Tag: InternationalNews

Trump: If China doesn’t deal with North Korea, we will

{US president says trade could be a lever in getting China to take a tougher stance over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.}

US President Donald Trump held out the possibility on Sunday of using trade as a lever to secure Chinese cooperation against North Korea and suggested Washington might deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes on its own if need be.

The comments, in an interview published on Sunday by the Financial Times, appeared designed to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping in the run-up to his visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this week.

“China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone,” Trump was quoted as saying, according to an edited transcript published by the newspaper.

Asked what incentive the US had to offer China, Trump replied: “Trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.”

Asked if he would consider a “grand bargain” in which China pressured Pyongyang in return for a guarantee the US would later remove troops from the Korean peninsula, the newspaper quoted Trump as saying: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.”

It is not clear whether Trump’s comments will move China, which has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilise the North and send millions of refugees across their border.

It is also unclear what the US might do on its own to deflect North Korea from the expansion of its nuclear capabilities and from the development of missiles with ever-longer ranges and the capacity to deliver atomic warheads.

Trump’s national security aides have completed a review of US options to try to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes that includes economic and military measures but leans more towards sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbour, a US official said.

Although the option of pre-emptive military strikes on North Korea is not off the table, the review prioritises less-risky steps and “de-emphasises direct military action,” the official added, saying it was not immediately known if the National Security Council recommendations had made their way to Trump.

The White House declined comment on the recommendations.

Trump and Xi are also expected to discuss Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, when they meet on Thursday and Friday. China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the strategic waterway.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on Sunday with China’s top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, about Xi’s visit “and other issues of bilateral and regional importance,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday about the call that Yang had described the meeting between Xi and Trump as being of “great significance” for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.

Tillerson told Yang that the US would do its utmost to ensure that the meeting had “positive results,” the ministry said.

Trump’s deputy national security adviser, Kathleen Troia McFarland, said there was a “real possibility” North Korea could be capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump’s four-year term, the Financial Times reported.

McFarland’s estimate appeared more pessimistic than those of many experts.

“The typical estimates are that it will take five years or so,” said Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US and a leading expert on North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Such estimates are notoriously hard to make both because of the scarcity of intelligence about North Korea and uncertainty about how high a success rate Pyongyang might want for such missiles.

John Schilling, a contributor to the “38 North” North Korea monitoring project, said Pyongyang might have missiles capable of limited strikes on the US mainland by the end of Trump’s term, but “it will most likely be a bit later than that.”

“I doubt that any missile they could put into service by the end of 2020 will be very reliable, but perhaps it doesn’t have to be – one or two successes out of six launches against the US would be a political game-changer to say the least,” Schilling said.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 3, 2017
Opposition alleges fraud in Ecuador presidential vote

{Right-wing Lasso says he would contest the results after partial counting showed him trailing rival Moreno.}

Right-wing opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso alleged fraud in Ecuador’s presidential runoff election and said he would contest the result after a partial count showed him losing.

Leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno had claimed victory in Sunday’s vote, bucking a shift to the right across South America as Lasso’s supporters took to the streets in protest.

“They’ve toyed with popular will, we are going to defend the will of the Ecuadoran people in the face of an attempted fraud that aims to install what would be an illegitimate government,” Lasso said.

A Moreno victory would come as a relief for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after Lasso vowed to remove him from the Ecuadorean embassy in London if he won the runoff.

Moreno, a paraplegic former vice-president, had secured 51.07 percent of the votes compared to Lasso’s 48.93 percent, with just over 94 percent of votes counted, according to the electoral council.

It has not yet declared a winner.

Right-leaning governments have come to power in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru recently as a commodities boom ended, economies flagged and corruption scandals grew.

Lasso, a former banker, had promised to denounce embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Ecuador’s current government.

A bitter Lasso disputed the results on Sunday night.

He cited the first round of the election in February, when final results took days to come out and his supporters massed in front of the electoral council to guard against what they said were fraud attempts.

Moreno won 39.36 percent of the vote in the election’s first round on February 19, falling just short of the 40 percent and 10-point-lead necessary to win outright.

