Nigeria stampede over cash handouts kills 3

At least three women were trampled to death in a stampede during the distribution of cash handouts in central Nigeria, a local medical source told AFP Wednesday.

Thousands of people gathered late Tuesday at the official residence of Niger State governor Mohammed Umaru Bago, in what became the latest such giveaway -- this one of just 10,000 naira ($7.50) per person -- to turn deadly in the West African country.

Nigeria is grinding through a brutal cost-of-living crisis and a years-long economic slide that has pushed millions into poverty.

The cash distribution was organised in part to stop a planned protest against the death of 37 artisanal miners in state custody two weeks ago, according to a security report prepared for the UN and seen by AFP.

The case, in which the miners suffocated in a crowded, poorly ventilated cell, has rocked Niger State in recent weeks.

Deadly stampedes during cash distributions are frequent in Nigeria. Such events are also used alongside food handouts to buy votes.

"Six injured victims were brought along with three dead bodies," a paramedic at state-run Minna General Hospital told AFP.

"All the dead bodies were women," said the paramedic, who asked not to be identified for fear of sanction.

The UN security report gave a higher death toll of five dead.

A police spokesman said authorities were still gathering details.

Yusuf Abubakar Bawa said his 15-year-old daughter was injured in the crush and is in a coma.

Nigeria has been grappling with soaring food prices since 2023 when the government withdrew a major petrol subsidy and floated the naira currency in a bid to shore up the economy -- reforms economists say were long overdue but have caused severe hardship since their implementation.

Inflation shot past 30 percent at the worst of the subsequent cost-of-living crisis, though it has since eased, sitting at just above 15 percent in August.

Basic items remain unaffordable for millions in Africa's most populous country, where 63 percent of the population live below the poverty line, according to the IMF.

In December 2024, 35 children were killed in a crush at a Christmas fair in the southwestern city of Ibadan.

In March of that year, 17 women died in a stampede during cash distribution in Bauchi state -- days after two students died in another crush on a university campus in Nasarawa state.

In July 2021, a distribution of meal vouchers for people displaced by jihadist violence in the northeastern town of Monguno sparked a deadly stampede, while in April 2020 another aid distribution, near the Cameroonian border, saw a crush kill at least five women and children.