SANAA, 13 September 2006 — At least 51 people were crushed to death and 238 were injured yesterday at a rally for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the southern province of Ibb.
Tens of thousands attended the rally to hear an address by Saleh, who is seeking a fresh seven-year term in the country’s presidential elections scheduled to take place Sept. 20.
The stampede occurred when thousands of rally-goers attempted to force their way into an already overcrowded stadium where Saleh was delivering a speech. The newcomers were villagers who were late for the rally in Ibb, some 170 km south of Sanaa.
“The rally was over and people who came late from remote villages wanted to enter while tens of thousands were leaving the stadium,” said Mohammed Hussein, a teacher who attended the rally.
Witnesses said a platform on which top government officials were seated collapsed as people tried to find their way out of the stadium, aggravating the situation. They said the platform collapsed shortly after the president left the stadium.
Streets around the stadium and across the mountainous city were blocked by thousands of cars that carried Saleh’s supporters to the rally, police officers said.
The stampede occurred one day after four people, including a 10-year-old boy, were crushed to death in a similar rally for Saleh in the southern province of Taiz, some 256 km from Sanaa.
The Ibb constituency, which has some 900,000 voters, is the second most important in Yemen after the capital Sanaa, and is an opposition stronghold.