Lasso won 28.9 percent of the first round’s votes, but was expected to pick up more votes after conservative Congresswoman Cynthia Viteri, who finished third in the first round, threw her support behind him.

{{Street protests}}

On Sunday, hundreds of Lasso supporters swarmed in front of the electoral council offices in capital Quito and coastal city Guayaquil, Lasso’s hometown, chanting “no to fraud” and “no to dictatorship”.

Al Jazeera’s Daniel Schweimler, reporting from Quito, said Moreno was already celebrating victory.

“Moreno was singing along with the outgoing Rafael Correa. He’s absolutely convinced he is the president-elect,” he said.

“Both sets of supporters are out on the streets and while clashes have been reported, police are keeping both sides apart. Things are tense but relatively peaceful.”

Moreno, who has been in a wheelchair since losing the use of his legs two decades ago after being shot during a robbery, would become one of the world’s rare presidents to use a wheelchair if he takes office on May 24.

“Lenin”, as he is commonly referred to by his supporters, was already celebrating a victory that would extend a decade of leftist rule.

“From now on, let’s work for the country. All of us,” Moreno told flag-waving supporters in the mountainous capital Quito.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 3, 2017
Anti-racism campaigner Darcus Howe dies aged 74

{Civil rights activist who campaigned for more than 50 years has died at the age of 74.}

Darcus Howe, one of Britain’s most prominent anti-racism campaigners, has died in London aged 74.

An uncompromising champion for racial justice and fierce opponent of police brutality, Howe was born in British-ruled Trinidad in 1943 and moved to the United Kingdom in 1961.

He intended to study law at London’s Middle Temple, but abandoned his plans for activism, joining the Black Panthers – a movement inspired by the American group of the same name – after experiencing racist abuse and prejudice from white Britons towards the Afro-Caribbean community.

Howe would later begin a successful career in journalism, writing a regular column for the New Statesman magazine, but gained public attention in 1970 as a member of a group that marched on a west London police station to protest against repeated police raids on Mangrove, a popular Caribbean restaurant.

Howe and the eight others – known as the “Mangrove Nine” – endured a 55-day trial before finally being acquitted of the main charge: incitement to riot.

The trial managed to successfully highlight tensions between the black community and the British legal process, after Howe demanded an all-black jury. His request was rejected.

Howe would gain further prominence in 1981 when he led 20,000 people on a “Black People’s March” to protest against an investigation into the New Cross Fire, when 13 black teenagers were killed in a suspected arson attack.

Weyman Bennett, the joint national convener for Stand Up Against Racism, told Al Jazeera that Howe’s actions shaped and defined the debate on how to stop and resist racism.

“Howe was one of the first people to empower young black people and oppose racism in the United Kingdom.

“He led the fight against the [far-right] National Front in the 1970s and 1980s, a fore-runner to today’s organisations that are Islamophobic and fascist,” Bennett said.

“He was outspoken on Islamophobia, the government’s [anti-terror] Prevent programme, and how Muslims are being demonised by authorities.

“He was a living example to many people on why you should speak out when you see injustice, his fire to defeat such groups never died out. He was fearless.”

The fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan in August 2011, which triggered riots in several poor neighbourhoods in London, further highlighted Howe’s powerful voice.

During a live interview with BBC News, which has since gone viral, presenter Fiona Armstrong asked a poorly-phrased question which implied Howe was an apologist for the rioters.

Howe challenged the interviewer, saying: ”Stop accusing me of being a rioter and have some respect for an old West Indian Negro. You sound idiotic – have some respect.”

The BBC later apologised for any offence caused.

Diane Abbott, a member of parliament with the opposition Labour Party and shadow home secretary, called Howe “a living embodiment of the struggle against police racism”.

Several politicians also took to social media to pay tribute to the veteran campaigner.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 3, 2017
Death toll from Colombia mudslides jumps to 254

{Devastating mudslides in the Colombian town of Mocoa killed at least 254 people, 43 of them children, President Juan Manuel Santos has said, in yet another sharp rise in the death toll.}

Santos, who travelled to the southern town to personally oversee relief operations, warned the toll could keep climbing.

