The Congolese authorities still claim that nine spectators and two police officers died on Saturday, October 29, in stampedes during Fally Ipupa’s concert at the Martyrs stadium in Kinshasa. Justice has opened a legal file against the organizers. The first procedural acts have been taken.
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
A team of investigators went to the stadium earlier this week to draw up reports. The police claim to have mobilized 2,500 police officers to maintain order around and inside the 80,000-seat stadium.
According to the police chief’s press release, it was undoubtedly the overcrowding of spectators – there were more than 120,000 – which caused the drama of October 29 at the Martyrs stadium in Kinshasa, during the Fally Ipupa concert. Nine spectators and two police officers died in stampedes.
Scrambles were recorded “ at the exit and towards the end of the concert », resulting in death by suffocation. The Kinshasa police chief says he ordered the ban on access to the stadium around 6 p.m. because the enclosure was already saturated. He assures that, without order, the damage recorded would have been greater.
The organizers, for their part, denounce the police and challenge the balance sheet. A producer says law enforcement has mobilized fewer officers than originally planned. He explains that the police brought in, against payment, spectators without tickets. The organizers claim to have collected more than 10,000 counterfeit tickets. They filed a complaint against X.
Police have released the identities of the nine bystanders who were essentially suffocated and the two officers who died. According to a police statement, one committed suicide, while the other died at his home after becoming unwell.