved abortive," the police said in a statement. "A total of 31 persons lost their lives in the stampede."

Images posted on social media and verified by Agence France-Presse showed families crying and attending to injured people, many of them children, outside the city's military hospital.

Witnesses described frantic pushing and trampling as people trying to get into the entrance were forced back.

"They were telling people 'Go back, go back, go back,'" said Chisom Nwachukwu, who described how some people pushing from the back of the crowd ended up stepping over others.

Police said a criminal investigation was underway.

Godwin Tepikor, the southern region coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency, told AFP that church members had been seated inside when the crowd of people rushed in.

"A huge crowd from outside surged into the club through a narrow gate, resulting in the stampede," he said.

Representatives of the church could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Food shortages

There have been several stampedes over food distribution in Nigeria in recent years, including an aid agency food program in northern Borno State where seven women were trampled to death last year.

Saturday's early morning disaster happened as the opposition People's Democratic Party leaders were gathering in the national capital Abuja to select their candidate for next year's presidential election, with Rivers State governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike among the hopefuls.

Port Harcourt is the main oil hub in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and the continent's largest petroleum producer.

Despite its oil wealth, as many as four in 10 Nigerians live below the national poverty level, according to a recent World Bank Report.

The Ukraine crisis has also pushed up the cost of food and fuel across the continent as wheat and gas supplies are affected, with aid agencies warning of worsening food insecurity in Africa.

Agencies - Xinhua