On Saturday, eleven people including two police officers died in a stampede during Ipupa’s soldout concert at the biggest stadium in DR Congo’s capital. The country’s Interior Minister, Daniel Aselo Okito who confirmed the incident on Sunda, blamed the show organizers for the deaths, saying the Martyrs’ stadium concert in Kinshasa “went beyond 100 percent capacity”. The stadium was packed beyond its capacity of 80,000 and some of the crowd ended up forcing their way into the VIP and reserved sections, reporters of Reuters news agency at the concert said.
It was learnt that security forces earlier fired tear gas to try to disperse violent crowds in the streets outside the stadium where many had gathered ahead of the concert by Kinshasa-born Ipupa. “Eleven people dead … including two police,” the minister told reporters at the stadium, sending condolences to relatives of the casualties.
Okito decried the frequent “loss of human life and damage to equipment” during events at the stadium, noting that the organizers “went beyond 100 percent capacity… they must be punished.” “The music lovers suffocated. It was a stampede,” that caused the deaths, a policeman on the scene told the official Congolese Press Agency ACP.
Reacting to the development on Sunday morning, Ipupa said he only heard about the deaths in the morning when he woke up after his performance. “It pains me. I am from Kinshasa and of course I share in the grief of the families,” the 44-year-old singer told Reuters in an interview. Kinshasa police chief General Sylvain Sasongo had earlier told ACP nine people had died, amid reports the venue had been absolutely jammed with people for the local favourite’s performance, with one witness saying “even the corridors” of the stadium were overflowing. “Under the pressure of the crowd, the police could not hold out long,” ACP said.
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