United News of Bangladesh

French President Emmanuel Macron is joining several African leaders on Thursday to kick off a planned $1 billion project to accelerate the rollout of vaccines in Africa, after the coronavirus pandemic exposed gaping inequalities in access to them. The launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, which will provide financial incentives to vaccine manufacturers, offered a momentary break for Macron from domestic political concerns as legislative elections loom on June 30 and July 7. Many African leaders and advocacy groups say Africa was unfairly locked out of access to COVID-19 treatment tools, vaccines and testing equipment — that many richer countries bought up in huge quantities — after the pandemic swept the world starting in 2020. WHO, advocacy groups and others want to help Africa get better prepared for the next pandemic, which many health experts say is inevitable. When the coronavirus pandemic began, South Africa was the only country in Africa with any ability to produce vaccines, officials say, and the continent produced a tiny fraction of all vaccines worldwide. WHO failed in its efforts to help countries agree to a “pandemic treaty” — to improve preparedness and response to pandemics — before its annual meeting last month. The project was shelved largely over disagreements about sharing of information about pathogens that cause epidemics and the high-tech tools used to fight them. Negotiators will resume work on the treaty in hopes of clinching a deal by the next WHO annual meeting in 2025. Thursday’s event in Paris also aims to give a funding shot-in-the-arm to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private partnership that helps get needed vaccines to developing countries around the world. Gavi says the project aims to make up to US$ 1 billion available over the next ten years help boost Africa’s manufacturing base, to improve global vaccines markets and improve preparedness and response to pandemics and outbreaks like HIV, malaria, TB and COVID-19. The Geneva-based alliance says the accelerator will inject funds into manufacturers in Africa once they hit supply and regulatory milestones, with an aim to use market forces to drive down prices and encourage investment upstream. Officials say the project will explore issues like technology transfer — which has been resisted by some Western countries with powerful pharmaceutical companies — as well as the possible creation of a African medicines agency and tackling regulatory hurdles faced in Africa’s patchwork of legal systems.

Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in for a second term as South Africa's president on Wednesday in a ceremony in the administrative capital, Pretoria, after his reelection with the help from a coalition of parties, a first in the country's 30-year rule. Ramaphosa is now set to appoint a Cabinet in a new coalition government after his African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in an election last month. He was reelected president by lawmakers on Friday after the main opposition party and a smaller third party joined the ANC in an agreement to co-govern Africa's most industrialized economy. He will have to guide the first coalition government in which no party has a majority. At least three parties will make up what the ANC is calling a government of national unity, with more invited to join. Ramaphosa was administered the oath of office in a public ceremony at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. King Mswati III of Eswatini, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, Zimbabwe President Emerson Mnangagwa and former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga were among many dignitaries who attended the inauguration ceremony as Ramaphosa begins what promises to be a tough final term in office. The ceremony included a 21-gun salute by the presidential guard and a flyover by the South Africa Air Force over the Union Buildings. South African musicians and cultural dancers entertained thousands of citizens who attended the swearing-in. Addressing the nation, Ramaphosa said that the people had spoken and their will would be adhered to. “The voters of South Africa did not give any single party the full mandate to govern our country alone. They have directed us to work together to address their plight and realize their aspirations," he said. Ramaphosa said the people of South Africa “have also been unequivocal in expressing their disappointment and disapproval of our performance in some of the areas in which we have failed them.” He also recognized the society “remains deeply unequal and highly polarized,” which could ”easily turn into instability.” “The lines drawn by our history, between black and white, between man and woman, between suburbs and townships, between urban and rural, between the wealthy and the poor, remain etched in our landscape,” he said. He also promised that the new government would create new work opportunities to face the crippling unemployment as well as work on providing people with basic service s like housing, healthcare and clean water. While Ramphosa's words were meant to reassure an already economically strained population, the new administration could prove challenging to lead. It is made up of parties that are ideologically opposed and don’t see eye to eye on how to address the country’s many challenges, including land redistribution policies and proposed solutions to the electricity crisis, as well as their contrary views on affirmative action. Major players such as the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party have already joined the coalition, and others like the Patriotic Alliance, the GOOD Party and the Pan Africanist Congress are expected to follow. However, the third largest party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party have refused to be part of it. It is unclear when the formation of the new Cabinet would be announced.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was reelected by lawmakers for a second term on Friday, after his party struck a dramatic late coalition deal with a former political foe just hours before the vote. Ramaphosa, the leader of the African National Congress, won convincingly in Parliament against a surprise candidate who was also nominated — Julius Malema of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters. Ramaphosa received 283 votes to Malema's 44 in the 400-member house. The 71-year-old Ramaphosa secured his second term with the help of lawmakers from the country's second biggest party, the Democratic Alliance, and some smaller parties. They backed him in the vote and got him over the finish line following the ANC's loss of its long-held majority in a landmark election two weeks ago that reduced it to 159 seats in Parliament. During a break in what turned out to be a marathon parliamentary session, the ANC signed the last-minute agreement with the DA, effectively ensuring Ramaphosa stays on as the leader of Africa's most industrialized economy. The parties will now co-govern South Africa in its first national coalition where no party has a majority in Parliament. The deal, referred to as a government of national unity, brings the ANC together with the DA, a white-led party that had for years been the main opposition and the fiercest critic of the ANC. At least two other smaller parties also joined the agreement. Ramaphose called the deal — which sent South Africa into uncharted waters — a "new birth, a new era for our country" and said it was time for parties "to overcome their differences and to work together." "This is what we shall do and this is what I am committed to achieve as the president," he said. The ANC — the famed party of Nelson Mandela — had ruled South Africa with a comfortable majority since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. But it lost its 30-year majority in the humbling national election on May 29, a turning point for the country. The vote was held against the backdrop of widespread discontent from South Africans over high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Analysts warn there might be complications ahead, though, given the starkly different ideologies of the ANC, a former liberation movement, and the centrist, business-friendly DA, which won 21% of the vote in the national election, the second largest share behind the ANC's 40%. For one, the DA disagreed with the ANC government's move to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza in a highly sensitive case at the United Nations' top court. The DA leader John Steenhuisen was the first to confirm the agreement. "From today, the DA will co-govern the Republic of South Africa in a spirit of unity and collaboration," he said as he stepped away from Friday's proceedings for a speech carried live on television in which he said a deal was signed and that the DA lawmakers would vote for Ramaphosa for president. The Parliament session started at 10 a.m. in the unusual setting of a conference center near Cape Town's waterfront, after the city's historic National Assembly building was gutted in a fire in 2022. The house first went through the hourslong swearing-in of hundreds of new lawmakers and electing a speaker and a deputy speaker. The vote for president started late at night, with the results announced well after 10 p.m. Ramaphosa finished his acceptance speech as the clock ticked past midnight and into Saturday. Former President Jacob Zuma's MK Party boycotted the session but that did not affect the voting as only a third of the house is needed for a quorum. ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the party was open to talking with anyone else who wanted to join the unity government. There are 18 political parties represented in Parliament and he said the multi-party agreement would "prioritize the country across the political and ideological divide." Some parties, including Malema's EFF, refused to join. The two other parties that joined the coalition deal were the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Patriotic Alliance, which has drawn attention partly because its leader, Gayton McKenzie, served a prison sentence for bank robbery. McKenzie said he had been given a second chance in life and that South Africa also had one now, a chance to solve its deep socioeconomic problems. The ANC had faced a deadline to strike a coalition agreement as Parliament had to vote for the president within 14 days after election results were declared on June 2. The ANC had been trying to strike a coalition agreement for two weeks and the final negotiations went on overnight Thursday to Friday, party officials said. South Africa has not faced that level of political uncertainty since the ANC swept to power in the 1994 first all-race election that ended nearly a half-century of racial segregation. Since then, every South African leader has come from the ANC, starting with Mandela. The new unity government also harked back to the way Mandela, South Africa's first Black president, invited political opponents to be part of a unity government in 1994 in an act of reconciliation when the ANC had a majority. Ramaphosa had played a key role in those negotiations as a young politician. This time, the ANC's hand was forced. "The ANC has been very magnanimous in that they have accepted defeat and have said, 'let's talk,'" PA leader McKenzie said.  

South Africa's third biggest political party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, has filed legal papers seeking to halt the first sitting of Parliament scheduled for Friday to elect the country's president. Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party has said none of its 58 newly elected lawmakers will attend the sitting. The party earlier filed objections with the Independent Electoral Commission alleging widespread irregularities in national elections last month. The party received just over 14% of the vote. The party, also known as MK, has not publicly offered evidence to back up its allegations. The commission has said it has addressed all objections. Sudanese RSF paramilitaries clash with the army, leaving at least 100 people dead The legal challenge now asks the Constitutional Court to set aside the commission's decision to declare the election free and fair, and to order the president to call another election. The election saw the ruling African National Congress party lose its majority in parliament for the first time since taking power three decades ago at the end of the apartheid era. The ANC now seeks to form a government of national unity with various opposition parties, The outcome of those talks will determine who parliament chooses as South Africa's president. President Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma's rival, is seeking re-election for a second term.

