SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION: Local authorities said Sunday that the likely death toll from cyclone Chido’s passage across Mayotte was “definitely several hundred” though the disruption means reaching an exact count will be difficult.
Rescue workers and supplies are being rushed in by air and sea, but their efforts are likely to be hindered by damage to airports and electricity distribution in a territory where even clean drinking water was already subject to chronic shortages.
A previous toll shared with AFP by a security source had confirmed only 14 deaths.
“I think there will definitely be several hundred, perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand” deaths, prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said on broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere.
He added that it would be “very difficult to reach a final count” given that most residents are Muslim, traditionally burying their dead within 24 hours.
The mayor of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, had earlier told AFP that nine people were gravely wounded and fighting for their lives in hospital, while 246 more were seriously injured.
“The hospital is hit, the schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said, adding that the hurricane “spared nothing.”
Mayotte’s 320,000 residents had been ordered into lockdown Saturday as cyclone Chido bore down on the islands around 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Mozambique with gusts of at least 226 kilometers per hour.
Electricity poles were hurled to the ground, trees uprooted and sheet-metal roofs and walls torn off improvised structures inhabited by at least one-third of the population.
Information from the locked-down population, in shock and largely cut off from water and electricity supplies, is slow to filter out, a source familiar with the recovery effort told AFP.
One local resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads for himself.
Interior Minister Retailleau will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, alongside 160 soldiers and firefighters to reinforce the 110 already deployed to the islands.
Medical personnel and equipment were being delivered from Sunday by air and sea, said the prefecture in La Reunion, another French Indian Ocean territory some 1,400 kilometers away on the other side of Madagascar.
A first aid plane landed in Mayotte at around 3:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) with three tons of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, authorities in La Reunion said, with two military aircraft expected to follow.
A navy patrol ship was also to depart La Reunion with personnel and equipment including for electricity supplier EDF.
Pope Francis, visiting French Mediterranean island Corsica on Sunday, urged people to pray for Mayotte’s residents.
Just northwest of Mayotte, the Comoros islands, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, were also hit, but suffered only minor damage.
Cyclone Chido later slammed into Mozambique, bringing gale-force winds and heavy rain when it made landfall early Sunday around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba, weather services said.
Buildings were damaged and power knocked out in some areas of Mozambique’s northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early Saturday, authorities said.
But by the afternoon Chido was traveling over the inland province of Niassa and had weakened, said the president of the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management, Luisa Meque.
UNICEF said it was on the ground to help the people impacted by the storm, which had already caused some damage.
“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed and we are working closely with the government to ensure continuity of essential basic services,” it said in a statement.
Cyclone Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide to be fueled by climate change, according to experts.
The “exceptional” cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of France’s Meteo France weather service told AFP.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday it was similar in strength to cyclones Gombe in 2022 and Freddy in 2023, which killed more than 60 people and at least 86 in Mozambique respectively.
It warned that some 1.7 million people were in danger, and said the remnants of the cyclone could also dump “significant rainfall” on neighboring Malawi through Monday, potentially triggering flash floods.
Zimbabwe and Zambia were also expected to see heavy rains, it added.
‘Definitely several hundred’ killed as Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte
https://arab.news/7c2c2
‘Definitely several hundred’ killed as Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte
- A previous toll shared with AFP by a security source had confirmed only 14 deaths
Regulators warned Air India Express about delay on Airbus engine fix, forging records
- India’s aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India’s budget carrier in March for not timely changing engine parts of an Airbus A320
- Air India has been under intense scrutiny since Boeing Dreamliner crash, killing all but one of the 242 people onboard
NEW DELHI: India’s aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India’s budget carrier in March for not timely changing engine parts of an Airbus A320 as directed by European Union’s aviation safety agency, and falsifying records to show compliance, a government memo showed.
In a statement, Air India Express told Reuters it acknowledged the error to the Indian watchdog and undertook “remedial action and preventive measures.”
Air India has been under intense scrutiny since the June Boeing Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad which killed all but one of the 242 people onboard. The world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade is still being investigated.
The engine issue in the Air India Express’ Airbus was raised on March 18, months before the crash. But the regulator has this year also warned parent Air India for breaching rules for flying three Airbus planes with overdue checks on escape slides, and in June warned it about “serious violations” of pilot duty timings.
Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group. It has more than 115 aircraft and flies to more than 50 destinations, with 500 daily flights.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency in 2023 issued an airworthiness directive to address a “potential unsafe condition” on CFM International LEAP-1A engines, asking for replacement of some components such as engine seals and rotating parts, saying some manufacturing deficiencies had been found.
The agency’s directive said “this condition, if not corrected, could lead to failure of affected parts, possibly resulting in high energy debris release, with consequent damage to, and reduced control of, the aeroplane.”
The Indian government’s confidential memo in March sent to the airline, seen by Reuters, said that surveillance by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed the parts modification “was not complied” on an engine of an Airbus A320 “within the prescribed time limit.”
“In order to show that the work has been carried out within the prescribed limits, the AMOS records have apparently been altered/forged,” the memo added, referring to the Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Operating System software used by airlines to manage maintenance and airworthiness.
The mandatory modification was required on Air India Express’ VT-ATD plane, the memo added. That plane typically flies on domestic routes and some international destinations such as Dubai and Muscat, according to the AirNav Radar website.
The lapse “indicates that the accountable manager has failed to ensure quality control,” it added.
Air India Express told Reuters its technical team missed the scheduled implementation date for parts replacement due to the migration of records on its monitoring software, and fixed the problem soon after it was identified.
It did not give dates of compliance or directly address DGCA’s comment about records being altered, but said that after the March memo it took “necessary administrative actions,” which included removing the quality manager from the person’s position and suspending the deputy continuing airworthiness manager.
