Five young people, aged 13 to 22, were killed on Thursday evening, August 22, in Algiers in a scramble at the entrance of a concert of Algerian star rapper Soolking, whose song is dedicated to the Algerian protest movement. told AFP the emergency services.
The scramble at one of the entrances to the 20-August stadium where the concert was held resulted in "five victims: two girls aged 19 and 22 and three boys aged 13, 21 and 16. the last has not yet been identified, "said Captain Nassim Bernaoui, from the communication unit of the Civil Protection.
"We have transported 13 victims in critical condition to the hospital Mustapha" Pasha, the principal of Algiers, among whom "five are dead" in the hospital, he added, without being able to pronounce on the state of the other eight.
# Algeria 🇩🇿: five dead in a scramble before the #Soolking rapper's concert in a stadium at #Alger.
The rapper installed in #France is a fervent supporter of the protest movement in the country ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/DWITtHXDIO
Among the people with minor injuries, "we treated 86 people on the spot in an advanced medical post," of which "32 were evacuated to the hospital," he said.
The official APS news agency quoted Mustapha hospital director Abdeslam Bennana as saying that three young women and two young men, aged between 20 and 25, had died.
According to the official agency based on the "first concordant testimonies", the stampede occurred around 8:00 pm (19:00 GMT) "in front of one of the secondary entrances of the Stade du 20-Août where the crowd was in a hurry to attend at the Soolking concert ".
"Liberty", song symbol of the protest movement
The concert, organized by the State Copyright Board (Onda), a public body, began 30 minutes later and has been running normally for more than four hours, according to APS which says the event has " drained more than 30,000 spectators ".
According to national radio, which quotes the same report, "fans point to a failure in the organization." While several thousand people were gathered in front of the stadium in the middle of the afternoon, "there were only four small accesses, allowing only one person to enter at a time," AFP told AFP. freelance journalist Akram Kharief. Facilitator of the MenaDĂ©fense website, he has compiled numerous testimonies, notably within the security services.
"It created a hustle and bustle," as the start time of the concert approached, "people have fallen," he added, adding that access to this stage built in the 1930s was controlled by organizers.
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It was the first concert in Algeria, and the only planned, rapper Soolking since the explosion of his international career in 2018. His real name Abderraouf Derradji, the 29-year-old singer has been living in France since 2014.
In March 2019, Soolking dedicated a song, "The Freedom", adapted from a song of football fans, to "Hirak", the unprecedented protest movement of the regime that had broken out less than a month earlier.
His song was often sung in the massive protests that have been taking place every Friday in Algeria since February 22, which led to the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after 20 years in power.
With AFP