At least 100 people were killed, and dozens were injured after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked a village in Gezira province in Sudan on Wednesday, officials said. Women, children, and the elderly were among the victims in the RSF attacks on Wad al-Noura village in Gezira, Mini Arko Minawi, the governor of Darfur province, said on X, formerly Twitter. Catherina Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, said in a statement that at least 35 children were killed and 20 others were injured during the attacks. A grassroots group set up to protect residents in Wad Madani, the capital city of Gezira, said late Wednesday on social media that the paramilitary force, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for over a year, used heavy artillery to besiege and attack the village. The Madani Resistance Committee, which has been threatened and attacked by the RSF in the past, accused the paramilitaries of looting Wad al-Noura in the midst of the attacks which it said started Wednesday morning. The RSF claimed in December that it had seized control of Wad Madani, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and a haven for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by fighting. The resistance committee said the RSF invaded the village, displacing residents, including women and children, to other parts of the district of al-Manaqil. The Sudanese transitional government in a statement on its Telegram channel condemned the attacks and called for the international community to hold the RSF accountable. UN extends arms embargo on South Sudan despite appeals from African Union, Russia and China “These are criminal acts that reflect the systematic behavior of these (RSF) militias in targeting civilians, plundering their property, and forcibly displacing them from their areas,” said the media office for the Transitional Sovereignty Council, which was set up after the ouster of longtime president Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The RSF alleged on X late Wednesday that the Sudanese military planned to attack its troops in Jabal al-Awliya, in the west of al-Manaqil district, by mobilizing Sudanese armed forces in three bases. The Associated Press couldn’t verify this allegation. The paramilitary group said it attacked three camps west, north and south of Wad-al Noura, clashing with the Sudanese army. “Our forces will not stand idly by in the face of any movements or gatherings by the enemy and will work to pursue and defeat the enemy,” said the RSF in its statement. UN chief calls for Ramadan truce in Gaza, Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, said Thursday on X that she was “shocked” by reports of the violent attacks. “Human tragedy has become a hallmark of life in Sudan. We cannot allow impunity to become another one,” she said. In a statement, Nkweta-Salami said that heavy gunfire and explosive weapons were used in populated areas, citing reports she deems credible. She called for accountability and an investigation into the attacks. Similarly, the UNICEF Executive Director, described the scenes on the ground as “devastating” and called for an end to the violence in Sudan, asserting that children in the country “need a cease-fire now.” “This is yet another grim reminder of how the children of Sudan are paying the price for the brutal violence,” Russell said in the statement. “Over the past year, thousands of children have been killed and injured. Children have been recruited, abducted and subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence. Over five million children have been forced from their homes.” Proposed UN resolution calls for ceasefire in conflict-torn Sudan during upcoming Muslim holy month The war between the RSF and the Sudanese army has wrecked the country as clashes spread across multiple cities and pushed its population to the brink of famine. More than 14,000 people have been killed and thousands have been wounded. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

United Nations agencies warned Wednesday that over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by the middle of next month if hostilities continue. The World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a joint report that hunger is worsening because of heavy restrictions on humanitarian access and the collapse of the local food system in the nearly eight-month Israel-Hamas war. It says the situation remains dire in northern Gaza, which has been surrounded and largely isolated by Israeli troops for months. Israel recently opened land crossings in the north but they are only able to facilitate truck loads in the dozens each day for hundreds of thousands of people. Israel's incursion into Rafah has meanwhile severely disrupted aid operations in the south. Egypt has refused to open its Rafah crossing with Gaza since Israeli forces seized the Gaza side of it nearly a month ago, instead diverting aid to Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing nearby. The Israeli military says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to enter through Kerem Shalom in recent weeks, but the U.N. says it is often unable to retrieve the aid because of the security situation. It says distribution within Gaza is also severely hampered by ongoing fighting, the breakdown of law and order, and other Israeli restrictions. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world authority on determining the extent of hunger crises, said in March that around 677,000 people in Gaza were experiencing Phase 5 hunger, the highest level and the equivalent of famine. The two U.N. agencies said in their report Wednesday that that figure could climb to more than 1 million — or nearly half of Gaza's total population of 2.3 million — by the middle of next month. “In the absence of a cessation of hostilities and increased access, the impact on mortality and the lives of the Palestinians now, and in future generations, will increase markedly with every day, even if famine is avoided in the near term,” it said. On Tuesday, a separate group of experts said it’s possible that famine is underway in northern Gaza but that the war, and restrictions on humanitarian access, have impeded the data collection to prove it. “It is possible, if not likely,” the group known as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, said about famine in Gaza. Last month, the head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, said northern Gaza had already entered “full-blown famine,” but experts at the U.N. agency later said she was expressing a personal opinion. An area is considered to be in famine when three things occur: Twenty percent of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving; at least 30% of the children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications. The war began when Hamas and other militants stormed across the border into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 36,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. Most of Gaza's population have fled their homes, often multiple times, and the offensive has caused widespread destruction.

