Swaziland: Search continues for victims of kombi swept by flooded river

Army roped in to help police as search for more bodies intensifies following an accident which saw a fully-loaded kombi swept away by a flooded river at Mgazini on Monday

An intensive search for more dead bodies at Mgazini yesterday saw the retrieval of the Quantum kombi driver about 20 kilometres from where the incident happened on Monday evening.

The driver of the kombi, which operated as Khathazile Transport, Mpendulo Dlamini, was found at Mancubeni while the kombi is believed to have been swept by a heavy tide while attempting to cross a bridge at Mawelawela River.

This increases the number of confirmed victims to 11.

It transpired that the body of the driver was swept by the flooded river for kilometres before it was deposited into the Ngwempisi River. As early as 7am members of Royal Swaziland Police were already split in groups in search of bodies at least from four different spots.

The driver’s body was found yesterday morning and the officers and scuba divers proceeded with the search until 3pm when it was called off, at least for the day.

According to the Regional Commissioner Richard Mngomezulu, officers woke up to continue with the operation but had to break at 3pm as it had been a long day.

He explained that the reason for taking the break was to allow officers to rest as the nature of the job they were doing needed them to have enough energy hence the operation would resume this morning.

He confirmed that there were now 11 bodies found from the accident. Amongst the accident victims was also a six-year-old boy believed to have been with his mother at the time.

Residents from Mgazini and surrounding areas also continued to render their help in searching for more victims from the accident.

The accident, which has left many people around the area speechless, happened on Monday evening when the kombi said to be the last mode of transport from Mgazini to Lushikishini was swept by a flooded river, killing all on onboard.

Army roped in to assist police in operation

Members of the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) were yesterday roped in to assist the police in the search for more bodies at Mgazini.

The approximately 50 soldiers joined the police, who were reported to be around 110 to render help while they looked for more people who could have been trapped along the river.

The soldiers together with the Royal Swaziland Police, Scuba divers from OSSU, Fire and Emergency personnel as well as paramedics from the Emergency Services were split into different groups as the operation entered its second day. Only one person, the kombi driver was found by the operational squad.

Eleven bodies identified by families

At least all 11 bodies retrieved from the river have so far been identified by their families. With the assistance of police officers, the families were allowed to see their relatives at the mortuary, where the bodies are kept.

Yesterday, about 10 families visited Mankayane Police Station, where they were taken to the mortuary to view the bodies. The residents confirmed that they were had seen their relatives. The body of the kombi conductor was identified by his aunt on Tuesday at Mawelawela River before it was even taken to the mortuary.

On the other hand, two families reported to Mankayane police that they were still missing some of their relatives. A former teacher from Nokuthula Primary School was said to have phoned home that she was coming but never did. Her daughter and son-in-law have been hoping to find her but this had not happened by the time the operation was called off.

Another male adult also reported his girlfriend and child missing as he could not reach them on their mobile phone.

Cops believe more buried in debris

Police believe there could be more people buried in debris and even under the river sand.

This follows information to the effect that the kombi could have been overloaded, carrying about 20 people. Only 11 bodies have so far been found and identified.

According to Regional Commissioner Richard Mngomezulu the search would continue until they were satisfied that all the people who could have been aboard the vehicle were found.

“There is a possibility that more people are missing or buried underneath the river sand hence we will continue with the operation until we are assured all have been retrieved,” he said.

He said this was very important especially for the families who needed to accord their loved ones a dignified send off.

“As Swazis, we all know that when a person is no more, he or she is given a decent burial hence it is important for us to ensure such eventually happens for all the families,” Mngomezulu said.

The first day of the operation saw 10 bodies being retrieved under rocks and thorny bushes where they were plunged by the heavy water.

Residents request for sniffer dogs

While residents concur with the police that more bodies could be buried underneath, they believe the incorporation of sniffer dogs from the Correctional Services could be of great help.

Interviewed, some of the residents, who were found at Mawelawela River attempting to retrieve the remains of the Toyota Quantum mentioned that they feared more people could be left buried.

This was mainly because there was piled up rubble from the heavy storm and flood which hit the area on Monday afternoon. identify

Mduduzi Dlamini, who claimed to have lost a neighbour during the incident, said if possible, the dogs from the department should be roped in as they could possibly identify some of the bodies that the current squad had not been able to find.

