Eleven killed in stampede at Fally Ipupa concert in DRC
By Hans Ngala (with additional reporting from Reuters)
Eleven people were killed on Saturday, including two police officers, in a crush at an overcrowded stadium concert in Kinshasa , capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The concert was headlined by Congolese singer Fally Ipupa, the DRC’s interior minister said.
The Stadium of Martyrs in Kinshasa was packed over its capacity of 80 000 and some of the crowd ended up forcing their way into the VIP and reserved sections, Reuters reporters at the concert said.
Police have recorded “eleven deaths including 10 as a result of suffocation and the crush, and 7 hospitalisations,” said Minister Daniel Aselo Okito in a statement.
Security forces had earlier fired tear gas in an effort to disperse violent crowds in the streets outside the stadium where many had gathered ahead of the concert by Kinshasa-born Ipupa, who has won acclaim in the DRC, Europe and around the world.
The eventual number of attendees inside the stadium vastly exceeded the number state and private security personnel present could control.
In 2020, French police evacuated the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris after people started fires nearby in unrest ahead of a planned Ipupa concert.