{{GRUESOME}}

“Unfortunately, these are still preliminary figures,” he wrote on Twitter.

“We offer our prayers for all of them. We send our condolences and the entire country’s sympathies to their families.

Survivors described gruesome scenes in the remote southern town, as rescuers kept up a bleak search for victims in the muck and debris.

Covered in mud, 38-year-old Marta Gomez told of going to search for her missing niece — and making a chilling find instead.

“I went to look for my niece, but I couldn’t find her. I dug and dug and found what turned out to be a baby’s hand. It was horrible,” she said in a shelter set up for the newly homeless.

{{NO HOPE}}

As she stood in line waiting to register for government assistance for those who lost their houses, she told AFP she had given up on finding her niece.

“The mud took her away. I’ll never see her again,” she said, clinging to the leash of her equally muddy German shepherd.

Rescuers worked in stifling heat under a cloudy sky in the remote Amazon town, the capital of Putumayo department.

The debris left by the mudslides was everywhere: buried cars, uprooted trees, children’s toys and stray shoes sticking up out of the mud.

The torrent of mud, boulders and debris struck the town with little warning late Friday after days of heavy rains that caused three area rivers to flood.

{{SWEPT AWAY}}

It swept away homes, bridges, vehicles and trees, leaving piles of wrecked timber.

Most of the hardest-hit neighbourhoods in the town of 40,000 are poor and populated with people uprooted during Colombia’s five-decade-long civil war.

A “profoundly saddened” Pope Francis said he was praying for the victims.

Santos declared an emergency to speed up aid operations.

Health authorities said they had dispatched sanitation specialists in hopes of preventing outbreaks of disease.

{{LOST ALL}}

An unexpected offer of help also came from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a leftist rebel group engaged in a historic peace process with the government.

It said FARC members were prepared to help rebuild the town.

Marta Ceballos, a 44-year-old street vendor, said she lost everything, but is thankful her family is alive.

“Dear God, I don’t want to even remember that,” she said.

“To see how some people screamed, and others cried, ran, tried to flee in cars, on motorcycles, and how they were trapped in the mud. It’s all too, too difficult,” she told AFP.

{{NO POWER}}

“The only things I fortunately did not lose were my husband, my daughters and my nephews,” she said.

Electricity and running water have yet to be restored to Mocoa. Local authorities said repairing the electrical substation would take time.

There were reports of people looting stores searching for bottled water.

“There are lots of people in the streets, lots of people displaced and many houses have collapsed,” retired Mocoa resident Hernando Rodriguez, 69, said by telephone.

“There were no preparations” for such a disaster, he said.

{{BIG ROLE}}

Several deadly landslides have struck Colombia in recent months.

A landslide in November killed nine people in the rural southwestern town of El Tambo, officials said.

The previous month, 10 people lost their lives in a mudslide in the north of the country.

The Pacific rim of South America has been hard hit in recent months by floods and mudslides, with scores killed in Peru and Ecuador.

Climate change can play a big role in the scale of such natural disasters, a senior UN official said.

“Climate change is generating dynamics and we see the tremendous results in terms of intensity, frequency and magnitude of these natural effects, as we have just seen in Mocoa,” said Martin Santiago, UN chief for Colombia.

Source:AFP

April 3, 2017
S. Korea, Japan, US hold drill against N. Korea submarines

{South Korea, Japan and the US held a joint naval exercise Monday aimed at countering missile threats from North Korean submarines, Seoul’s defence ministry said, amid mounting concerns over the hermit state’s weapons programme.}

Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.

{{800 TROOPS}}

The three-day drills involving more than 800 troops kicked off after US President Donald Trump warned Sunday that the United States is prepared to act unilaterally to deal with North Korea’s nuclear programme if China proves unwilling to help.

The exercise began off South Korea’s southern coast near Japan, featuring multiple naval destroyers and helicopters used in anti-submarine warfare, the ministry said.

It was aimed at “ensuring effective response to the North’s submarine threats, including the submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM),” and “demonstrates the three countries’ strong determination”, according to the ministry.

