Workers appeal for more helicopters as flood waters keep rising after Cyclone Idai
Rescue teams in Mozambique are struggling to reach the thousands of people stranded on roofs and in trees and urgently need more helicopters and boats as post-cyclone flood waters continue to rise.
Mozambique, which was hit by Cyclone Idai over the weekend, has declared a state of emergency and is appealing for international help.
Continue reading...Volunteers rescued about 50 people off Libya on Tuesday in defiance of government order
Italian authorities have ordered the seizure of a charity rescue ship after it defied the government’s order not to bring refugees and migrants to Italy.
On Tuesday, volunteers onboard the Mare Jonio rescued about 50 people from a rubber boat off the coast of Libya, prompting Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, to say he was ready to stop private vessels “once and for all” from bringing rescued people to Italy.
Continue reading...Scientists and campaigners warn that factories in coastal villages are wreaking environmental and economic havoc
Before the arrival of fishmeal factories in the Gambia, Musa Duboe would catch red snapper and barracuda to be sold at the local market. But his income had begun to dwindle due to depleted stocks.
Then in 2016 the Chinese-owned fishmeal plant Golden Lead began operating out of the coastal town of Gunjur, increasing demand for fish to export for overseas aquaculture.
Continue reading...Millions from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe affected as houses and roads submerged
The devastating cyclone that hit south-eastern Africa may be the worst ever disaster to strike the southern hemisphere, according to the UN.
Cyclone Idai has swept through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe over the past few days, destroying almost everything in its path, causing devastating floods, killing and injuring thousands of people and ruining crops. More than 2.6 million people could be affected across the three countries, and the port city of Beira, which was hit on Friday and is home to 500,000 people, is now an “island in the ocean”, almost completely cut off.
Continue reading...The 100mph tropical cyclone has affected 1.5 million people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe
Continue reading...Rescue could spark showdown with government after order not to bring migrants to Italy
An Italian charity ship has rescued about 50 people from a rubber boat off the coast of Libya, prompting Rome to warn it is ready to stop private vessels “once and for all” from bringing rescued migrants to Italy.
The interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has repeatedly declared Italian waters closed to NGO rescue vessels and has left several of them stranded at sea in the past in an attempt to force the rest of Europe to take in more asylum seekers.
Continue reading...At its best, social work can break cycles of crisis, and help people change their lives and communities
Too often, social services are designed as rotating doors. They focus on individuals in crisis who, when the symptoms of the emergency have eased, are sent directly back to the stressful situation that caused all the damage – a painful, costly and tragic cycle.
There is little focus in formal social services on helping people to transform their environments to provide ongoing support and love, let alone engaging people to become advocates for their rights. Yet outside these limitations, social workers are supporting connections in communities designed to last people’s whole lifetimes. In many countries we call it “working beyond services”. There are countless examples around the world.
Continue reading...Aerial footage shows the scale of damage to Beira in Mozambique following Cyclone Idai. Up to 90% of the port city has been damaged or destroyed, according to the Red Cross.
Idai hit Beira last week before moving inland and spreading heavy winds and rain to Zimbabwe and Malawi. More than 215 people have been killed by the storm across the affected countries, while hundreds more are missing and more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the widespread destruction and flooding
Continue reading...President describes scale of disaster as huge, as Red Cross says most of Beira damaged or destroyed
More than 1,000 people are feared dead in a devastating cyclone that hit Mozambique on Friday, the country’s president has said.
Filipe Nyusi told Mozambican radio he had seen “many bodies” floating in the overflowing Pungwe and Busi rivers. “It appears that we can register more than 1,000 deaths,” he said, adding that more than 100,000 people were at risk because of severe flooding.
Continue reading...Thousands of people have mourned victims of the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crash, as 17 empty caskets draped in the national flag were accompanied through the streets of the capital, Addis Ababa, amid emotional scenes. Relatives, friends, and colleagues of the 157 people killed when the plane crashed on 10 March lit candles and held prayers during the service. The identification of some remains of crash victims could take weeks or months, according to experts
• Ethiopian Airlines crash: thousands turn out for funeral service
Continue reading...Empty caskets parade through Addis Ababa a day after relatives of 157 victims began receiving earth from crash site
Thousands of people have mourned Ethiopian victims of the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crash, as 17 empty caskets draped in the national flag were accompanied through the streets of the capital, Addis Ababa.
