Nigeria stampede death toll rises to 32

Nigerian police report 32 deaths from two stampedes at food distribution centres in Okija and Abuja.

LAGOS:

Nigerian police on Sunday raised the total death toll from two stampedes at food distribution centres to 32, as the country grappled with a spate of deadly crowd crushes at charity events.

Twenty-two people were killed on Saturday as people queued outside a centre distributing rice in the southern town of Okija, police said, after previously warning "many" were dead as a result of the incident.

And on the same day a separate stampede outside a church giving food to the "vulnerable and elderly" in the capital Abuja killed at least 10 people, prompting Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu to clear his schedule in the wake of the twin tragedies.