WOMEN, CHILDREN DIE IN STRUGGLE FOR GOVERNMENT CASH, CLOTHES IN BORNO

At least five women and children died on Saturday in a stampede when cash and clothes were handed out to thousands of displaced people in Gamboru, Borno State, militia and local people told AFP. A large crowd surged forward for the government aid distribution and people were trampled under foot in the town of Gamboru, near the Cameroon border, a region hit by jihadist violence. “Five dead bodies, four women and a little girl, were brought to the hospital along with seven injured,” a medical source said at the hospital. “We learned that (other) bodies were identified and claimed by relations from the scene,” the source added without specifying how many. However Umar Kachalla, who heads a local anti-jihadist militia force, said: “There was a crush which led to the death of 12 women and children and left seven with severe injuries.”