BANGUI, Central African Republic: Twenty-nine students taking their high school exams in the Central African Republic died in a stampede sparked by an exploding power transformer, the health ministry stated on Thursday.
Just over 5,300 students were sitting for the second day of the baccalaureat exams at the time of the explosion early Wednesday afternoon in Bangui, the capital of the nation, AFP reported.
In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school.
The injured were transported by ambulance, on the back of pickup trucks or by motorbike taxi, AFP reported.
“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” President Faustin Archange Touadera said in a video published on his party’s Facebook page.
Touadera, who is attending a summit of the Gavi vaccine alliance in Brussels, also announced three days of national mourning.
According to a document circulating on social media and authenticated by the health ministry, 29 deaths were registered by hospitals in the city, AFP reported.
“The hospital was overwhelmed by people to the point of obstructing caregivers and ambulances, AFP reported citing a health ministry source.
UN peacekeepers, police and other security were seen around the Barthelemy Boganda high school and hospitals.
Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zingas said in a statement Wednesday that “measures will be taken quickly to shed light on the circumstances of this incident”.
The minister added that a further statement would follow regarding the selection of a date for the students to resume their exam programme.
The Republican Bloc for the Defence of the Constitution (BRDC), a coalition of opposition parties, condemned what it termed “the irresponsibility of the authorities in place, who have failed in their duty to ensure the safety of students and school infrastructure.”
The CAR is among the poorest countries in the world and, since independence in 1960, has endured a succession of coups and civil wars. – Agencies
