GENEVA: At least 47 people were killed and 181 others were wounded in clashes between the Libyan National Army (LNA) and militias countering its advance on the capital, Tripoli.
It was announced was by the UN’s health body on Tuesday.
The LNA, commanded by Khalifa Haftar, started the operation to cleanse Tripoli of terrorists and criminal gangs last week. The UN agency warned that the renewed fighting could deplete medical supplies.
RABAT: Pope Francis told a small Catholic community in predominantly Muslim Morocco on Sunday that their mission should not be covert their neighbors.
The Pope suggested them to live in brotherhood with other faiths, report said.
Pope Francis used his trip to stress inter-faith dialogue. He also backed Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s efforts to spread a form of Islam, which promotes inter-religious dialogue.
Morocco has some 23,000 Roman Catholics – most of them French and other European expatriates and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. They make up less than one percent of the population of 35 million. (Agencies)
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will visit the African countries of Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius from Sept. 4-10, the Vatican announced. Francis will visit the capitals: Maputo in Mozambique, Antananarivo in Madagascar and Port Louis in Mauritius.The Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said in a national address on Wednesday that the pope’s visit would be “an inspiration and an encouragement” to help “rebuild a prosperous, united and peaceful” nation.
BEIRA, Mozambique: Cyclone Idai and its aftermath affected around 1.85 million people in Mozambique alone, U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said.
Aid workers have raced to fathom the scale of the disaster, local media reports said.
OCHA coordinator Sebastian Rhodes Stampa said several will be in critical, life threatening situations.
Cyclone Idai destroyed houses provoking widespread flooding near the Mozambique port city of Beira on March 14. The cyclone then ripped through Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Around 686 people have been killed by the storm and its aftermath in three countries. (Agencies)
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the massive killing of 134 civilians in a Malian village.
“The secretary-general is shocked and outraged by reports that at least 134 civilians, including women and children, have been killed and at least 55 have been injured following an attack this morning in Ogossagou Peulh village, Mopti region, in central Mali,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general, said in a statement.
BAMAKO: Gunmen have killed at least 134 Fulani herders in central Mali, official said.
According to media reports, this has been the deadliest such attack of recent times in the region.
The gunmen attacked villages of Ogossagou and Welingara as a U.N. Security Council mission visited Mali seeking solutions to violence in the region on Saturday.
Mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, Moulaye Guindo, said armed men dressed as traditional Donzo hunters encircled and then attacked the Ogossagou village, reports said.
He said they were provisionally at 134 bodies recovered by the gendarmes.
According to him, the gunmen also attacked another nearby Fulani village and Welingara. Most of those killed have been women, children and elderly people. (Agencies)
BEIRA: The death toll from floods triggered by Cyclone Idai in southern Africa has surpassed 500 so far, news agencies said.
Hundreds more have been feared dead in towns and villages that were completely submerged in the floods and landslides triggered by the cyclone a week ago.
The UN food aid agency said 400,000 people were displaced in Mozambique’s coastal city of Beira and flooded areas along the Pungue and Buzi rivers.
Aid agencies and several governments continued to step up their deployments.
HARARE: At least 89 people died in Zimbabwe after Cyclone Idai tore across some parts of the country, reports said.
The cyclone created a humanitarian crisis in the country, which is grappling with economic woes.
Agency reports said Chimanimani district has been cut off from the rest of the country due to heavy rains and winds of up to 170 km per hour.
Authorities said winds swept away homes, bridges and roads knocking out power and communication lines.
Officials said the toll is expected to rise.
Rescuers, including security personnel, are struggling to reach people in the affected areas.
Meanwhile, the government has declared a state of disaster in affected areas. It should be noted that Zimbabwe, which has a population of 15 million people, has been suffering a severe drought. (Agencies)
EJERE, Ethiopia: Black box of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 jet is recovered, said the airlines officer. However, it is not sure whether data could be retrieved from the black box since it is ‘partially damaged’ according to the officer.
Meanwhile, the airlines has grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 8 air crafts to what it says is a precautionary measure. The reason of the air crash is still a mystery since the weather condition at the time of accident was clear.
(Agencies)
NAIROBI: An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 jet en route to Nairobi crashed killing all 157, including 149 passengers and eight crew members on board, media reports said.
According to reports, there were no survivors.
The ill-fated flight had left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38 am local time when it lost contact with the control tower a few minutes later.
The state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation said there were no survivors onboard the flight. The airlines was carrying passengers from 33 countries, reports said.
The flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, some 62 kilometers southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, according to the airlines.
Officials said search and rescue operations were in progress. (Agencies)