Tensions have escalated in the region following a series of missile launches by North Korea in recent months and reports suggesting Pyongyang may be preparing another atomic test.

{{4 MISSILES}}

In February the North simultaneously fired four ballistic missiles off its east coast, three of which fell provocatively close to Japan, in what it said was a drill for an attack on US bases in the neighbouring Asian country.

Last August Pyongyang also successfully test-fired a SLBM 500 kilometres towards Japan, far exceeding any previous sub-launched tests, in what the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un hailed as the “greatest success.”

A nuclear-capable SLBM system would take the North’s threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a “second-strike” capability in the event of an attack on its army bases.

Analysts say that while Pyongyang has made faster progress in its SLBM system than originally expected, it is still years away from deployment.

The isolated North is barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology.

Source:AFP

April 3, 2017
Arrests after 20 people killed at Sargodha shrine

{Three people, including custodian, arrested after bloodbath at shrine outside city of Sargodha in Punjab province.}

Lahore, Pakistan – The custodian of a shrine and two others have been arrested after murdering 20 devotees in Pakistan’s Punjab province, police said.

Abdul Waheed, custodian of the Ali Muhammad Gujjar shrine, drugged the devotees before beating them with sticks and stabbing them to death late on Saturday, local police officer Shaukat Manzoor told Al Jazeera.

He then handed himself over to authorities, the official added.

The incident occurred in the small village of Chak 95, just outside the city of Sarghoda located about 160km west of Lahore.

“There were no survivors. He drugged everyone who was at the shrine,” Manzoor said, adding that Waheed appeared to suffer from mental instability.

Chief of the local police station Shamsher Khan said Waheed was found sitting outside the shrine when authorities reached the location.

“He had a dagger dripping with blood on him,” said Khan. “He told us not to come near him otherwise he will attack us … But we managed to arrest him and the two other men who were sitting outside the shrine with him.

“The whole shrine was filled with bodies. There were 20 dead bodies, including three women and 17 men.”

Two other men, Zafar Ali and Sanaullah, believed to be Waheed’s accomplices, were arrested from the scene, Khan said.

Police said it was unclear if the men have any affiliation with armed extremist groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, who often carry out attacks targeting shrines and Pakistan’s minorities.

The officials added they would decide whether or not to file terrorism charges after completing their questioning of the suspects and any witnesses.

“Waheed is in custody. We are currently taking down witness statements. We will decide on terrorism charges after that,” said Manzoor.

On Friday, at least 22 people were killed when the Pakistani Taliban’s Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction targeted a Shia Muslim mosque in the northwestern town of Parachinar.

In February, 88 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted one of Pakistan’s most well-known shrines in the southern town of Sehwan.

The attack, the worst in Pakistan since the 2014 attack on a school in Peshawar, was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Source:Al Jazeera

April 2, 2017
Fire breaks out at under-construction Dubai skyscraper

{No injuries reported in fire that broke out near Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.}

A large fire broke out at a high-rise under-construction building near Dubai’s largest shopping mall, sending thick gray smoke billowing over the heart of the city.

The site is next to the Dubai Mall and the 63-storey The Address Downtown Dubai tower, which was heavily damaged in a fire on New Year’s Eve in 2015.

Dubai’s government media office said the fire erupted at the Address Residences Fountain Views towers, and that firefighters have brought it under control.

“Cooling operations are underway and ambulance units are on site,” the media office posted on its Twitter account. It said there were no injuries.

The fire broke out at around 6:30am (0230 GMT). Flames licked out of the podium level of the building as firefighters shot water inside.

Every few minutes, small blasts could be heard inside the structure, presumably from exploding propane or welding tanks used by the workers. Ambulances stood nearby but there was no sign of any worker being treated.

The fire appeared to be confined to the lower floors of the structure.

Fountain Views complex is being built by Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties, which raised the mall and the hotel struck in the 2015 blaze.

The property has three towers each 60 floors high and had been due to be completed in April 2018.

Large numbers of firefighters were on the scene, and police cordoned off nearby roads.

