Africa
At least 20 dead in South African club; cause not yet known
South African police are investigating the deaths of at least 20 people at a nightclub in the coastal town of East London early Sunday morning.
It is unclear what led to the deaths of the young people, who were reportedly attending a party to celebrate the end of winter school exams.
Read:Survivors recount Mali's deadliest attack since coup
Local newspaper Daily Dispatch reported that bodies were strewn across tables and chairs without any visible signs of injuries.
“At this point we cannot confirm the cause of death,” said health department spokesperson Siyanda Manana.
“We are going to conduct autopsies as soon as possible to establish the probable cause of death. The deceased have been taken to state mortuaries,” Manana added.
Police Minister Bheki Cele was on Sunday morning expected to visit the scene.
The owner of the club, Siyakhangela Ndevu, told local broadcaster eNCA that he had been called to the scene early Sunday morning.
Read: 55 people killed in latest attack in northern Burkina Faso
“I am still uncertain about what really happened, but when I was called in the morning I was told the place was too full and that some people were trying to force their way into the tavern," he said.
“However, we will hear what the police say about the cause of death,” Ndevu added.
Survivors recount Mali's deadliest attack since coup
Moussa Tolofidie didn’t think twice when nearly 100 jihadis on motorbikes gathered in his village in central Mali last week.
A peace agreement signed last year between some armed groups and the community in the Bankass area had largely held, even if the gunmen would sometimes enter the town to preach Shariah to the villagers. But on this Sunday in June, everything changed — the jihadis began killing people.
“They started with an old man about 100 years old ... then the sounds of the weapons began to intensify around me and then at one moment I heard a bullet whistling behind my ear. I felt the earth spinning, I lost consciousness and fell to the ground,” Tolofidie, a 28-year-old farmer told The Associated Press by phone Friday in Mopti town, where he was receiving medical care.
“When I woke up it was dark, around midnight. There were bodies of other people on top of me. I smelled blood and smelled burnt things and heard the sounds of some people still moaning,” he said.
At least 132 people were killed in several villages in the Bankass area of central Mali during two days of attacks last weekend, according to the government, which blames the Group to Support Islam and Muslims jihadi rebels linked to al-Qaida.
READ: 2 UN peacekeepers killed in 6th incident in Mali in 2 weeks
The attack — the deadliest since mutinous soldiers toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita two years ago — shows that Islamic extremist violence is spreading from Mali’s north to more central areas, analysts have said.
The conflict-riddled country has been battling extremist violence for a decade since jihadis seized control of key northern cities in 2012 and tried to take over the capital. They were pushed back by a French-led military operation the following year but have since regained ground.
The Associated Press spoke to several survivors on Friday who had sought treatment at a hospital in Mopti and were from the villages of Diallassagou, Dianweli and Dessagou. People described hearing gunfire and jihadis shouting, “Allahu akbar”, Arabic for “God is great,” as they ran into the forest to save their lives.
Mali’s government blamed the attacks on the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, or JNIM, which is backed by al-Qaida, although the group denied responsibility in a statement on Friday.
The United States and France condemned the attacks and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) issued a statement on Twitter saying the violence has caused casualties and displaced the population.
Conflict analysts say the fact that the attacks happened in an area where local peace agreements were signed could signify the end of the fragile accords.
“The resurgence of tension is perhaps linked to the expiration of these local agreements but also can be linked to the intensification of military operations by the defense forces,” said Baba Dakono, director of the Citizen Observatory on Governance and Security, a local civil society group.
Ene Damango, a mechanic from Dialassagou, fled his village when the shooting started, but he said his uncle was shot in the leg and severely wounded.
“When I returned to the village. I discovered the carnage."
55 people killed in latest attack in northern Burkina Faso
Gunmen killed at least 55 people over the weekend in northern Burkina Faso, the latest attack amid mounting violence blamed on Islamic extremists, authorities said Monday.
Suspected militants targeted civilians in Seytenga in the West African country's Seno province, government spokesman Wendkouni Joel Lionel Bilgo said at a news conference.
READ: Hunger grips Burkina Faso due to increasing jihadi violence
Nearly 5,000 people have died over the last two years in Burkina Faso because of violence blamed on Islamic extremists. Another 2 million people have fled their homes, deepening the country's humanitarian crisis.
UN says concerned over Libya clashes, urges efforts for calm
The United Nations mission to Libya expressed concern Saturday over clashes in Tripoli, after a night of heavy fire between militias in the capital.
The latest fighting comes as Libya is once again divided between competing governments — one of which is based in Tripoli — despite more than a year of tentative steps towards unification.
The cause of the violence in the seaside neighborhood was unclear, but videos circulated on social media showed families with children sheltering and fleeing as artillery fire flew across the night sky. Some accused two of the city’s powerful militias of infighting.
In a statement, the mission said the clashes endangered civilians and called on Libyans “to do everything possible to preserve the country’s fragile stability at this sensitive time.”
Libya has for years been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each supported by various well-armed militias and foreign governments. The Mediterranean nation has been in a state of upheaval since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
READ: Detained Bangladeshis in Libya to be brought back: FM
The country’s plan to transition to an elected government fell through after an interim administration based in Tripoli, headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, failed to hold elections last year.
