Yemen flooding kills 5, destroys dozens of homes

Over the past two years, severe rain and flooding has resulted in the deaths of dozens of Yemenis. (AP Photo)
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Updated 05 April 2023
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Yemen flooding kills 5, destroys dozens of homes

  • Three people drowned and two others were rescued after a bus was swept away by floodwaters in the Bayhan district of Shabwa governorate
  • Local people, on Wednesday, recovered the body of a soldier who died when floodwaters submerged his vehicle near Ahwar in Abyan governorate

AL-MUKALLA: At least five people have been killed by flash floods following torrential rains this week in the south, central and western regions of Yemen, local media and officials said. 

Three people drowned and two others were rescued after a bus was swept away by floodwaters in the Bayhan district in the southern province of Shabwa. Roads and farms were also destroyed by flooding in the province.

Local people on Wednesday recovered the body of a soldier who died when floodwaters submerged his vehicle near Ahwar in the southern Abyan governorate. Two soldiers in the same vehicle escaped unharmed.

At least two more people were swept away in southern Yemen. 

Social media videos showed Yemeni bus drivers attempting to cross flooded roads in several regions, ignoring warnings not to put lives in danger.

At least 20 houses in Al-Haraziyah, Al-Uliyah and Taiz were partly demolished or submerged by flash floods, forcing residents to abandon their properties and seek shelter with relatives. 

People said that heavy rain and flooding have wrecked their homes and contaminated food supplies, and requested immediate help during Ramadan.

In the past two years, severe rain and flooding have killed dozens of Yemenis around the country, devastated homes, destroyed displaced persons’ camps, and laid the ground for the spread of illnesses such as cholera.

Meanwhile, the National Meteorology Center on Wednesday predicted rainfall and flash floods in several regions of Yemen this week and advised residents to avoid waterways.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization earlier said that flooding damaged essential infrastructure, affecting 31 families in Taiz.

Floods had affected over 9,000 families around the country in the past month, it added.

The FAO warned that torrential rain and flooding until mid-April is expected to destroy additional infrastructure and farmland, and threaten 22,000 people in Sanaa, Dhamar, Ibb, Lahj, Hadramout and Jouf. 

“These areas and much of the Highlands should brace for deadlier downpours and floods in the coming week,” FAO’s agrometeorological alert said.

“Bacterial diseases such as cholera outbreaks are expected to take their toll, especially in internally displaced people’s camps where critical water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure has already been swept away. Humanitarian interventions to reinforce these facilities in these areas are therefore strongly encouraged,” it added.


Turkiye’s Erdogan says ready to intervene to prevent any division of Syria

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the end of Kurdish militants in Syria was getting closer. (File/AFP)
Updated 48 min 52 sec ago
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Turkiye’s Erdogan says ready to intervene to prevent any division of Syria

  • Erdogan’s warning is the latest aimed at Kurdish-dominated SDF and to the US, which backed the SDF’s offensive against Daesh

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he would order an intervention to prevent any splintering of Syria, a warning aimed particularly at the country’s Kurdish forces.
“We can not accept under any pretext that Syria be divided and if we notice the slightest risk we will take the necessary measures,” the Turkish head of state said, adding that “we have the means.”
Erdogan’s warning is the latest aimed at the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces and to the United States, which backed the SDF’s offensive against Daesh. 
Saying there is no room for “terror” in Syria, Erdogan said that “should the risk present itself, we could intervene in one night.”
At least 100 people died in fighting over the weekend between pro-Turkish factions and the Kurdish-dominated People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF.
Ankara considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been in an armed struggle with the Turkish state since the 1980s and is classified by Turkiye and its Western allies as a terrorist movement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had said that “the elimination of the PKK/YPG is only a matter of time,” raising the possibility that the movement could join the Syrian government and lay down its arms.
But he warned that Western countries should not use the threat of Daesh as “a pretext to strengthen the PKK.”


French President says Algeria ‘dishonors itself’ by holding novelist Boualem Sansal

Updated 06 January 2025
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French President says Algeria ‘dishonors itself’ by holding novelist Boualem Sansal

  • Boualem Sansal has been imprisoned in Algeria on national security charges since November
  • Emmanuel Macron said Sansal was being held 'in a totally arbitrary manner' by the Algerian authorities

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Algeria was “dishonoring itself” by holding French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, who was arrested in Algiers in November.
Sansal, a major figure in modern francophone literature, was arrested at the Algiers airport at a time of growing tensions between France and its former colony.
“Algeria, which we love so much and with which we share so many children and so many stories, is dishonoring itself by preventing a seriously ill man from receiving treatment,” Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors gathered at the Elysee Palace.
“And we who love the people of Algeria and its history urge its government to release Boualem Sansal,” he added.
He described Sansal as a “freedom fighter,” saying he was being held “in a totally arbitrary manner” by the Algerian authorities.
A critic of the Algerian authorities, Sansal, 75, has been imprisoned in Algeria on national security charges.
In mid-December, the Gallimard editing house said Sansal had been hospitalized, raising fears about the writer’s health in detention.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune first mentioned his arrest in late December, describing him as an “imposter” sent by France.
Sansal is known for his strong stances against both authoritarianism and Islamism, as well as being a forthright campaigner on freedom of expression issues.
In 2015, he won the Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy, the guardians of the French language, for his book “2084: The End of the World,” a dystopian novel set in an Islamist totalitarian world in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.
The controversy is taking place in a tense diplomatic context between France and Algeria, after Macron renewed French support for Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara during a landmark visit to the kingdom in 2024.
Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is de facto controlled for the most part by Morocco.
But it is claimed by the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, who are demanding a self-determination referendum and are supported by Algiers.