The DGCA and the European safety agency did not respond to Reuters queries.
Airbus and CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Safran, also did not respond.
The lapse was first flagged during a DGCA audit in October 2024 and the plane in question took only a few trips after it was supposed to replace the CFM engine parts, a source with direct knowledge said.
“Such issues should be fixed immediately. It’s a grave mistake. The risk increases when you are flying over sea or near restricted airpsace,” said Vibhuti Singh, a former legal expert at the India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
The Indian government told parliament in February that authorities warned or fined airlines in 23 instances for safety violations last year. Three of those cases involved Air India Express, and eight Air India.
The Tata Group acquired Air India from the Indian government in 2022 and the Dreamliner crash has cast a shadow on its ambitions of making it a “world class airline.”
While Air India has aggressively expanded its international flight network over the months, it still faces persistent complaints from passengers, who often take to social media to show soiled seats, broken armrests, non-operational entertainment systems and dirty cabins.
Russia, Ukraine announce fresh prisoner swap
- The warring sides have swapped POWs throughout Russia’s more than three-year invasion
- Russia is believed to hold thousands of Ukrainian prisoners, many of whom were captured in the first year of Moscow’s offensive
KYIV: Russia and Ukraine announced a fresh prisoner swap on Friday as part of agreements reached between them during talks in Istanbul last month.
The warring sides have swapped POWs throughout Russia’s more than three-year invasion. At recent talks in Istanbul, they agreed to free all heavily wounded, ill and under 25-year-old captive troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published photographs of freed Ukrainian troops, wrapped in blue and yellow flags.
“Our people are home. Most of them had been held in Russian captivity since 2022,” he said on social media.
Zelensky said they included servicemen from the army, national guard, border service and transport service, adding: “And also civilians.”
He did not say how many Ukrainians had been returned.
“Ukraine’s goal is to free all our people from Russian captivity,” Zelensky said.
Russia’s defense ministry also reported the swap, saying Kyiv handed over a group of its servicemen who were currently in Moscow-allied Belarus.
It also did not say how many troops were exchanged.
Russia is believed to hold thousands of Ukrainian prisoners, many of whom were captured in the first year of Moscow’s offensive when Russian troops advanced deep into the country.
Kyiv also holds many Russian captives, although that number is believed to be considerably smaller.
Kremlin says it pays close attention to Trump statements after he voices disappointment with Putin call
- Kremlin leader had told Trump that Russia expects to agree a date for a third round of peace talks with Ukraine
- Russia would prefer to achieve its goals in Ukraine by political and diplomatic means
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia closely follows all of Donald Trump’s statements after the US president said he was “very disappointed” with his latest conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.
Trump, who had confidently stated last week that Putin was “looking to settle” the conflict, said after Thursday’s phone call that he did not think the Russian leader was looking to stop it.
Asked about the comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Of course, we are paying very close attention to all of President Trump’s statements.”
He did not address Trump’s implied criticism of Putin.
Trump, who returned to the White House in January with a promise to swiftly end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, said after Thursday’s call: “I didn’t make any progress with him at all.”
Peskov said Putin had told Trump that Russia would prefer to achieve its goals in Ukraine by political and diplomatic means, but in the meantime would continue what it calls its “special military operation.”
He said the Kremlin leader had told Trump that Russia expects to agree a date for a third round of peace talks with Ukraine, following earlier talks in May and June.
At least five dead in Pakistan building collapse: police
- Up to 100 people had been living in the building
- Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan
KARACHI: A five-story building collapse in Pakistan on Friday killed at least five people and left six injured, with more victims trapped under the rubble, police said.
Rescuers and residents in the mega port city of Karachi worked together to pull people from the debris after the incident at around 10:10 a.m. (0510 GMT).
“We have so far retrieved five dead bodies and six injured people,” a senior local police official, Arif Aziz, said.
Up to 100 people had been living in the building, he added.
Saad Edhi, of the Edhi welfare foundation that is leading the rescue operation, said there could be “at least eight to 10 more people still trapped,” describing it as a “worn out building.”
He put the death toll at four.
Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan, mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of more than 240 million people.
But Karachi, home to more than 20 million, is especially notorious for poor construction, illegal extensions, aging infrastructure, overcrowding, and lax enforcement of building regulations.
After decades of service, Taiwan retires its last F-5 fighter jets
- To keep pace with increased threats from mainland China, Taiwan has been upgrading both its manned and unmanned aerial assets
HUALIEN, Taiwan: After decades in service, Taiwan’s Vietnam-era F-5 fighter jets are being retired as part of the island democracy’s transition to more advanced hardware.
To keep pace with increased threats from mainland China, Taiwan has been upgrading both its manned and unmanned aerial assets, including purchasing 66 of the latest generation F-16V fighters and upgrading existing aircraft to modern specifications.
China claims the island as its own territory and has never dropped its threat to invade since the sides split amid civil war in 1949.
The air force invited journalists on Friday to witness one last flyby by the F-5, which first entered service with Taiwan in 1965 and most of which have now been converted to trainers, reconnaissance planes or decoys.
The planes began moving into a backing role 30 years ago when Taiwan began acquiring more modern American F-16s, French Mirage 2000s and domestically developed Ching Kuos.
The F-5 is one of the world’s most widely produced jets, with Taiwan the largest operator at one point with 336, producing some 100 domestically. Dozens of countries still use them, including the US, which uses them as pretend opponents in training exercises.
The planes gained favor for their high speed and maneuverability, alongside their low cost and ease of maintenance. For Taiwan, they guarded the skies above the Taiwan Strait against mainland China’s Soviet and domestically built fighters.
Taiwan’s F-5s were based along the eastern coast, separated from China by both the 160 kilometer (100 mile)-wide Taiwan Strait and Taiwan’s formidable Central Mountain Range.
