Dozens of young folks who showed up at Stade D’Ornano in Brazzaville, Congo for a so-called military recruitment have lost their lives.
On the night of November 20 to November 21, thousands of young Congolese folks showed up at Stade d’ornano (the Ornano Stadium) to hand their applications for the military recruitment announced by the Congolese Armed Forces earlier this month.
The initial location to collect physical applications was set to be in front of the Congolese army head quarters in Center City Brazzaville.
For reasons unknown to the public, military officials decided to to relocate the recruitment location to Ornano Stadium, a soccer field located in Poto poto, Brazzaville.
Instead of opening the stadium earlier to let applicants in, the organizers closed the gate, therefore letting thousands of candidates pile up in front of the stadium pass midnight.
When they finally opened the gate, an uncontrollable crowd started rushing towards the gate with everyone hoping to get inside first. That’s when the stampede occurred with folks crushed and trampled underfoot.
The official death toll reported by the government is 31 casualties. Dozens of others are injured. The first reported number of deaths was 37.
Junior, A survivor of the incident describes what happened that night on social media:
” On Monday we arrived at 5 a.m”, he wrote. “they (recruiters) told us that during the night from.1 a.m to 3 a.m they received 700 applications, so they were done receiving more candidates for the day.”
“Because of that” he pursued. ” Folks decided to spend the night there in order to submit their applications in the middle of the night. In the rush of wanting to be the first to enter the stadium, while forcing the gate or jumping over the wall, the crowd trampled and stepped on each other, causing the death of several people. Many died from suffocation, especially women.”
A preventable incident has once again costed the lives of innocent young folks, because of a country led by incompetent, corrupt and clueless individuals.
In the aftermath of the incident, The Congolese Armed Forces officials announced that all recruitment operations were suspended until further notice .
The president who never communicates to the local or national press remains silent. After setting up a crisis unit that would identify all the victims and their families, the government promised to take charge of the funeral costs for all the victims.
In a country that possesses substantial reserves of crude oil and other natural resources as well as talented and intellectual youth, it is unimaginable to admit that recruitment are made in an archaic manner.
The country has enough resources to digitalize its administration and process job applications online. Unfortunately the money is being mismanaged, stolen on a daily basis by a corrupt government with impunity.
A 63-year-old army without a recruiting website is just a proof of how for over 43 years, an incompetent leader and his clan have plunged the country into deep chaos. They are unable to fund the creation of a website for the army to facilitate recruitments. Neither did they think about risk prevention when they came up with the idea of doing the recruiting at a soccer stadium.
Any serious democratic country would expect the defense minister to step down or get fired if not indicted, judged and sentenced.
unfortunately, the defense minister is still in his function. No communication from him so far. He is still making over $25,000 a month in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars they still from the public treasury on a regular basis.
No minister from the Nguesso family has ever stepped down after failing to do their job.
In 2012, after a mistake from the same government caused a major ammunition depot explosion that killed over 400 people in Brazzaville, the people responsible for the incident are still in the government making even further mistakes while getting illegally richer and richer.
for decades, Sassou Nguesso and his clan have held the country hostage to the point where human life has become so meaningless in their eyes.
All they worry about is money. Greed, incompetence, lies and corruption have become the norm in a country that could be a better place to live.