Accra Sports Stadium disaster

Anticipating crowd disturbances, authorities had implemented extra security measures—including stationing riot-control police officers at the stadium.

Many of the arena's gates had been locked and the stadium's compromised design left a bottleneck, with fewer exits than originally planned.

[5] Reports claim that medical staff had left the stadium before the tragedy ensued, as it took place near the end of the match.

[1][2][8][9][10] In an interview with BBC News, the deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Joe Aggrey, described the event as a devastating one with piles of bodies on the floors of the stadium.

[11][12] An official inquiry blamed police for over-reacting with reckless behaviour and indiscriminate firing of plastic bullets and tear gas.

[6][13] The commission of inquiry recommended improvements to stadium security and first aid facilities, and that nationwide rapid response teams should be set up.

[6] Since 2001, corporations and philanthropists, including Herbert Mensah, who was Asante Kotoko chairman from 1999 to 2003, have memorialized this tragedy with the Stadium Disaster Fund and a series of events in Kumasi.