At least 85 people were killed and more than 322 injured on Thursday (April 19th) in Yemen, in one of the deadliest stampedes in a decade, during a charity event in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.

Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, has been torn apart since 2014 by a conflict between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition. The war has killed hundreds of thousands and plunged the population of some 30 million into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN.

"Eighty-five people were killed, and more than 322 were injured" in a stampede during a charity operation organized in the Bab el Yemen neighborhood, said a security source in Sanaa. The death toll was confirmed by an official from the rebels' medical authorities. "Women and children are among those dead," and about fifty wounded are in serious condition, said the security source, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The crowd movement, which comes a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, took place in a school in the Old City district, where hundreds of people had gathered to receive financial aid, according to testimonies collected by an AFP journalist. Some of them claim to have heard gunshots that they say provoked the crowd movement.

The Sanaa authorities did not mention the causes of the accident or the number of victims, saying only "dozens of deaths following a stampede during a chaotic distribution of sums of money by some traders".

Bodies piled up

A video broadcast by the rebels' Al Masirah TV shows bodies piled up and people climbing on top of each other in an attempt to make their way. Some try to push their hands away from their faces so they can breathe, the rest of their bodies completely engulfed by the dense crowd, while armed fighters in military uniform try to push them in the opposite direction.

The victims were taken to nearby hospitals, and event organizers arrested, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the rebel news agency, Saba. "Three traders were arrested," a security official in Sanaa said.

The families of the victims gathered outside the hospital, but security forces prevented them from entering, while rebel officials went to the scene, an AFP journalist said. The chairman of the rebels' Supreme Political Council, Mehdi Mashat, announced the "creation of a commission to investigate the causes of the accident," according to Saba.

The stampede is among the deadliest crowd movements in a decade, according to an AFP count.

Humanitarian crisis

The war in Yemen has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced, amid epidemics, lack of clean water and famine. More than three-quarters of the population depends on dwindling international aid. In rebel-held areas, including the capital Sanaa, many civil servants have not been paid for months.

A six-month UN-brokered truce was not renewed when it expired in October, but the situation on the ground remained calm, offering respite to the population. Last week, a Saudi delegation, accompanied by Omani mediators, visited Sana'a for talks aimed at reviving the truce and laying the groundwork for a more durable ceasefire. In this context, the government and the rebels have exchanged nearly 900 prisoners in recent days.

>> READ ALSO: The rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a first step for peace in Yemen?

Yemen has not seen such a "serious opportunity" for a process to achieve peace for eight years, UN envoy Hans Grunberg said Monday. But "let's not delude ourselves. There is still a lot of work to be done to build trust and compromise," he warned.

With AFP

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