Crowd Surge in Mali
36 killed in Mali stampede near stadium exit
The latest news report highlighted 36 people were crushed and at least 64 others were injured in a stampede as a crowd tried to leave a stadium following a religious ceremony. Tens of thousands had gathered to receive blessings from one of Mali’s best known imams, Osman Madani Haidara, during the Muslim holy period of Maouloud. Witnesses say the stadium in this West African nation had been holding many more than its maximum capacity.
As the participants departed the ceremony Monday night, the crowd surged against a metal barrier, said Sadio Gassame, Mali’s minister of interior security and civil protection said. Last year, at least 15 people died in another stampede at a mosque in Timbuktu, Mali during the same religious period.