He explained that even though the dogs were said to operate under certain instructions and capabilities, it was only worth a try as clothes could also be used.

Kombi wreckage found buried in sand

The remains of the wrecked Toyota Quantum were yesterday found buried deep in the river sand by residents. When this publication arrived at the scene, relatives of the kombi owner together with other members of the community were found dismantling the remains in an effort to retrieve it from the river.

However, there was hardly any part in shape as the engine was covered in sand while the car diff was spotted about 300 metres from where the squashed kombi was. Residents expressed dismay over the fact that the Fire and Emergency personnel did not assist them in retrieving the kombi possibly because they saw no use of the remains.

“We were told they were coming but they did not. The only people who came here were the police and soldiers who only checked if there were no bodies trapped and they also left,” said one of the residents.

The kombi is believed to have been swept by a flooded river while attempting to cross a bridge at Mawelawela on Monday.

winds

On the other hand, some residents have come up to state that the kombi could have been swept by the strong winds from the storm that hit the area on Monday.

Shortly before the accident, it was reported that a majority of homesteads had their roof tops blown off with a number of trees uprooted.

The winds were strong that even the biggest trees in the area had branches broken hence the kombi could have come across the storm while waiting for the water levels at the second bridge to decline, explained some of the residents.

Community members join search .

Residents from both Mgazini and Lushikishini joined the Royal Swaziland Police in search for the missing passengers who died when a Toyota Quantum plunged into Mawelawela River.

However, the residents believe government can do better to ensure that such incidents are attended to swiftly. Community Policeman Almon Mndzebele, speaking on behalf of the residents, stated that police officers from Mankayane were faced with a serious shortage of vehicles.

He said the only cars available were not in a proper state, thus not fit to effectively do some of the duties. He implored government to consider providing more cars so that whenever they reported such incidents, the officers were able to respond swiftly.

Mndzebele also complained that whenever they called the 999 line, they were either not attended to or given a certain attitude which made their operations very difficult.

In reference to the incident, Mndzebele said he spent about E300 airtime while trying to contact some of his colleagues so that they could attend to the matter.

Friday 19 December 2014

http://www.observer.org.sz/news/68746-kombi-driver%E2%80%99s-body-found-20km-from-bridge.html

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8 more bodies found after Egypt Red Sea boat mishap

Egyptian authorities on Thursday extracted the bodies of eight more drowned fishermen from the Red Sea following a deadly accident earlier this week involving a fishing boat and a cargo ship, an Egyptian official has said.

The latest discoveries bring the death toll to 25 fishermen, as the search continues for two more people missing since Sunday's accident, according to Abdel-Rehim Mustafa, a spokesman for Egypt's Red Sea Port Authority.

The eight fishermen's bodies have been transferred to the victims' hometown in the Nile Delta's Matariya city.

Since the accident, rescuers have found 25 bodies and rescued 13 survivors who had been among 40 fishermen aboard the ill-fated vessel at the time of the crash.

The boat sank in the Red Sea's Gulf of Suez after crashing into a Saudi-bound cargo ship.

Egyptian prosecutors have detained the ship's captain and his assistant pending investigation into charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal negligence in connection with the incident, a judicial source said.

Two other crew members have since been released, according to the source.

The ship, which has since been confiscated by the authorities, is Kuwaiti-owned. At the time of the accident, it had been en route to Saudi Arabia's Jeddah seaport from Italy via the Suez Canal, according to a maritime source.

Two people are still missing, while the recovered bodies have been transferred to Al-Tor Hospital morgue. A total of 13 fishermen are injured.

A Jeddah-bound Kuwaiti container ship crashed into a fishing vessel named “Badr Al-Islam” Sunday. The collision first left 13 fishermen killed, 13 others injured and 14 missing at sea. The fishing vessel had 40 fishermen on board.

The source added that the ship had been carrying 265,000 tons of cargo, including highly-flammable materials.

Friday 19 December 2014

http://www.turkishpress.com/news/416151/

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Search for 5 missing Pinoy crew members of Korean fishing ship continues in Bering Sea

Search operations for the missing victims of the December 1 sea tragedy off Russia, which included five Filipinos, continue even though no bodies have been found recently, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday.

