Two groups demand that the tournament organizers be arrested and charged right away.
Human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said Tuesday that a stampede and violence at a football stadium in southeast Guinea had left 135 people dead and 50 missing, raising the official death toll.
The fatal incident happened on Sunday at a stadium in Nzerekore, the second-largest city in Guinea, around 570 kilometers (354 miles) from the capital Conakry, during the last game of a local football competition.
Mêmes Droit pour Tous (Same rights for everyone) and the Guinean Organization for the Defense of Human Rights, two rights NGOs active in the Nzerekore region, denied the government’s official death toll of 56 people on Monday.
“It is estimated that 135 people—mostly children under the age of 18—died at the stadium, according to information gathered at the regional hospital of Nzerekore, from supporters present at the stadium, from neighborhood chiefs regarding burials in cemeteries on Dec. 2, in mosques and churches, from the parents of victims, and in the local press,” the statement said in part.
“More than fifty people are missing and several others were injured during this incident.”
Investigations will be conducted to determine who is responsible for the tragedy, according to a statement from Prime Minister Amadou Bah Oury.
He said that the fatal rush was caused by spectators throwing stones as a result of protests against the refereeing calls.
The organizations demanded that the tournament organizers be arrested and charged right away.
It was the last game of a competition that Guinea’s president, Gen.
