The Democratic Republic of Congo has requested an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council to discuss the situation in the eastern city of Goma. A UN spokesperson on Tuesday said the meeting was paramount after Goma was seized by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. According to the spokesperson, Congo requested the session to take place…
Over 2,000 bodies require burial in Goma after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took over the Democratic of Congo city, inflaming a decade-old conflict and humanitarian crisis. Congo’s communications minister Patrick Muyaya on Tuesday confirmed the mass burial, adding that relative calm has returned to Goma, where the rebel alliance that includes M23 declared a ceasefire for…
Singapore said it would allocate approximately 150 million Singapore dollars (about 110 million U.S. dollars) for six new drainage upgrading projects in the 2025 fiscal year. This would be part of the ongoing efforts to mitigate flash floods, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu told the parliament on Tuesday. This comes as Singapore…
No fewer than four persons lost their lives during a building demolition exercise at Rimin Zakara village in Ungogo Local Government Area of Kano State. The incident occurred at about 10:00 pm on Sunday, when government officials accompanied by security operatives stormed the area for building demolition. According to eyewitness account, Ishaq Mohammad, the demolition…
The death toll from the devastating fires in the Los Angeles area has risen to 29. One person died in hospital over the weekend as a result of the “Palisades’’ fire on the western edge of Los Angeles, the coroner’s office announced on Monday evening. All residents of the Pacific Palisades district were allowed to…
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Monday said that 1,313 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya in the past week. IOM said in a statement, that from January 19 to 25, 1,313 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya, “The migrants include more than 160 women and over 60 children, IOM said,…
Iran is pursuing its mass deportation of Afghan migrants back across the border, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). “The Islam Qala border crossing sees around 3,000 people crossing daily from Iran,” NRC’s secretary general Jan Egeland said, having recently visited the border town. These are mainly people who have been deported or expelled,…
A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan early Tuesday, injuring no less than 27 persons and causing damage to buildings and roads, according to authorities. The quake struck at 12:17 a.m. (1617 GMT Monday) at a depth of 9.7 kilometres. Its epicentre was in Chiayi County, approximately 200 kilometres south of the capital Taipei. According…
No fewer than 10 people died in a fire at a hotel in a ski resort in north-western Turkey, the country’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said early on Tuesday. Thirty-two others were injured in the blaze, which occurred in the province of Bolu, Yerlikaya said on X. The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the…
The South African Border Management Authority has temporarily closed a key border crossing with Botswana due to heavy rainfall and flooding. The Grobler’s Bridge crossing in northern South Africa is used for trade, especially by miners in the Copperbelt region straddling Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo moving cargo to the port of Durban….
