Spain's Civil Guard says police found the bodies of seven migrants in three areas off the country's southeastern coast and officials are not ruling out finding more bodies in the coming hours and days.
The bodies were found off the coasts of Alicante and Murcia.
(AA Archive)
Spanish police have said they found the bodies of seven migrants and asylum seekers they believe may have drowned while trying to reach Spain in a boat.
The bodies were found between Sunday and Monday in waters in three areas off southeastern Spain, the Civil Guard said in a statement on Monday.
Police believe the seven were of north African origin. An investigation was launched into whether they had been in a boat that was found adrift on Saturday with one migrant alive onboard.
The Spanish coast guard rescued the sole migrant some 30 nautical miles off the Alicante coast.
The 21-year-old said he was traveling with a group of around 15 people when their motorless raft flipped over and the other migrants disappeared.
Following investigations, police discovered three bodies – a man, woman and child – on Sunday near the beaches of Pilar de Horadada in Alicante.
The same day, people alerted police to two bodies floating in waters off San Javier in Murcia, while two more bodies were discovered off the coasts of Alicante and Murcia on Monday.
Autopsies are being conducted to determine the cause of death and other details, according to the police.
Officials are not ruling out finding more bodies in the coming hours and days.
READ MORE:UN refugee agency: Food crisis to push displacement levels even higherREAD MORE: Number of internally displaced people worldwide to hit new record in 2022
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6GgbRB2W8[/embed]
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Sophisticated weekend attack involving drones, explosives, car bombs and artillery leaves 42 soldiers dead and 22 others wounded, say officials of the troubled African country.
Heavy fighting took place in the troubled "three-border" region where the frontiers of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso converge.
(Reuters)
Forty-two Malian soldiers have been killed and 22 others wounded in an attack near the town of Tessit, a sophisticated attack blamed on Daesh affiliate in the landlocked West African country.
"The Malian army units of Tessit... reacted vigorously to a complex and coordinated attack by armed terrorist groups, presumably from Islamic State [Daesh] in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), characterised by the use of drones, explosives, car bombs, and artillery," the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The attack took place on Sunday and was one of the deadliest attacks in recent years for the Malian army which has been battling a decade-long insurgency across the Sahel region.
Soldiers killed 37 militants during several hours of heavy fighting in the troubled "three-border" region where the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso converge.
The army had previously said that 17 soldiers had been killed in the attack and that nine had gone missing.
Deadly tri-junction
Thousands have fled Tessit to the nearest large town of Gao, which is located some 150 kilometres to the north.
The last time Mali's armed forces sustained heavy losses was in a string of attacks in the same region between late 2019 and early 2020.
During those attacks, hundreds of soldiers were killed in assaults on nearly a dozen bases. These attacks are typically carried out by militants on motorbikes.
The attacks also prompted the Malian, Nigerien and Burkinabe forces to fall back from forward bases and hunker down in better-defended locations.
Mobile phone connections to the area have been frequently cut over the last few years and access to the area is difficult during the mid-year rainy season.
Mali is ruled by a military junta that overthrew the democratic government in 2020, in part over frustration at its failure to rein in the violence, but attacks have remained common.
Suspected drones fly over heavily fortified Kinmen islands, Taipei says, as China displays new show of force in Taiwan Strait.
Drones may have been intended to gather intelligence on Taiwan's security deployment in its outlying islands, a Taiwanese official says.
(Reuters Archive)
Taiwan has fired flares to drive away unidentified aircraft, probably drones, that flew above the area of its Kinmen islands, the Defence Ministry said, as China geared for a massive military drill following US politician Nancy Pelosi's controversial trip to the island state.
Major General Chang Zone-sung of the Army's Kinmen Defence
Command told the Reuters news agency that the drones came in a pair and
flew into the Kinmen area twice on Wednesday night, at around 9 PM and 10 PM [local time].
"We immediately fired flares to issue warnings and to drive
them away. After that, they turned around. They came into our
restricted area and that's why we dispersed them," he said.