Blinken calls for push to get Gaza truce deal over ‘finish line’

Updated 06 January 2025
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Blinken calls for push to get Gaza truce deal over ‘finish line’

  • Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators
  • ‘We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks,’ Blinken said in South Korea

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Monday for a final push for a Gaza ceasefire before President Joe Biden leaves office, after a Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list of 34 hostages as first to go free under a truce.
“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” Blinken told a news conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.
Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not comment.
It remains unclear how close the two sides remain, with some signs of movement but little indication of a shift in some of the key demands that have so far blocked any truce for more than a year.
US President-elect Donald Trump has said there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages held by Hamas were not freed before his inauguration on Jan. 20, now viewed in the region as an unofficial deadline for a truce deal.
According to Gaza health officials, nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza, and Hamas says it will not free them without an agreement that ends the war with Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will not halt its assault until Hamas is dismantled as a military and governing power and all hostages go free.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce. The list provided by the official included female soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the list had been given by Israel to Qatari mediators as far back as July, and Israel had so far received no confirmation or comment from Hamas about whether the hostages on it were alive.
“Israel will continue to act relentlessly for the return of all our hostages,” it said in a statement.
Baby dies of cold
Israeli forces, which have intensified their operations in recent weeks, continued bombardments across the enclave, killing at least 48 people and wounding 75 over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Harsh winter weather continued to exact a toll on the hundreds of thousands displaced into makeshift shelters, with officials saying a 35-day-old baby had died of exposure, at least the eighth victim of the cold in the past two weeks.
Officials from Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip said an Israeli airstrike at a school compound sheltering displaced families had wounded at least 40 people.
While Israel’s military says Hamas has largely been destroyed as an organized military force, its fighters continue to hold out in the rubble of Gaza, which has been largely reduced to wasteland by the months of bombardment.
On Monday, three rockets were fired from Gaza, one of which hit a building in the nearby Israeli city of Sderot without casing casualties, Israeli police said.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has also surged since the start of the Gaza war, gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded several others when they opened fire on a car and bus near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.


Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3

Updated 06 January 2025
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Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3

  • Violence has surged in West Bank since Oct. 2023 when Israel launched a war on Gaza
  • The attack occurred in Al-Funduq village, on one of the main roads crossing the territory

JERUSALEM: A shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people and wounded seven others on Monday, Israeli medics said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said those killed included two women in their 60s and a man in his 40s.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the ongoing war there.
The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory. The identities of the attackers and those killed were not immediately known. The military said it was looking for the attackers, who fled.
Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years. Israel has launched near-nightly military raids across the territory that frequently trigger gunbattle with militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 835 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Some 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority administering population centers. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in scores of settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza is raging with no end in sight, though there has reportedly been recent progress in long-running talks aimed at a ceasefire and hostage release.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in a massive surprise attack nearly 15 months ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of those killed. They do not say how many of the dead were militants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced 90 percent of the territory’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are enduring a cold, rainy winter in tent camps along the windy coast. At least seven infants have died of hypothermia because of the harsh conditions, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Aid groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order in many areas make it difficult to provide desperately needed food and other assistance.


Blinken calls for push to get Gaza truce deal over ‘finish line’

People and first responders inspect the rubble of a collapsed residential building that was hit by Israeli bombardment.
Updated 06 January 2025
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Blinken calls for push to get Gaza truce deal over ‘finish line’

  • “We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” Blinken told a news conference in South Korea
  • Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Monday for a final push for a Gaza ceasefire before President Joe Biden leaves office, after a Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list of 34 hostages as first to go free under a truce.
“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” Blinken told a news conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.
Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not comment.
It remains unclear how close the two sides remain, with some signs of movement but little indication of a shift in some of the key demands that have so far blocked any truce for more than a year.
US President-elect Donald Trump has said there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages held by Hamas were not freed before his inauguration on Jan. 20, now viewed in the region as an unofficial deadline for a truce deal.
According to Gaza health officials, nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza, and Hamas says it will not free them without an agreement that ends the war with Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will not halt its assault until Hamas is dismantled as a military and governing power and all hostages go free.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce. The list provided by the official included female soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the list had been given by Israel to Qatari mediators as far back as July, and Israel had so far received no confirmation or comment from Hamas about whether the hostages on it were alive.
“Israel will continue to act relentlessly for the return of all our hostages,” it said in a statement.
Baby dies of cold
Israeli forces, which have intensified their operations in recent weeks, continued bombardments across the enclave, killing at least 48 people and wounding 75 over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Harsh winter weather continued to exact a toll on the hundreds of thousands displaced into makeshift shelters, with officials saying a 35-day-old baby had died of exposure, at least the eighth victim of the cold in the past two weeks.
Officials from Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip said an Israeli airstrike at a school compound sheltering displaced families had wounded at least 40 people.
While Israel’s military says Hamas has largely been destroyed as an organized military force, its fighters continue to hold out in the rubble of Gaza, which has been largely reduced to wasteland by the months of bombardment.
On Monday, three rockets were fired from Gaza, one of which hit a building in the nearby Israeli city of Sderot without casing casualties, Israeli police said.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has also surged since the start of the Gaza war, gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded several others when they opened fire on a car and bus near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.