“Search and retrieval operations continue among South Korea, the United States and Russia,” DFA spokesperson Charles Jose told GMA News Online in a text message.

The victims were crew members of the South Korean fishing vessel Oryong 501, which sank in Bering Sea off the coast of Russia's far eastern Chukotka region on December 1. Seven survived the incident – three Filipinos, three Indonesians and one Russian.

Twenty-seven fatalities have so far been reported — five Filipinos, 14 Indonesians, six Koreans and two unidentified nationals — while 26 remained missing. Among those missing were five Filipinos, 16 Indonesians and five Koreans.

“[Search continues] even while the survivors and remains of the deceased victims are being transported to Busan,” Jose said.

In an earlier press briefing, Jose said the Russian vessel Odin, which are carrying the survivors as well as the bodies of the fatalities, left for Busan on December 12 and is expected to arrive there on Dec. 22.

Jose said the ship will make short call first at Vladivostok to undergo necessary Russian government documentation.

Thursday 18 December 2014

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/393095/pinoyabroad/news/search-for-5-missing-pinoy-crew-members-of-ill-fated-korean-ship-continues

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When a TWA and United planes collided above New York City, crashed in Brooklyn and Staten Island leaving rubble and human remains in their wake

(Originally published by the Daily News on Saturday, Dec. 17, 1960; written by Joseph Kiernan, Edward Kirkman and Henry Lee)

In the world's worst aviation disaster, two airliners groping through a snowstorm toward International Airport and LaGuardia Field collided over the city at 10:34 A.M. yesterday, killing at least 133 persons — including six in downtown Brooklyn, where one of the planes, a jet half the size of a football field, set a square-block area on fire. It was feared that additional bodies would be found.

Of the 77 passengers and seven crewmen aboard the jet, a United Airlines DC-8, which exploded near Sterling Place and Seventh Ave., Brooklyn, spewing metal and flames through the neighborhood, only an 11-year-old boy survived. He was critically burned.

Ten miles away, 39 passengers and five crewmen perished on the other plane, a Trans World Airlines Lockheed Constellation which partly disintegrated in air and fell in wreckage —right on a runway at little Miller Army Air Field in Staten Island.

In Brooklyn, where the frightening crash of the jet demolished a church, wrecked 11 other buildings and touched off a seven-alarm fire, six persons died on the street, in buildings and in a flaming auto.

As Mayor Wagner proclaimed the neighborhood a disaster area, he expressed official fears that the rescue army of 2,500 police, firemen, physicians and civil defense volunteers would find other bodies in the rubble of the flattened buildings.

The Previous Worst

Wagner called the collision "the worst air disaster in the city's history." Reckoning in the feared ground casualties, it also was the world's worst aerial calamity. The previous record toll was the 129-victim crash of a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster near Tokyo on June 18, 1953.

For United and TWA, it was the second grim rendezvous with aerial holocaust. In what was previously the worst civil airlines accident, two of their plans collided June 30, 1956, over the Grand Canyon, killing 128.

Last night, the Civil Aeronautics Board assigned 31 top investigators — the largest such assemblage of experts ever assembled — to cover the two crash scenes. An appeal was issued to the public to report any apparent plane debris to authorities — but leave it undisturbed.

In one of the girmmest ironies of the two-plane crash, the name of the church demolished in Brooklyn was The Pillar of Fire Church. A nearby bakery, barber shop, funeral home and apartment building were also ruined.

No One Saw Crash Itself

Though tens of thousands of New Yorkers heard or saw the flaming double climax of the collision, no one actually witnessed the crash itself, and federal aviation authorities, for the time being, refused to say more than "all the evidence points to a mid-air collision."

Neither plane had reported any trouble — both simply faded off the radarscopes at the International and LaGuardia control towers — and there was no immediate explanation of what had gone wrong to get them on collision course.

The feds promptly impounded taped transmissions from both ships in the hope of finding some clue to the disaster.

All that the sky detectives actually knew, however, was that the TWA Constellation, inbound from Dayton and Columbus, Ohio was coming toward LaGuardia on instruments for a 10:40 A.M. arrival.

And the United jet out of O'Hare Field in Chicago — first pure jet in aviation history to crash with passengers — was cleared for a holding pattern at 5,000-foot altitude. She was due five minutes later at International, where there was a 600-foot ceiling.

