To not miss any African news, subscribe to the newsletter of the World Africa from this link. Every Saturday at 6 am, find a week of news and debates covered by the editorial staff of “Monde Afrique”.
It’s past 6 p.m. on Monday, January 24, and Prosper, 19, can’t stand still. This football fan and his mother are heading to the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé, the capital, where the meeting between Cameroon and the Comoros is to be held, a match in the round of 16 of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) of football.
But, at the southern entrance to this 60,000-seat building, ” there are already too many people, way too many people “, remembers this student of the bilingual high school of Nkosoa. The police are struggling to contain the supporters who are shouting and jostling. The pressure is such that the jostling turns to drama.
” People were falling. They were unconscious. Some are dead. Others walked on them “says Prosper who gets by thanks to his physical strength. But his mother is compressed ” in the crowd. Taken to Yaoundé Central Hospital, she suffers from head and chest pain.
In a press release published this Tuesday morning, René Emmanuel Sadi, Minister of Communication and spokesman for the Cameroonian government, announced that at least eight people died in the stampede and thirty-eight others were injured, seven of them seriously.
” It’s crazy “
Videos circulating on social networks show inert bodies lying on the ground in a hospital center in Yaoundé. All around, cries and tears break out. ” I beg you. Mama is counting on you, my brother “implores a woman. Further on, another, kneeling, holds a man in her arms. On photos relayed abundantly on the Web, rescuers give mouth-to-mouth to victims.
“ When the Lions [Lions indomptables, nom de l’équipe nationale camerounaise] play is madness. This is what created the stampede in Olembé “, deplores a police source who admits that the security forces, “ understaffed », « were quickly overwhelmed by the crowd. According to him, since the announcement of the ” free “Tickets to enter the stadium, ” many Cameroonians come. In the neighborhoods, they are told that admission is free. They mix with those who have bought their tickets. Everyone wants to come in”.
Indeed, with the exception of the opening match on January 9 and the meetings that took place in Garoua in the north of the country, the first CAN matches showed empty stands. Faced with this situation, the government announced on January 15, the cessation of school, academic and professional activities from 1 p.m. to encourage pupils, students and civil servants to fill the stadiums.
Thousands of entrance tickets have since been distributed free of charge. As for the measures enacted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Cameroonian authorities – vaccination against Covid-19 and mandatory negative test – they have been unofficially relaxed.
“The weight of everyone”
The phenomenon does not only affect Yaoundé. ” Let’s all go massively to the Japoma stadium (Douala)”, recently urged Samuel Ivaha Diboua, the governor of the Littoral region, during a ceremony in the economic capital. In schools, officials distribute free admission tickets to students and teachers. Prosper and his teacher mother benefited.
Among the victims, injured or dead, are many civil servants such as Vanessa, 30, a mother of two and teacher at Obala high school, who suffers from pain in the chest, head and pelvis. Her friend Véronique is dead.
” I held my girlfriend by the hand. She couldn’t bear the shock, the weight of everyone “says in tears Vanessa who was rescued by a police officer. ” When we pulled her out of the crowd, we said her pulse was still beating a little “, continues the teacher. Driven in a police car, she died in hospital. ” The problem wasn’t the tickets or the tests. The problem was related to the crowd sobs Vanessa.
Monday, half an hour before the end of the match and despite the jostling that occurred earlier, Cameroonian fans continued to want to enter the stadium at all costs. When a gate opened – to let the public leave – a crowd immediately followed. That evening, the Olembé arena was almost full.
It is difficult to say whether the 80% gauge, introduced during the matches of the Cameroon team (60% for the other teams) to deal with the spread of the Omicron variant, has been respected. In the crowd, according to two testimonies collected by The World Africa, some had no tests.
” So that all the light is shed on this tragic incident », Paul Biya, the President of the Republic, asked for the opening of an investigation. During an exceptional press conference on Tuesday, January 25 in Yaoundé, Patrice Motsepe, boss of African football, indicated that the quarter-final scheduled for Sunday in Yaoundé will be moved to the second stadium in the Cameroonian capital, the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium. He also announced that he was expecting a report on the circumstances of the tragedy by Friday.