At least six Egyptian women died Tuesday after a vehicle carrying about two dozen people slid off a ferry and plunged into the Nile River just outside Cairo, authorities said. The accident, which happened in Monshat el-Kanater town in Giza province, also injured nine other passengers, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Giza is one of three provinces forming Greater Cairo. The ministry said six of the injured were treated at the site while three others were transferred to hospitals. It didn't elaborate on their injuries. Giza provincial Gov. Ahmed Rashed said the microbus was retrieved from the Nile, and rescue efforts were still underway as of midday Tuesday. The cause of the accident was not immediately clear. According to the state-owned Akhbar daily, about two dozen passengers, mostly women, were in the vehicle heading to work when the accident occurred. Ferry, railway and road accidents are common in Egypt mainly because of poor maintenance and lack of regulations. In February, a ferry carrying day laborers sank in the Nile in Giza, killing at least 10 of the 15 people on board.

South Africa urged the United Nations’ top court on Thursday to order a cease-fire in Gaza during hearings over emergency measures to halt Israel’s military operation in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah. It was the third time the International Court of Justice held hearings on the conflict in Gaza since South Africa filed proceedings in December at the court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, accusing Israel of genocide. The country’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, urged the panel of 15 international judges to order Israel to “totally and unconditionally withdraw” from the Gaza Strip. The court has already found that there is a “real and imminent risk” to the Palestinian people in Gaza by Israel’s military operations. “This may well be the last chance for the court to act,” said Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who is part of South Africa’s legal team. Judges at the court have broad powers to order a cease-fire and other measures, although the court does not have its own enforcement apparatus. A 2022 order by the court demanding that Russia halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has so far gone unheeded. During hearings earlier this year, Israel strongly denied committing genocide in Gaza, saying it does all it can to spare civilians and is only targeting Hamas militants. The country says Rafah is the last stronghold of the militant group. The latest request focuses on the incursion into Rafah. South Africa argues that the military operation has far surpassed justified self-defense. “Israel’s actions in Rafah are part of the end game. This is the last step in the destruction of Gaza,” lawyer Vaughan Lowe said. According to the latest request, the previous preliminary orders by The Hague-based court were not sufficient to address “a brutal military attack on the sole remaining refuge for the people of Gaza.” Israel will be allowed to answer the accusations on Friday. In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave. In a second order in March, the court said Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation. South Africa has to date submitted four requests for the international court to investigate Israel. It was granted a hearing three times. Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since fighting began. The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its count. South Africa initiated proceedings in December 2023 and sees the legal campaign as rooted in issues central to its identity. Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands.” Apartheid ended in 1994. On Sunday, Egypt announced it plans to join the case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israeli military actions “constitute a flagrant violation of international law, humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 regarding the protection of civilians during wartime.” Several countries have also indicated they plan to intervene, but so far only Libya, Nicaragua and Colombia have filed formal requests to do so.