The funeral service came one day after officials began delivering bags of earth to family members of the 157 victims instead of the remains of their loved ones because the identification process is expected to take a long time.
Continue reading...Black box arrives in France amid reports suggesting similarities with Lion Air crash
Air crash investigators have begun analysing the black box data recorder from Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, amid reports that the plane wreckage suggested similarities with a previous disaster involving the Boeing 737 Max jet.
Accounts have also emerged of communications between the plane and air traffic control, in which the pilot is said to have asked in panicked tones to turn back three minutes into the flight, as the 737 Max dipped and climbed.
Continue reading...Senior figures in ruling FLN show signs of backing demands for Bouteflika to step down
Thousands of demonstrators have protested in the centre of the Algerian capital for a fourth consecutive Friday, as the country’s political elite began distancing themselves from the ailing 82-year-old president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Despite a heavy police presence, crowds gathered at Algiers’ Grande Poste square hours before the scheduled start of a demonstration calling on Bouteflika to step down after two decades in power.
Continue reading...Young unmarried mothers are often forced to live in poverty, unable to find work and shunned by their families and communities
Photographs: Carol Allen-Storey/Hope for Rwanda
US politicians say ban will last through April, as data from Ethiopian Airlines flight arrives in France
Boeing’s 737 Max 8 and 9 planes will remain grounded for weeks at a minimum, US politicians said on Thursday, as flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane arrived in France.
After a briefing with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), congressman Rick Larsen said the planes, which have been involved in two fatal crashes in the last five months, would be banned from flying “at least through April” while new software is installed and investigations continue.
Continue reading...Having fled violence, a million Ethiopians now face hunger and disease. Yet Abiy Ahmed seems intent only on their return
In southern Ethiopia, tens of thousands of people are enduring what aid workers say is a full-blown humanitarian crisis. But the government of the new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, appears not to be listening.
It is a stain on the record of an administration that, since Abiy’s appointment last April, has been lauded for opening up Ethiopia’s political space and making peace with neighbouring Eritrea. Last month, Abiy was nominated for a Nobel peace prize. His government has also been praised for passing a new refugee policy hailed as a model of compassion and forward-thinking. Yet the dire situation facing millions of people forced from their homes by conflict, and the new regime’s approach to their plight, has invited a more sceptical response from some observers.
Continue reading...At least four people dead and scores feared buried under rubbe of Lagos building
Dozens of children are among scores of people feared trapped after a four-storey building collapsed in Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos, killing at least four people.
Officials said the children were attending an illegal school in the residential building when the structure collapsed. “Dozens of children were trapped inside,” said Adesina Tiamiyu, the head of Lagos state emergency management agency, which was supervising the rescue operation.
Continue reading...Britain is Egypt’s largest foreign investor. Yet at the recent Arab-EU summit, Theresa May was oddly quiet on rights abuses
While there may be “a special place in hell” for those who backed Brexit without a plan, regimes that execute people after fundamentally flawed trials get their own summit. Just a fortnight ago, Donald Tusk and the leaders of the EU met with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, at the Arab-EU summit in Sharm el-Sheikh – days after his regime executed nine people.
The summit was co-chaired by Tusk and Sisi. Tusk and other European leaders, including Theresa May, were curiously silent at the summit about the fate of Egypt’s political prisoners. The execution of the nine – convicted after unfair trials in which human rights campaigners say confessions were elicited by torture – was the third consecutive week of executions. In total 15 people were put to death in February in Egypt.
Continue reading...Disaster marks second crash for Boeing 737 Max 8 in four months, with passengers from 35 different countries
An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on Sunday near Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. Here’s what we know about the crash.
Continue reading...President’s promise of ‘deep reforms’ has calmed protests but may not be the end of the crisis
In the first line of Abdulaziz Bouteflika’s letter to the nation on Monday night, the Algerian president said the country was living through a sensitive stage of its history. On this, at least he and his compatriots are agreed.
The 82-year-old politician, who has had a series of strokes that have left him in poor health, has been in power since 1999. The announcement that he would not be seeking a further five-year term caused widespread celebration. This was the principal demand of the hundreds of thousands – possibly millions – who marched peacefully through cities and towns across Algeria on Friday in protests on a scale not seen for decades.
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