Dozens killed in stampede in Yemen’s capital while waiting for donations

A spokesman for the rebel-run Interior Ministry, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Khaleq Al-Ajri, said two merchants had been detained after a crush he blamed on the “random” distribution of donations by merchants during the last days of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, according to a statement provided to the rebels’ al-Masirah TV network.

An investigation has been launched, he said, adding that the merchants did not coordinate with the ministry ahead of time about their plan to distribute the aid. The ministry’s version of events could not immediately be independently confirmed.

Yemen is in the middle of what the United Nations calls the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with some 24 million people — 80 percent of the population — in need of aid and protection.

The Red Cross has warned that the ongoing war in Ukraine is exacerbating a food crisis in Yemen, located in the Arabian Peninsula, because the conflict-splintered country imports most of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

Yemen’s capital — like much of the country’s north — is controlled by the Iran-linked Houthi rebels, who seized it in 2014. That sparked a devastating Saudi-led campaign of economic isolation and airstrikes in a bid to restore the internationally recognized government.

For years, the United States supported the Saudi coalition’s air campaign, The Washington Post has reported. The Biden administration announced it was ending that support in February 2021, although it continues to send and sell weapons to countries in the region and hasn’t publicly pushed Saudi Arabia to end a coastal blockade stopping fuel and aid from reaching Yemeni ports. The Saudi-led airstrikes have been called war crimes by human rights groups.

More recently, hopes of a possible resolution have risen after China brokered a deal between Riyadh and Tehran that aims to restore normal diplomatic relations.

Over years of conflict, the Houthis have also launched missiles and drones toward neighboring Saudi Arabia, while also claiming responsibility for attacks on the United Arab Emirates. The rebel movement — which calls itself Ansar Allah, or partisans of God, and whose beliefs are rooted in the Zaydi branch of Shiite Islam — had long been locked in dispute with Yemen’s official government.

The incident occurred as the city’s residents were preparing for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Eyewitnesses told the Associated Press that armed Houthis shot in the air in an attempt to control the crowd, which had gathered at a school where the event was held. The gunfire apparently caused an explosion after one of the bullets hit an electrical wire, sparking widespread panic. The Washington Post couldn’t immediately corroborate the claim.

Videos posted by the rebels’ TV network on Telegram showed bystanders attempting to pull people out of the crush, amid a cacophony of shouting and screaming. Other clips showed lifeless bodies on the ground, and piles of shoes and clothing left behind in the stampede’s aftermath.

Footage posted by the rebels’ TV channel from local hospitals showed bloodied and bruised victims, some with bandaged heads and apparently broken limbs. The rebels’ health ministry said early Thursday that 62 people had been discharged from hospital after receiving treatment for minor injuries.

A senior Houthi official, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said on Twitter after the incident that responsibility belonged to “countries of aggression” — which he defined as the United States and Saudi Arabia, among others — which caused the “bitter reality that the Yemeni people live in.”

During a recent visit to the area, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen — who is based in Riyadh — reaffirmed American support for the U.N.-brokered peace process.