UNITED NATIONS: Former German President Horst Koehler is trying to bring Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement together by the end of the year to work on a solution to the 42-year conflict over the Western Sahara, Britain’s deputy UN ambassador said Wednesday.
Koehler, the secretary-general’s personal envoy for Western Sahara, briefed the Security Council behind closed doors, and British envoy Jonathan Allen told several reporters afterward that all 15 members “stressed the importance of consultations with everybody.”
“The president got a lot of support from the council for his approach and for his proposal to try and see if he can bring the parties together by the end of the year,” said Allen, who chaired the meeting as part of Britain’s council presidency this month.
A UN diplomat said Koehler told members that he would be sending invitations to the parties in September.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975 and fought the Polisario Front. The UN brokered a cease-fire in 1991 and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor it and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future that has never taken place.
Morocco considers the mineral-rich Western Sahara its “southern provinces” and has proposed giving the territory wide-ranging autonomy. The Polisario Front insists on self-determination through a referendum for the local population, which it estimates at between 350,000 and 500,000.
Sidi Omar, the Polisario Front’s UN representative, said bringing the parties together by the end of the year “would be a positive step in the process, definitely.”
“We’re very willing and ready to accept an invitation should that be addressed to us, to engage in this process in the framework of the United Nations ... to find a lasting and peaceful solution to this longstanding conflict,” Omar said.
Morocco’s UN Mission did not have any immediate comment on the meeting.
Envoy wants Western Sahara parties to meet in 2018: Britain
Envoy wants Western Sahara parties to meet in 2018: Britain
- The Polisario Front insists on self-determination through a referendum for the local population
- Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony
Sweden says willing to lead NATO presence in Finland
The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force
STOCKHOLM: Sweden is ready to manage a future NATO land force in neighboring Finland, which shares a border with Russia, the two newest members of the military alliance announced on Monday.
The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Finland become a member in 2023 and Sweden this year.
NATO said in July that a so-called Forward Land Forces (FLF) presence should be developed in Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.
“This kind of military presence in a NATO country requires a framework nation which plays an important role in the implementation of the concept,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen told a press conference.
The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force.
“The Swedish government has the ambition to take the role as a framework nation for a forward land force in Finland,” Hakkanen’s Swedish counterpart Pal Jonson told reporters.
Jonson stressed the process was still in an “early stage” and details would be worked out inside NATO.
There would also be further consultations with the Swedish parliament, he said.
Hakkanen said details about the actual force would be clarified through planning with other NATO members, adding that the number of troops and their exact location had not yet been decided.
NATO says it currently has eight such forward presences, or “multinational battlegroups,” in Eastern Europe — in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires
- Nearly 1,600 firefighters were battling 20 fires Monday
- Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro
LISBON: Forest fires halted traffic on motorways in the Aveiro region of northern Portugal Monday as homes were engulfed by a string of blazes that broke out over the weekend, local authorities said.
Nearly 1,600 firefighters were battling 20 fires Monday, with the country placed on alert from Saturday to Tuesday evening because of high temperatures and strong winds.
More than 500 have been battling the largest fire near Oliveira de Azemeis, south of the city of Porto, since Sunday.
Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro.
“We already have houses in flames at the moment,” he told Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Traffic has been halted on three motorways in the area, police said.
Drivers were told not to try to get to Aveiro. “That is the best way to not to put lives at risk,” said mayor Vitor Ribero.
One firefighter died “suddenly” Sunday while taking a break from efforts to contain the fire, the interior ministry said Monday.
Portugal has seen less wildfires than usual so far this year. Some 10,300 hectares (25,500 acres) were lost to the flames by the end of August — a third of what was destroyed last year and seven times less than the average over the last decade.
Lisbon has upped fire prevention funding ten-fold and doubled the budget to fight wildfires since deadly blazes in 2017 claimed hundreds of lives.
Scientists say human-caused fossil fuel emissions are increasing the length, frequency and intensity of global heatwaves, raising the risk of wildfires.
The Iberian peninsula is particularly vulnerable to global warming, with heatwaves and drought exposing the region to blazes.
Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
- Manila suspected China carried out small-scale land reclamation activities in Sabina Shoal
- For months, Philippines-China confrontations have increasingly taken place at the atoll
MANILA: The Philippines will continue to deploy vessels to Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, its coast guard said on Monday, after the withdrawal of a Philippine ship from the contested area prompted fresh concerns of Chinese land reclamation.
In April, the Philippine Coast Guard deployed one of its largest ships, Teresa Magbanua, to Sabina Shoal to monitor what Manila suspects to be China’s small-scale land reclamation activities in the area.
The ship returned to port in Palawan on Sunday, after months of pressure from Beijing, which claimed that the vessel was “illegally stranded” at the atoll that it asserts as part of its broader claim to nearly the entire South China Sea.
PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the ship’s return was unrelated to China’s demands, citing bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care for the withdrawal.
“We have not lost anything. We can still patrol and maintain our presence in Escoda Shoal,” Tarriela told a press conference on Monday.
“It’s not a defeat … It’s (neither) the coast guard abandoning our post in Escoda Shoal; we are just repositioning our own vessels.”
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, is a resource-rich atoll within Manila’s exclusive economic zone and close to the Philippine mainland.
For months, confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels have taken place at this location.
One of the more recent collisions damaged the Teresa Magbanua and another one of Manila’s vessels, while other incidents have involved China’s coast guard bombarding Philippine boats with powerful cannons and its crew members flashing high-powered lasers at Filipino troops.
The Philippines “did not surrender anything” by pulling out Teresa Magbanua, Tarriela said.
“We did not surrender … It’s also wrong to say that if we leave the vicinity, they will already reclaim it. Again, the reclamation would take four years. If we leave for one, two or three days, even one week, will they be able to build a runway there?”
Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and international studies lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila, said the ship’s withdrawal is part of “a continuing process of ensuring” that the Philippine presence in Sabina Shoal will remain intact.
“The Philippines is doing what it can based on its limited capacity to ensure the full operationalization of its sovereignty and sovereign rights,” Gill told Arab News.
The PCG had “prevailed” despite the Chinese coast guard’s efforts to “push the Philippines out as fast as possible,” he said.
“I believe that the Philippines would also be sending an alternate ship to ensure that our presence is continued there,” Gill said.
“But more importantly, Manila needs to supplement the efforts of physical presence there with other forms of activities, such as joint maritime drills along the area to make sure that it is free and open and rules-based.”
Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help
- More than 30 people have been killed by the floods, which authorities say affected about one million people
MAIDUGURI: People in Nigeria’s flood-hit northeastern Borno state are struggling to get medical care as overwhelmed aid agencies warn of an outbreak of waterborne disease following the worst floods to hit the region in three decades.
More than 30 people have been killed by the floods, which authorities say affected about one million people, most of whom are housed in camps without food and clean water.
The deluge threatens not only the health and safety of the displaced but puts a strain on aid agencies and government resources, exacerbating an already critical humanitarian crisis.
The floods in Borno, the birthplace of Boko Haram militants in the Lake Chad basin, started when a dam burst its walls following heavy rainfall that has also caused floods in Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger, all part of Africa’s Sahel region that usually receives little rain.
In the last two weeks of August, more than 1.5 million people were displaced across 12 countries in West and Central Africa due to floods, and about 465 have been killed, according to the United Nations humanitarian affairs office.
Over the weekend, an additional 50,000 people were displaced in northeastern Nigeria as the floods intensified, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Monday.
“The situation in the Sahel and Lake Chad region is increasingly dire, as the compounding effects of conflict, displacement and climate change take a severe toll on vulnerable populations,” said Hassane Hamadou, NRC’s Central and West Africa regional director. The floods in West Africa come at a time of flooding in Europe after days of torrential rain that caused rivers to burst their banks in several parts of the region.
In a camp in Maiduguri, Borno’s state capital, Bintu Amadu was among hundreds of frustrated people waiting for hours to see a doctor because her son had diarrhea.
