A British Cabinet minister tipped to be a frontrunner in the Conservative Party’s leadership race ruled himself out of the contest Saturday as contenders tried to get ahead.
Unrelated tragedies occurred a few hours apart in popular nightspots
At least 18 people have been killed and several injured in two mass shootings in South Africa on Saturday evening and in the early hours of Sunday, local police have confirmed.
One incident occurred at a local tavern in Johannesburg’s Soweto township just after midnight. According to the office of Gauteng Police Commissioner, “a group of men armed with rifles and 9mm pistols entered the tavern and started shooting randomly at the patrons who were sitting inside.”
As a result, twelve people were declared dead at the scene and two died later.
Nine people have been injured.
“The police opened 14 cases of murder and nine of attempted murder,” law enforcement said, adding that a “team of detectives” is now looking for the unknown gunmen.
According to police’s estimates, the casualties were aged between 19 and 35.
Media reports suggest that the attackers fled in a white Toyota Quantum minibus.
Just a few hours before the tragedy in Soweto, at 20.30 local time, two gunmen opened fire in a tavern in Pietermaritzburg, the capital city of KwaZulu-Natal province.
“Two people were declared dead at the scene and the other two died in hospital. Another eight people are still in hospital after they sustained injuries. The suspects fled the scene after the incident,” police spokesperson Lt-Col Nqobile Gwala said in a statement, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
The age of the victims in this instance ranged between 30 and 45 years old.
The tragedies came two weeks after more than 20 young people were killed in a suspected mass poisoning in a popular nightclub in the coastal city of East London. The cause of that tragedy is still unclear. The youngest victim in that incident was a 13-year-old girl.
One mother and six newborn babies die every two hours amid ongoing conflict and deprivation, the agency warned
Red Cross official Basheer Omar told RT on Saturday that the humanitarian situation in Yemen is one of “unimaginable horror,” with two thirds of the population deprived of basic healthcare. Omar called on the international community not to leave the Yemeni people “alone facing their fate.”
With the armed conflict in Yemen in its eighth year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) released a report this week stating that around 66% of Yemen’s 30.5 million people lack access to basic healthcare, and those in need of medical attention often risk death to visit the 51% of healthcare facilities still operating in the country.
The crisis has been most acutely felt by women and infants. Less than 50% of births in Yemen are attended by healthcare professionals, and one mother and six newborn babies die every two hours, the report read. Of the estimated 4.2 million people displaced in Yemen since the outbreak of civil war in 2014, 73% are women and children.
“It’s just unimaginable horror,” Omar told RT. “We are doing our best to draw the attention of the international community to the plight of the Yemeni people. We’re saying that the world should not turn a blind eye to what is happening.”
“The Yemeni people should not be left alone facing their fate,” Omar, who authored the ICRC’s report, continued.
Yemen’s civil war pits government forces against Houthi rebels. The government is aided by a Saudi-led military coalition, while Iran backs the Houthis, but has repeatedly denied arming the group. Western governments, among them the US, UK and France, have supported the Saudi coalition with weapons, training and intelligence.
The conflict has been described by the UN as the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” and has resulted in the deaths of 377,000 people, more than two-thirds under the age of five, per UN figures at the end of 2021.
The Yemeni conflict is currently in a fragile truce, which was declared in April and extended last month until August.
Nairobi, Jul 08 (IPS) – Fifty thousand wild species meet the needs of billions of people worldwide, providing food, cosmetics, shelter, clothing, medicine and inspiration. But now, a million species of plants and animals face extinction with far-reaching consequences, including endangering economies, food security and livelihoods.
Over the last 10 years, the number of people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes and become displaced in their own countries, has more than doubled. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the increase in internally displaced persons (IDPs) has been particularly stark, as Resident Coordinator Bruno Lemarquis, the senior UN official there, explains.