Dbeibah has refused to step down since then, raising questions over his mandate. In response, the country’s East-based lawmakers have elected a rival prime minister, Fathy Bashagha, a powerful former interior minister who is now operating a separate administration out of the city of Sirte.
Dbeibah, in a televised phone call, urged a powerful commander who leads the 444 brigade — which serves his government — to do what is necessary to restore peace in Tripoli.
His rival, Bashagha, in a series of Tweets called on armed groups to surrender their weapons. Last month, Bashagha entered Tripoli and attempted to install his government there, but left within hours after fighting broke out that killed one person.
Meanwhile, a widening blockade on oil production, largely in the country's east, has cut off key state revenues in opposition to Dbeibah's remaining in power. On Friday, a video announcement by residents and workers of the Sidra oil port, a key export facility, warned that they would stop operations due to lack of basic services in surrounding towns.
Over 50 feared dead in Nigeria church attack, officials say
Gunmen opened fire on worshippers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday, leaving dozens feared dead, state lawmakers said.
The attackers targeted the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said. Among the dead were many children, he said.
The presiding priest was abducted as well, said Adelegbe Timileyin, who represents the Owo area in Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber.
Also read:Children among 31 killed at church fair stampede in Nigeria
“Our hearts are heavy," Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu tweeted Sunday. “Our peace and tranquility have been attacked by the enemies of the people.”
Authorities did not immediately release an official death toll. Timileyin said at least 50 people had been killed, though others put the figure higher. Videos appearing to be from the scene of the attack showed church worshippers lying in pools of blood while people around them wailed.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said “only fiends from the nether region could have conceived and carried out such dastardly act,” according to a statement from his spokesman.
“No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light. Nigeria will eventually win,” said Buhari, who was elected after vowing to end Nigeria’s prolonged security crisis.
In Rome, Pope Francis responded to news of the attack.
“The pope has learned of the attack on the church in Ondo, Nigeria and the deaths of dozens of worshippers, many children, during the celebration of Pentecost. While the details are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and the country, painfully affected at a time of celebration, and entrusts them both to the Lord so that he may send his spirit to console them,” the pope said in a statement issued by the Vatican press office.
Also read:Police say man shoots 2 females, self outside Iowa church
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church. While much of Nigeria has struggled with security issues, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria's most peaceful states. The state, though, has been caught up in a rising violent conflict between farmers and herders.
Nigeria's security forces did not immediately respond to questions about how the attack occurred or if there are any leads about suspects. Owo is about 345 kilometers (215 miles) east of Lagos.
“In the history of Owo, we have never experienced such an ugly incident," said lawmaker Oluwole. “This is too much.”
War in Ukraine adds to food price hikes, hunger in Africa
It now costs Ayan Hassan Abdirahman twice as much as it did just a few months ago to buy the wheat flour she uses to make breakfast each day for her 11 children in Somalia’s capital.
Nearly all the wheat sold in Somalia comes from Ukraine and Russia, which have halted exports through the Black Sea since Moscow waged war on its neighbor on Feb. 24. The timing could not be worse: The U.N. has warned that an estimated 13 million people were facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa region as a result of a persistent drought.
Abdirahman has been trying to make do by substituting sorghum, another more readily available grain, in her flatbread. Inflation, though, means the price of the cooking oil she still needs to prepare it has skyrocketed too — a jar that once cost $16 is now selling for $45 in the markets of Mogadishu.
“The cost of living is high nowadays, making it difficult for families even to afford flour and oil,” she says.
Read: Plane wreckage found in Nepal mountains, 14 bodies recovered
Haji Abdi Dhiblawe, a businessman who imports wheat flour into Somalia, fears the situation will only worsen: There is also a looming shortage of shipping containers to bring food supplies in from elsewhere at the moment.
“Somalis have no place to grow wheat, and we are not even familiar with how to grow it,” he says. “Our main concern now is what will the future hold for us when we currently run out of supplies.”
Another 18 million people are facing severe hunger in the Sahel, the part of Africa just below the Sahara Desert where farmers are enduring their worst agricultural production in more than a decade. The U.N. World Food Program says food shortages could worsen when the lean season arrives in late summer.
Children among 31 killed at church fair stampede in Nigeria
A stampede Saturday at a church charity event in southern Nigeria left 31 people dead and seven injured, police told The Associated Press, a shocking development at a program that aimed to offer hope to the needy. One witness said the dead included a pregnant woman and many children.
The stampede at the event organized by the Kings Assembly Pentecostal church in Rivers state involved people who came to the church’s annual “Shop for Free” charity program, according to Grace Iringe-Koko, a police spokeswoman.
Such events are common in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, where more than 80 million people live in poverty, according to government statistics.
Saturday’s charity program was supposed to begin at 9 a.m. but dozens arrived as early as 5 a.m. to secure their place in line, Iringe-Koko said. Somehow the locked gate was broken open, creating a stampede, she said.