The TWA plane also was apparently cleared for this altitude, but the circles of their patterns should have kept them at least five miles apart.

Supposedly, authorities said, the two planes, laden with businessmen, holiday travelers and at least three infants, were safely separated for their arrivals at the two fields some 10 air miles apart.



Rescue Attempts Futile

What went wrong — whether it was ground or pilot or instrument error — could not be immediately determined.

As the wreckage rained down simultaneously many miles apart in Brooklyn and Staten Island — narrowly missing three schools — rescue attempts were prompt but futile.

The Hospital Department dispatched, every available ambulance, doctor and nurse in both municipal and private hospitals to the two scenes, including disaster units from Bellevue and Kings County Hospitals. Hospital Commissioner Morris A. Jacobs, who lives on Staten Island, personally directed medical emergency efforts there.

The Mayor hastened to Brooklyn, and sent his executive secretary, Frank Doyle, to Staten Island. As sightseers flocked to both sites, Police Commissioner Kennedy appealed to the public to stay away. Bridge and tunnel lanes were preempted for movement of emergency vehicles.

Direct Hit on Church

In Brooklyn, the wreck area looked as though a blockbuster had leveled the buildings. At 119 Sterling Place, the Pillar of Fire Church, a 2 ½-story brick structure, suffered a direct hit, and the explosion that followed dug a 25-foot crater, some 50 feet in diameter, where the edifice had stood.

An intact tail section landed right in the intersection of Sterling Place and Seventh Ave., while a 25-foot wing section knifed down through the roof of a four-story brownstone tenement at 126 Sterling, slicing the structure almost in half down the second floor.

At least 24 parked autos were destroyed, along with a funeral home, barber shop, bakery, garage and several 16-family apartment buildings. Screaming in terror, women ran into the streets with their small children. Some rushed to PS 9, which has 1,000 students, and St. Augustine's Parochial School, with more than 1,000. Both schools are close by. None of the debris hit the school buildings.

Saw a Boy Tumble Out

Among the wreckage, an estimated 300 residents of Brooklyn became homeless as a result of the crash on Sterling Place as their apartment buildings were crushed and burned.

Mrs. Amelia Helmes, who was standing at a corner, saw part of the plane hit the top of a red truck — and then, to her horror, a boy tumbled out of the wreckage.

"I rushed to him," she said. "His name was Stanley, he said. But he was not talking clearly. His mouth was bleeding. His hands were burned and cut. His clothes were on fire.

"Oh, it was awful!

"His face was badly burned, and the skin was peeling off. He had red curly hair and seemed about 10 or 11."

The victim, later identified as 11-year-old Stephen Baltz, the DC-8 survivor, who had been flying from Wilmette, Ill., to be with his mother for Christmas, was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Last night, his condition remained critical.

Temporary Morgue

As police sealed off the stricken block to prevent looting, bodies were removed at the rate of ten an hour, to temporary morgues set up in a garage next to the demolished Pillar of Fire Church and in a bowling alley on Seventh Ave., near Flatbush Ave.

Later, they were transferred to Kings County Hospital morgue, and a seven-man disaster unit from the FBI aided police in the difficult task of identification.

For the living, St. Augustine's School was used as emergency headquarters, and police with loudspeakers directed bewildered residents of the neighborhood to report there. An estimated 300 homeless were given food and emergency medical treatment, and cots were brought in to house them overnight, if necessary.

Days after the crash occured, the disaster area at Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place, Brooklyn, is littered with debris.

At the Staten Island Scene

In Staten Island, the other half of the tragedy was played out less dramatically. A New Dorp housewife, Mrs. John S. Bailey, saw the stricken Lockheed "turning around just like a toy." City Councilman Edward V. Curry described it as "a ball of flame" that "streaked through the air like a comet."

Apparently, other witnesses added, fire in the air exploded the two right engines and blew off the tail section.

"I saw a couple of people falling out of the plane," reported Clifford Beuth, an oil deliveryman.

It was blazing all the way down, he said.

2 Off-Duty Police Help

Two brothers, off-duty Patrolmen Peter and Gerard Paul, who live on Staten Island and were Christmas shopping nearby, were among the very first on the scene. With a small ladder, they scaled a 10-foot fence and, with an Army lieutenant, ran to one piece of wreckage on the Miller Field runway.

