A map with a pin showing the location of Moshi Town in northeastern
Tanzania. At least 20 people were killed and more than a dozen injured
on February 1, 2020 in a stampede during a church service at a stadium
in northern Tanzania, a government official said. PHOTO | GOOGLE MAPS
Dar es salaam,
Hundreds
of people packed a stadium on Saturday evening in Moshi Town near the
slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro and crushed each other as they rushed to get
anointed with “blessed oil”.
“Twenty
people died and 16 others were injured in the incident,” Moshi District
Commissioner Kippi Warioba told Reuters by telephone. Five of those
killed were children, he said.
“The stampede occurred when the worshippers were rushing to get anointed with blessed oil,” Warioba said.
Pastor
Boniface Mwamposa has been drawing huge crowds by promising prosperity
and cure for disease to worshippers who walk on what he describes as
“blessed oil” during his church services.
Authorities fear the death toll could rise due to the size of the crowd and dark conditions when the stampede occurred.
“The
incident took place at night and there were many people, so there is a
possibility that more casualties could emerge. We are still assessing
the situation,” Warioba said.
Tanzania
has seen a rise in the number of “prosperity gospel” pastors in recent
years, who promise to lift people out of poverty and perform what they
call miracle cures.
Thousands of
people in the nation of 55 million flock to Pentecostal churches, whose
main source of income is “tithe”, the 10 percent or so of income that
worshippers are asked to contribute.
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