iPad Mini: Minecraft crashes/freezes on startup

The bug

When I open Minecraft Pocket Edition on my iPad Mini, the Mojang logo appears and then the screen turns white. After a while, the game crashes and I'm sent back to my home screen.

Original description:

several days after last update (ender?). Minecraft app would not open on ipad mini. showed Mojang logo on white screen, then goes back to desktop/home-screen on ipad.