"I saw someone move," Peter Paul said later. "We jumped in and started pulling the people out who were moving.

"By this time, other people had arrived, and I borrowed a knife to cut the safety belts. We took out two men and a woman who were still alive. They were moaning and groaning.

Flames engulfed buildings wrecked by plane's crash on Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place, Brooklyn. At least six people on the ground were killed by the crash.



Flames engulfed buildings wrecked by plane's crash on Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place, Brooklyn. At least six people on the ground were killed by the crash.

"There was a lot of smoke and the seats were on fire. One man was lying on his back and trying to rise. The other bodies were badly burned. In all, we took out about six people. We carried them to helicopters."

The victims were taken to the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in St. George, but all were dead on arrival, or died shortly afterward.

"To me, it was nothing but a mass of rubble and human bodies," said Dr. Ernest Siegfried of the Public Health Service Hospital, who responded to the first emergency call.

"An Army tow truck pulled a huge curved side of aluminum away, and exposed many bodies, strapped in their seats and crushed and crumpled together.

"I observed that all the clothes were burned right off all the bodies. I've been involved in other disasters, and it appeared to me that this plane was burning before she hit. Of the bodies taken out, most were burned very badly about the head, shoulders and arms."

Only luck averted a Staten Island disaster similar to the Brooklyn fire, as the area is heavily populated, with three schools situated in an eight-block radius of the crash.

But the plane landed right on the field, a sub-post operated by Fort Wadsworth, about three miles away.

100 Soldiers Sent

Assistant Chief Inspector Walter Klotzbach directed 150 cops on the scene, and additional help rushed from the fort, including 100 soldiers. The Coast Guard dispatched several helicopters, and had 21 boats searching the nearby waters for possible survivors.

Thursday 17 December 2014

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/54-years-planes-collide-midair-city-article-1.2047397

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Dozens of people missing feared trapped or dead after five-storey residential building collapses in Nairobi

One person is dead and dozens more are trapped after a five-storey residential building collapsed in downtown Nairobi. Rescue services have been working frantically to save those trapped inside the building, which collapsed just after 2am on Wednesday morning.

As many as 30 families lived in the building, local media report, and many would have been asleep as the walls came crashing down around them.

Nairobi deputy police chief Moses Ombati said the victim died on his way to hospital after being rescued from the debris.

The Kenyan Red Cross tweeted that seven people have so far been pulled out alive from the rubble of the building.



Jonathan Mueke, the deputy governor of Nairobi County, said authorities are focusing on the search and rescue operation and will later investigate why the building collapsed.

Rescuers started pulling survivors out of the rubble before earth movers were brought in to remove the heavy slabs.

A sixth floor was being added to the building, Hesketh Isigi said, adding that his brother had complained about a huge crack on the wall of the ground floor.

Mr Isigi's brother, Lawicky Mukagat, 26, was trapped inside the rubble, he said.

Mr Mukagat called him around 3am and told him the house had collapsed and he needed help. Mr Isigi said he rushed to the site.

'The last time I spoke to him he only asked for water and the phone charge went off. I fear for the worst,' Mr Mukagat said.



Because of high demand for housing in Nairobi, some property developers often bypass building regulations to cut costs and maximize profits, especially when the building is in a low-market area. Architectural Society of Kenya had previously estimated that 50 per cent of structures in Nairobi are not up to code.

Thursday 18 December 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2877246/Kenya-Building-collapses-search-survivors.html

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ICMP established as international organization in its own right

The Foreign Ministers of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Belgium, and Luxembourg today signed a Framework Agreement that grants a new legal status to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

“This Agreement reflects a new international consensus on the issue of missing persons,” ICMP Director General Kathryne Bomberger said immediately after the signing ceremony. “For decades the problem of missing persons has been treated as a humanitarian issue, or as a disaster-relief issue, or as a war-emergency issue – but it is now recognized as a systemic global challenge that demands a coherent and effective global response.”

Ms. Bomberger said the Agreement gives ICMP the tools it needs in order to remain at the forefront of this global response. “ICMP has been operating around the world for more than a decade: this Treaty means we can spearhead new initiatives in a way that is consistent with and supportive of the new international consensus on the issue of missing persons.”

