Connect with us

Foreign

Ethiopia declares three-day mourning as landslide kills 250

Published

on

Ethiopia announced on Friday three days of mourning following a devastating landslide in a southern remote part of the country where more than 250 people lost their lives.

Rescuers are continuing the grim search for bodies in the tiny locality of Kencho Shacha Gozdi, while distraught survivors bury those who perished in the disaster, the deadliest landslide on record in the Horn of Africa nation.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA, citing local authorities, said on Thursday that 257 people have died and warned the toll could reach 500.

“The House of Peoples’ Representatives has announced a three-day national mourning for the people who lost their lives in the landslide accident,” Ethiopia’s parliament said, adding that it would start from Saturday.

Advertisement

The period of remembrance would allow “comfort to their relatives and all the people of our country,” added the statement, shared by the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission said earlier Friday that humanitarian aid and rehabilitation was “well under way” in the region.

It said a “structure for emergency disaster response coordination and integration” had been established, putting the number of people needing to be relocated at 6,000.

OCHA had said more than 15,000 people need to be evacuated because of the risk of further landslides, including small children and thousands of pregnant women or new mothers.

Advertisement

Aid had begun arriving, it said, including four trucks from the Ethiopian Red Cross Society.

Officials said most of the victims were buried when they rushed to help after a first landslide, which followed heavy rains Sunday in the area that lies about 480 kilometres (300 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa.

International offers of condolences have flooded in, including from the African Union, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and World Health

Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian.

Advertisement

Africa’s second most populous nation is often afflicted by climate-related disasters and more than 21 million people or about 18 percent of the population rely on humanitarian aid as a result of conflict, flooding or drought.

AFP.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Foreign

There will be no same sex marriage again -Trump vows to end ‘transgender madness ‘

Published

on

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday pledged to “stop the transgender lunacy” on day one of his presidency, as Republicans — set to control both chambers of Congress and the White House — continue their push against LGBTQ rights.

“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” the president-elect said at an event for young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona.

He also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports,” adding that “it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

Speaking to the AmericaFest conference in a border state he easily carried in the November election, Trump further promised immediate measures against “migrant crime,” vowed to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and doubled down on his talk of restoring US control of the Panama Canal.

Advertisement

Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as Democratic- and Republican-controlled states have moved in opposite directions on policy such as medical treatment and what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.

Last week, when the US Congress approved its annual defense budget, it included a provision to block funding of some gender-affirming care for the transgender children of service members.

In his speech Sunday, which amounted to something of a victory lap, Trump made expansive promises for his second term — and drew a dark picture of the four years preceding it, under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the latter of whom he defeated in the 2024 election.

“On January 20, the United States will turn the page forever on four long, horrible years of failure, incompetence, national decline, and we will inaugurate a new era of peace, prosperity and national greatness,” Trump said, referring to his swearing-in.

Advertisement

– ‘Golden age’ –

“I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent, I promise, World War III.”

He added: “The golden age of America is upon us.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Foreign

Fresh Israeli Airstrikes In Gaza Kill 25 Palestinians Including Children

Published

on

Fresh Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 25 Palestinians, according to medics.

The casualties on Friday included at least eight people in an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp and 10 others in the town of Jabalia, among them seven children.

Efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have yet to succeed.

Sources involved in the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday that Qatar and Egypt had resolved some points of contention but key issues remain unresolved.

Advertisement

Israel launched its assault on Gaza following Hamas-led attacks on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023.

The attacks resulted in the deaths of 1200 people and the abduction of over 250 hostages, according to Israeli reports.

Israel states that approximately 100 hostages are still being held, though it is unclear how many remain alive.

Gaza authorities report that Israel’s ongoing campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians and displaced the majority of the 2.3 million residents.

Advertisement

Much of the territory has reportedly been devastated by the conflict.

Continue Reading

Foreign

Biden signs bipartisan funding bill to keep government open

Published

on

President Biden signed the stopgap funding bill that will keep the government open until March, punting the thornier issues surrounding the nation’s finances to the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

A bloated 1,500-page funding measure was exploded by Trump and his top ally Elon Musk earlier this week as they demanded a pared-down version.

The parties were able to cobble a stopgap bill together Friday evening, which passed the Senate early Saturday morning.

The package funds the government at current levels until March 14, 2025, and includes $100 billion in hurricane relief funds and $10 billion in aid to farmers.

Advertisement

With the stopgap funding only running until March, an almost certain clash is looming between Trump and GOP spending hardliners when Congress reconvenes in January.

“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open and delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Biden said in a statement after inking the deal.

The post Biden signs bipartisan funding bill to keep government open appeared first on New York Post.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 Naija Blitz News