The death toll from stampedes during two Christmas charity events in Nigeria has increased from 13 to 32, police said on Sunday.

The victims, including at least four children, collapsed during crowd surges as people grew desperate for food items while the country grapples with the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

The dead included 22 people in southeastern Anambra state’s Okija town, where a philanthropist on Saturday organised a food distribution, local police spokesman Tochukwu Ikenga said. Ten others died in the capital, Abuja, during a church-organised similar charity event.

The police said they were investigating the two incidents, only days after another stampede in which several children were killed.

Africa’s most populous country is seeing a growing trend by local organisations, churches and individuals to organise charity events ahead of Christmas to ease economic hardship caused by a cost-of-living crisis.

Witnesses of the Abuja stampede told The Associated Press there was a crowd surge at one of the church gates, as dozens tried to enter the premises around 4am, hours before gift items were to be shared.

Some of them, including older people, waited overnight to get food, said Loveth Inyang, who rescued one baby from the crush.

The stampedes prompted growing calls for authorities to enforce safety measures at such events. Nigerian police also mandated that organisers obtain prior permission.

The United Nations food agency had said on Friday that more than 40 million people were now struggling to feed themselves across west and central Africa with that number set to rise to 52 million by the middle of next year.

According to a new report, the World Food Programme said 3.4 million people are currently facing “emergency levels of hunger” in the region.