The heavily fortified Kinmen islands are just off the
southeastern coast of China, near the city of Xiamen.
"We have a standard operating procedure. We will react if
they come in," Chang said, adding that the alert level there
remained "normal".
Chang said he believed the drones were intended to gather
intelligence on Taiwan's security deployment in its outlying
islands.
Last week, Taiwan's military fired flares to warn away a
drone that "glanced" its Matsu archipelago off the coast of
China's Fujian province and was possibly probing its defences,
Taiwan's Defence Ministry said.
On Thursday, Taiwan also reported its website suffered cyber attacks and went offline temporarily, adding it was working closely with other authorities to enhance cyber security.
Earlier this week, several government websites, including the presidential office, were subject to overseas cyber attacks, some of which authorities said were launched by China and Russia.
Taiwan has been on alert as China conducts a series of military exercises in response to a visit to the island this week by US House of Representatives Speaker Pelosi.
Beijing considers Taiwan as its inseparable part, but the latter has maintained its self-rule since 1949 and enjoys diplomatic ties with at least 14 countries.
Interactions between Washington and Taipei have grown significantly since the tenure of former US president Donald Trump, with former and sitting lawmakers making trips to the island home to more than 25 million people.
The US formally recognised China in 1979 and shifted diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing, and accepted Taiwan as part of the mainland under Washington's One China policy.
Five bodies were brought to a hospital from a village west of Oicha in North Kivu while seven more arrived from another village to the west of the town.
The people were killed by machetes and bullets, head doctor Jerome Munyambete at a hospital in Oicha.
(Reuters)
Suspected rebels have killed twelve civilians in recent attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said.
The head doctor of a hospital in Oicha in North Kivu province on Thursday that he had received five bodies on Wednesday from a village that lies to the west of the town.
Another seven bodies arrived from another village to the west of Oicha on Thursday, head doctor Jerome Munyambete told AFP news agency.
"These people were killed by machetes and bullets," he said.
Darius Kasereka, a civil society representative in Oicha, confirmed the death toll and said in a statement that the twelve civilians had been "brutally slaughtered".
The area surrounding Oicha has been "invaded by ADF rebels," he added, referring to the Allied Democratic Forces group.
The ADF is among the most violent of the more than 120 militias that roam the DRC's troubled east.
The group – which Daesh group claims as its central African branch – has been accused of massacring Congolese civilians as well as staging attacks in neighbouring Uganda.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi placed North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province under the administration of security forces last year in a bid to stem the violence.
But the measure has failed to stop attacks against civilians.
Boat carrying around 60 people and headed for US state of Florida capsizes, killing 17 people, with some 25 passengers rescued so far, officials say.
Human smugglers are known to use the Bahamas –– a group of islands near the Florida coast –– as a jumping-off point for getting people into US.
(Reuters)
Seventeen suspected Haitian migrants have died in a boat accident off the coast of the Bahamas.
"Rescue teams recovered 17 bodies from the water" –– 15 women, one man and one infant –– a government statement tweeted by Prime Minister Philip Davis said on Sunday.
Another 25 people were rescued and placed in the care of health officials, the statement said. At least one person is still missing, with search missions under way.
Preliminary investigations indicate that a speed boat left New Providence, the most populous island in the Bahamian archipelago, around 1:00 am on Sunday with about 60 people on board. Officials believe the boat was destined for Miami, Florida.
The vessel is believed to have capsized in the rough water, 11 kilometres off the coast of the island.
A multi-agency investigation involving the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Royal Bahamas Defense Force is under way "to determine the full circumstances surrounding a suspected human smuggling operation which has resulted in" the migrant deaths, the statement said.
Human-smuggling operations
Human smugglers are known to use the Bahamas –– a group of islands near the Florida coast –– as a jumping-off point for getting people into the United States, in what can often be a treacherous journey.
In March, the US Coast Guard intercepted 123 people on board a small vessel off Anguilla Cay, in the western Bahamas, and just a few days before, it detained more than 140 people off the coast of Andros, the largest island in the Bahamas.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is facing an acute political, economic and security crisis.