“It was plumes and plumes of black smoke. It looks like it was quite low down,” said witness Anthea Ayache, before adding that firefighters responded quickly.

“There’s so many fire brigades, so they seem to have gotten on top of it very quickly,” she said.

Dramatic fires have hit skyscrapers in Dubai and other fast-growing cities in the United Arab Emirates in recent years.

Building and safety experts have cited a popular type of cladding covering the buildings that can be highly flammable.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 2, 2017
Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia ‘in close race’

{Voting in landmark legislative poll begins in first election since the adoption of constitutional reforms.}

Armenians started voting in landmark legislative elections for the first time since the adoption of constitutional reforms aimed at transforming the ex-Soviet country into a parliamentary republic.

Sunday’s election is expected to be a close race between the majority-wielding Republican Party of Armenia, backed by President Serzh Sarkisian, and an alliance of businessman and former world champion arm wrestler Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia party.

The poll election is a key democratic test for the small landlocked nation of 2.9 million, which has no history of transfers of power to an opposition through the ballot box.

But the campaign has already been marred by opposition claims that the government is preparing mass electoral fraud.

Ahead of the vote, the European Union delegation to Armenia and the US embassy said in a joint statement that they were “concerned by allegations of voter intimidation, attempts to buy votes, and the systemic use of administrative resources to aid certain competing parties”.

WATCH: Armenia – Divided Within?

There are also fears of violence after 10 people were killed in 2008 clashes between police and opposition supporters following the election of pro-Moscow President Sarkisian.

This time, the country aims to hold an exemplary vote to elect “a parliament trusted by society,” the president told AFP news agency in an interview in March.

He said his government “has made enormous efforts so that (Sunday’s) milestone vote is flawless”.

The polls come after constitutional amendments initiated by Sarkisian in 2015 that his opponents say were designed to keep the ruling Republican Party in power.

The changes were passed after a referendum, but they also prompted thousands to rally in protest.

The amendments will shift the country away from strong presidency to a parliamentary form of government after Sarkisian’s second and final term ends in 2018.

Two decades in power

The opposition alleges that the changes were made to allow Sarkisian, 62, to maintain his grip on power by remaining party leader after he steps down as president.

“The amendments will perpetuate the rule of Sarkisian and his Republican Party,” which has held onto power for two decades, said Aram Manukyan, an MP from the Armenian National Congress opposition party.

Sarkisian has denied the allegations and defended the changes as “part of Armenia’s democratisation process,” saying they would empower the opposition.

Ahead of the vote – in his first comments on his political future – Sarkisian said that he would remain “active” after he left office and hinted that he would keep influencing Armenia’s politics as leader of the Republican Party.

“When one is leader of a big political party, the scope of one’s responsibility and duties increase,” he said.

“As chairman of the Republican Party, I assume responsibility for my teammates,” he said when asked about his post-2018 future.

A total of five parties and four electoral blocs are running in Sunday’s vote, with 101 parliamentary seats up for grabs under a proportional representation system.

A party needs to clear a five-percent threshold to be represented in parliament, while an electoral bloc made up of several parties needs to garner at least seven percent of the vote.

Voting, which started at 04:00 GMT and ends at 16:00 GMT, will be monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 2, 2017
Iraq’s parliament bans Kurdish flag in Kirkuk

{MPs reverse a decision to raise the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi flag on public buildings in Kirkuk city.}

Iraq’s parliament has rejected a decision to raise the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi flag on public buildings and institutions in Kirkuk city.

Iraqi MPs voted in favour of displaying only the Iraqi flag on Kirkuk’s buildings on Saturday, in a session attended by 186 members of the 328-seat parliament.

Hasan Turan, an MP for Kirkuk province, told the Anadolu news agency that Kurdish politicians walked out before the vote could take place.

Earlier in the week, the semi-autonomous Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC) voted in favour of raising the Kurdistan Regional Government’s flag (KRG) alongside Iraqi national flag on public buildings in the city.

However, that vote was vetoed by most Arab and Turkmen members of the KPC.