Rescue teams trying to find dozens of construction workers missing since a multi-story apartment complex collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa have made contact with 11 people buried alive beneath the mangled wreckage, authorities said Tuesday. One man called his wife from underneath the rubble of the five-story building that had been under construction when it collapsed Monday, the head of the rescue operation said. That enabled emergency responders to locate the man, although he was still trapped and hadn't yet been brought out. Six workers have been confirmed dead and there are fears that the death count could rise sharply. There is no news on 37 other people unaccounted-for amid the huge slabs of concrete and metal scaffolding that came crashing down when the building collapsed in the city of George, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town. Twenty-one other workers were rescued from the site and taken to various hospitals, with at least 11 of them suffering severe injuries, the George municipality said. Colin Deiner, head of the provincial Western Cape disaster management services, said the search-and-rescue operation would likely take at least three days. “We are going to give it the absolute maximum time to see how many people we can rescue,” Deiner said at a press conference. “It is very, very difficult if you are working with concrete breakers and drillers close to people.” Deiner said it would take most of Tuesday to rescue the 11 workers that rescue teams were in contact with, some of whom had limbs trapped under concrete and couldn't move. Four of the workers are in what was the basement of the building, Deiner said. “Our big concern is entrapment for many hours, when a person’s body parts are compressed.,” Deiner said. “So, you need to get medical help to them. We got our medics in as soon as we possibly could.” Deiner said it was possible that there were more survivors deeper in the wreckage and a process of removing layers of concrete would begin after the 11 located workers were taken out. More than 100 emergency services and other personnel worked through the night, using sniffer dogs to try to locate workers. Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were brought in to help with the rescue effort and tall spotlights were erected to allow search-and-rescue personnel to work in the dark. Deiner said a critical part of the rescue operation came when they ordered everyone to remain quiet and shut off machinery so they could listen for any survivors. That's when they located the 11 workers, he said. “We were actually hearing people through the rubble,” Deiner said. Several local hospitals were making space in their trauma units in anticipation that more construction workers might be brought out alive. More than 50 emergency responders had also been brought in overnight from other towns and cities to help, including a specialized team that deals with rescue operations in collapsed structures. Family and friends of the workers had gathered at the nearby municipal offices and were being supported by social workers, the George municipality said. Authorities were starting investigations into what caused the tragedy, and a criminal case was opened by police, but there was no immediate information on why the building suddenly collapsed. CCTV footage from a nearby home showed the concrete structure and metal scaffolding collapsing at 2.09 p.m. Monday, causing a plume of dust to rise over the neighborhood. People came streaming out of other buildings after the collapse, with some of them screaming and shouting. Alan Winde, the Premier of the Western Cape province, said there would be investigations by both the provincial government and the police. Authorities declined to give out any information on the construction company involved but said that under city law the private company's engineers were responsible for the safety of the building site until its completion, when it would be handed over to the city to check and clear. Winde said the priority was the rescue effort and investigations would unfold after that. “All the necessary support has been offered to emergency personnel to expedite their response. At the moment, officials are focused on saving lives. This is our top priority at this stage,” Winde said. The national government was being briefed on the rescue operation, Winde said. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa released a statement offering his condolences to families of the victims and also called for investigations into the cause of the collapse.

Rescue teams worked through the night searching for dozens of construction workers buried for more than 12 hours under the rubble of concrete after a multi-story apartment complex that was being built collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa. Authorities said early Tuesday that the death toll had risen to five, while 49 workers remained unaccounted-for in the mangled wreckage of the building, which collapsed on Monday afternoon. Authorities said a further 21 workers had been rescued from the rubble and taken to various hospitals, with at least 11 of them suffering severe injuries. The collapse happened in the city of George, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town on South Africa's south coast. Horrified at details emerging from mass graves recently unearthed in Gaza Strip: UN experts More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers, some of whom were feared buried under huge slabs of concrete that fell on them when the five-story building came down. Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were brought to the site to help with the rescue effort and tall spotlights were erected to allow search and rescue personnel to work through the night. There were 75 workers on the construction site when the building collapsed, the George municipality said. It said three teams of rescuers were working at separate sites around the collapsed building where they believed construction workers were likely to be. Family and friends of the workers gathered at the nearby municipal offices. “Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected who continue to wait on word of their loved ones,” George Executive Mayor Leon Van Wyk said. Authorities were investigating what caused the tragedy and a case was opened by police, but there was no immediate information on why the building suddenly collapsed. CCTV footage from a nearby home showed the concrete structure and metal scaffolding around it come crashing down at 2.09 p.m. on Monday afternoon, causing a plume of dust to rise over the neighborhood. People came streaming out of other buildings after the collapse, with some of them screaming and shouting. Marco Ferreira, a local representative of the Gift of the Givers nongovernmental organization, was at the site with a team to offer support and food and drink to the rescuers on Monday. Gift of the Givers is a charity that often helps during disasters in South Africa. It also provided three sniffer dogs and handlers to help with the search, Ferreira said. "The situation at this stage is still very much in the rescue stages," Ferreira told the eNCA TV news channel. “We don’t know, it’s probably going to carry on for days. There are some cranes there to help lift some concrete. But it’s not a pretty sight.” The provincial Western Cape government sent the head of its disaster response unit from Cape Town to George to oversee the rescue operation and Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, the head of the provincial government, was also at the scene. Celebrating excellence in journalism and the arts, Pulitzer Prizes to be awarded Monday Winde said the provincial government had also sent extra resources to assist. “All the necessary support has been offered to emergency personnel to expedite their response. At the moment, officials are focused on saving lives. This is our top priority at this stage,” Winde said in a statement. The national government was being briefed on the rescue operation, Winde said.