Godwin Tepikor from Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said first responders were able to evacuate the bodies of those trampled to death and bring them to the morgue. Security forces cordoned off the area.
READ: Nigeria attacks: Hundreds reported killed as bandits target villages
Dozens of residents later thronged the scene, mourning the dead and offering any assistance they could to emergency workers. Doctors and emergency workers treated some of the injured as they lay in the open field. Videos from the scene showed the clothing, shoes and other items meant for the beneficiaries.
One witness who only identified himself as Daniel said "there were so many children” among the dead. Five of the dead children were from one mother, he told the AP, adding that a pregnant woman also lost her life.
Some church members were attacked and injured by relatives of the victims after the stampede, according to witness Christopher Eze. The church declined to comment on the situation.
The police spokeswoman said the seven injured were “responding to treatment."
The “Shop for Free” event was suspended while authorities investigated how the stampede occurred.
Nigeria has seen similar stampedes in the past.
Twenty-four people died at an overcrowded church gathering in the southeastern state of Anambra in 2013, while at least 16 people were killed in 2014 when a crowd got out of control during a screening for government jobs in the nation's capital, Abuja.
Congo’s M23 rebels attack military base in country’s east
Congo’s M23 rebels closed in on a major military camp in the country’s east on Thursday after days of fighting the army, officials said.
Clashes continued Thursday at the Rumangabo base in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu province about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the provincial capital, Goma.
“There is no truce. The fighting is still continuing this morning on the same fronts as yesterday,” deputy army spokesman Gen. Sylvain Ekenge said.
Gunfire exchanges have been heard there since early in the morning, said Manouvo Nguka, who lives in Rumangabo where the base is located.
“The army seeks to regain full control of Rumangabo,” he told The Associated Press.
The situation has been critical since Wednesday night, he added.
“There was more than an hour of exchange of fire between the loyalist army and the M23 rebels,” he said.
Also Read: After suicide bombing, Congo officials fear more attacks
The army earlier confirmed the rebels also attacked its positions in the Nyragongo and Rutshuru areas.
More than 20 shells were fired by the rebels on Tuesday and Wednesday on Rumangabo, Natale, near the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, and the surrounding area, according to a statement from military spokesman Lt. Gen. Constant Ndima.
The M23 is largely an ethnic Tutsi group opposed to the Congo government that started in 2012 and seized control of Goma, a city of more than 1 million for nearly a month. U.N. forces and Congo’s army dislodged the M23 from Goma and many of rebels fled to Rwanda and Uganda before a 2013 peace agreement. Rwanda and Uganda deny claims that they support M23.
The group has recently resurfaced with increasing attacks in eastern Congo. It accuses the Congo government of not respecting the commitments it made to integrate rebel fighters into the national army.
Gen. Benoit Chavanat, Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations mission in Congo, said its forces are backing the Congolese army against M23. He told U.N.-backed Radio Okapi the joint forces are stabilizing the situation in the Tchanzu, Runyonyi and Bunagana areas.
Pope Francis is expected to visit Congo at the beginning of July, including a trip to Goma to celebrate Mass and meet with war victims, according to Congolese authorities. However, the Vatican did not immediately respond when asked Thursday whether the current fighting would bring the pope to alter his plans.
President: 11 babies killed in fire at Senegalese hospital
A fire in the neonatal unit of a hospital in Senegal has killed 11 newborns, President Macky Sall said. Only three infants could be saved.
“To their mothers and families, I express my deepest sympathy,” Sall tweeted late Wednesday.
The fire was blamed on an electrical short circuit at the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane, a town 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of the capital, Dakar, Mayor Demba Diop said.
The deadly fire comes a year after four other newborns died in a hospital fire in Linguere in northern Senegal.
Also read: 7 die in Philippine ferry fire; over 120 rescued from water
A series of other deaths also have raised concerns about maternal and infant health in the West African nation known for having some of the best hospitals in the region.
Earlier this month, authorities discovered a baby that had been declared dead by a nurse's aide was still alive in a morgue. The infant later died.
Last year a pregnant woman died in Louga, in the north of the country, after waiting in vain for a cesarean section. Three midwives were given six-month suspended sentences for not giving help to a person in danger.
Also read: Delhi fire tragedy death toll rises to 29
Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, who was attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, cut short his trip to return to Senegal.
Rainstorm kills five people in north Nigeria
A disaster triggered by a severe downpour on Monday evening in northeast Nigeria's Yobe state killed five people, a statement from the emergency agency said on Tuesday.
The rain was accompanied by very strong winds, causing havoc on residents and buildings in some communities of Damaturu, the state capital, said the State Emergency Management Agency in a statement.
"A total of 41 victims from six different communities were evacuated, while unfortunately five died," the statement said, adding those injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Also Read: Rainstorms kill at least 12 in greater Sao Paulo area
Meanwhile, the state governor, Mai Mala Buni, in a statement on Tuesday, commiserated with the families of the five people who died from building collapses following a heavy rainstorm in the state capital.
Buni directed the emergency agency to ensure treatment of those who sustained various degrees of injuries and to provide the victims with emergency relief materials to cushion their hardships.