The issue comes at a time when KRG leader Massoud Barzani has made several remarks on holding a possible referendum on independence.

Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported that members of the KPC are determined to embark on a project aimed at merging Kirkuk with the Kurdistan region’s administration.

“We have collected 22 signatures to renew that demand and present it to the concerned parties in the Kurdistan Region so that they act on it,” Ibrahim Khalil, a Kurdish member of the Council told Rudaw on Friday.

“It is our rightful and constitutional right.”

Kirkuk lies in an oil-rich and ethnically mixed part of Iraq. Control over the city is contested by Kurdish and Iraqi authorities.

Kurdish forces took over the city in 2014 when the Iraqi army fled during ISIL’s summer offensive in northern Iraq.

The city is home to Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and Assyrians, as well as tens of thousands of people fleeing ISIL and Shia militias from other areas of Iraq.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 2, 2017
Colombia mudslides kill more than 200, sweep homes away

{Rescuers clawed through piles of mud and twisted debris Sunday searching for survivors after violent mudslides destroyed homes in southern Colombia, killing over 200 people and injuring hundreds more.}

They were the latest victims of deadly floods and mudslides that have struck the Pacific side of South America over recent months, also killing scores of people in Peru and Ecuador.

In the southwestern Colombian town of Mocoa a sudden surge of mud and water swept away homes, bridges, vehicles and trees, leaving piles of wrecked timber buried in thick mud.

The mudslides slammed Mocoa late Friday after days of torrential rain in the Amazon basin area town of 40,000.

“The latest information we have is that there are 206 people confirmed dead, 202 injured, 220 missing, 17 neighbourhoods hit hard,” Colombian Red Cross chief Cesar Uruena told AFP.

On Sunday President Juan Manuel Santos is set to return to the town, the capital of Putumayo department, with cabinet ministers to supervise rescue efforts in the heavily forested region.

Santos met with rescuers and survivors in Mocoa on Saturday, and declared a public health and safety emergency to speed up rescue and aid operations.

NATION IN MOURNING

“Dear God, I don’t want to even remember that,” said street vendor Marta Ceballos, who survived the mudslide.

“To see how some people screamed, and others cried, ran, tried to flee in cars, on motorcycles, and how they were trapped in the mud. It’s all too, too difficult,” she told AFP.

Ceballos said that she lost all of her material possessions. “The only things I fortunately did not lose were my husband, my daughters and my nephews,” she said.
Putumayo Governor Sorrel Aroca called the event “an unprecedented tragedy” for the area.

There are “hundreds of families we have not yet found and whole neighbourhoods have disappeared,” he told W Radio.

Carlos Ivan Marquez, director of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit, told AFP the mudslides were caused by the rise of the Mocoa River and tributaries.
The flooded rivers caused a “big avalanche,” the army said in a statement.

Some 130 millimetres (5 inches) of rain fell Friday night, president Santos said. “That means 30 percent of monthly rainfall fell last night, which precipitated a sudden rise of several rivers,” he said.

He promised earlier on Twitter to “guarantee assistance to the victims of this tragedy, which has Colombians in mourning.”

“Our prayers are with the victims and those affected,” he added.

{{RESCUE EFFORTS}}

One thousand emergency personnel, including soldiers and local police, were helping the rescue effort. Mocoa was left without power or running water, and there were reports of people looting stores in search of bottled water.

“There are lots of people in the streets, lots of people displaced and many houses have collapsed,” retired Mocoa resident Hernando Rodriguez, 69, said by telephone.
“People do not know what to do… there were no preparations” for such a disaster, he said.

“We are just starting to realize what has hit us.”

Several deadly landslides have struck Colombia in recent months.

A landslide in November killed nine people in the rural southwestern town of El Tambo, officials said at the time.

A landslide the month before killed 10 people in the north of the country.

Climate change can play a big role in the scale of natural disasters, such as this one, a senior UN official said.

“Climate change is generating dynamics and we see the tremendous results in terms of intensity, frequency and magnitude of these natural effects, as we have just seen in Mocoa,” said Martin Santiago, UN chief for Colombia.

Source:AFP

April 2, 2017