“We have not received any aid, and our attempts to see a doctor have been unsuccessful. We have been waiting for medical attention since yesterday, but to no avail,” she said.
Ramatu Yajubu was happy she had obtained an appointment card after waiting for days, but quickly added: “I am uncertain about receiving attention due to the overwhelming number of people seeking care.”
Mathias Goemaere, a field coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, said that even before the floods, residents in Borno were struggling with malnutrition, following years of an Islamist insurgency that has driven people from their farms.
“They are exposed to their environment, so what do we see? A lot of waterborne diseases, diarrhea, diarrheal diseases ... Malaria is around with a lot of mosquitoes,” Goemaere told Reuters.
“So a lot of people, because of malnutrition, are immuno-suppressed, which makes them more susceptible to diseases.”
Nigeria’s government has separately warned of rising water levels in the country’s largest rivers, the Benue and Niger, which could cause floods in the oil-producing Niger Delta region in the south.
Central European flooding widens as death toll rises
- First Czech death report as toll in central Europe rises, Czech town Litovel submerged in water overnight
- Polish government meets to decide state of disaster
JESENIK: More rivers in central Europe burst their banks on Monday and the number of deaths increased from the worst flooding in at least two decades, with some authorities starting to count the costs and others preparing for waters rising further.
Border areas between the Czech Republic and Poland were hit hard over the weekend as heavy rain seen since last week and surging water levels collapsed some bridges, forced evacuations and left a trail of destruction.
At least 15 people have died in flooding from Austria to Romania.
Poland’s government was due to meet on Monday to call a state of disaster.
Michal Piszko, mayor of the Polish town of Klodzko along the Czech border, said waters had receded there but help was needed.
“We need bottled water and dry provisions, because we have also set up a point for flood victims evacuated from flooded areas,” he told private broadcaster RMF FM.
“Children will not go to school until the end of the week. At the moment, half of the city has no electricity.”
Polish Education Minister Barbara Nowacka said that around 420 schools across four provinces had been closed. In the town of Nysa a hospital was evacuated.
In the Czech town of Jesenik, across the Polish border where floods ripped through the town on Sunday, clean-up was starting after waters receded to show damaged cars and debris left on streets.
In eastern Romania, where villages and towns were submerged over the weekend, Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, told television station Digi24 the flooding had devastating impact.
“If you were here you would cry instantly because people are desperate, their whole lives’ work is gone, there were people who were left with just the clothes they had on,” he said.
Preparation
While rivers in the Czech-Polish border area were starting to recede on Monday, flooding was widening and leaving bigger cities on alert.
Jacek Sutryk, mayor of Poland’s Wroclaw, said the city of some 600,000 was preparing water levels peaking on Wednesday.
“This high wave will pass through Wroclaw for several days,” he said.
In the Czech Republic, a rising Morava River overnight put Litovel, a city 230 km (140 miles) east of the capital Prague with a population of nearly 10,000, around 70 percent under water and shut down schools and health facilities, its mayor said in a video on Facebook.
Flooded parts of northeastern Czech regional capital Ostrava forced closures of a power plant supplying heat and hot water to the city as well as two chemical plants.
More than 12,000 people have been evacuated in the Czech Republic. A quarter of a million Czech households had been without power over the weekend although that figure had fallen to 118,000 on Monday, CTK news agency reported.
In Romania, the flooding killed six people over the weekend. An Austrian firefighter died on Sunday. In Lower Austria two men aged 70 and 80 were found drowned in their homes, a police spokesperson said on Monday.
State news agency PAP reported five deaths in Poland and in the Czech Republic one person died, a police official said.
Danube also rises
Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said the government in Budapest was fully prepared to act and efforts for the time being focused on keeping the Danube River and its tributaries within their banks.
Pinter said up to 12,000 soldiers were on standby to help if needed.
Slovakia’s capital Bratislava and Hungarian capital Budapest were both preparing as the River Danube rose.
In Austria, the levels of rivers and reservoirs fell overnight as rain eased but officials said they were bracing for a second wave as heavier rain was expected in the coming hours.