ICMP was established in 1996 to ensure the cooperation of governments in the effort to account for the estimated 40,000 people who went missing during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. In 2003, reflecting the organization’s extraordinary success in implementing its task in the Western Balkans and recognizing the global nature of the missing persons problem, supporting governments extended ICMP’s mandate and sphere of activity to address missing persons issues beyond former Yugoslavia, including cases arising from disasters.

ICMP Chairperson Thomas Miller said the Agreement dovetails with ICMP’s unique and evolving expertise. “This is a logical step for ICMP, which in the last decade has written the playbook for responding to instances of disappearances,” he said. “It gives the organization a firm legal and administrative footing so that it will be able to act quickly and effectively wherever it is needed.”

ICMP is now active in countries throughout the world, from Canada to the Philippines and from Iraq to Mexico. It works with governments, civil society organizations, justice institutions, international organizations and others to address the issue of people who have gone missing as a result of armed conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime and other causes. It is the only international organization that is exclusively dedicated to this issue.

Until now, ICMP’s international legal status has derived principally from the agreements it has reached with governments in the Western Balkans and international organizations such as INTERPOL and IOM. The Agreement, which was signed today by Bert Koenders, Philip Hammond, Margot Wallström, Didier Reynders and Jean Asselborn, of the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg respectively, constitutes ICMP as a treaty-based international organization with its own system of governance and international capacities. It provides for a new organizational structure, including a Board of Commissioners as its principal organ, a Conference of State Parties as its plenary organ, and an executive to be headed by a Director General.

The Framework Agreement stipulates that ICMP will establish its Headquarters in The Hague, where it will be close to other international organizations in the justice and rule of law field. This move, which is subject to further administrative and legal arrangements, is expected to take place during 2015.

The Framework Agreement will be open for signature by all states after 16 December 2014.

Thursday 18 December 2014

http://www.ic-mp.org/news/icmp-established-as-international-organization-in-its-own-right/

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Austria: Laboratory sees slim chance of identifying Mexican victims

Austrian forensics experts will need at least two months to see if they can identify the victims of an apparent massacre in Mexico, they said Tuesday.

Mexico has said mounting evidence and initial DNA tests showed that the bodies of 43 trainee teachers abducted by corrupt police officers 10 weeks ago were incinerated at a dump by drug gang members.

One student’s remains were identified from samples sent to Innsbruck’s Medical University.

The remaining ones, however, are in such a bad state that even specialist analysis focusing on mitochondrial DNA might take months, if it yields any good data at all.

Walther Parson, a molecular biologist in Innsbruck who is working on the case, said, “The chances for useful results, even with mitochondrial DNA, are very slim, but we will try everything to create more potential DNA profiles.”


At least one of 43 Mexican students who went missing in Guerrero state has been identified from charred remains.

A family member of one of the students, Alexander Mora, confirmed that the remains identified were his.

The relative said the family had received the information from a team of forensic experts.

The students were allegedly seized by local police in the town of Iguala in September and given to a criminal gang.

Prosecutors say the gang killed them and burned their bodies at a rubbish dump near the town of Cocula before scattered their ashes in a river.

The students' disappearance has triggered widespread protests across Mexico against corruption and violence.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/world/europe/austria-laboratory-sees-slim-chance-of-identifying-mexican-victims.html?_r=0 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-30365680

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Death toll from Banjarnegara landslide stands at 70

A joint search and rescue team found six more bodies of Banjarnegara landslide victims as of noon Wednesday, bringing the death toll of the natural disaster up to 70 people.

As many as 38 people are still listed as missing five days after a landslide hit dozens of homes in Grumbul Jemblung, Sampang village, Karangkobar district, Banjarnegara regency, Central Java, on Dec. 12.

“From the latest development of the rescue operations as of noon today, 70 bodies have been recovered. Based on orders from the President and Central Java governor, we will continue the evacuation process until all victims are recovered,” Banjarnegara deputy regent Hadi Supeno told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said the Banjarnegara Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) was ready 24 hours a day for search and rescue operations during the emergency response period after the landslide in the regency. The agency had also begun to focus on handling refugees, he added.

“Alhamdulillah [thanks God], the evacuation process has so far run smoothly, although heavy rain forced us to stop search operations several times because of worries over another landslide in the aftermath,” said Hadi.

On Tuesday, the search and rescue team ceased evacuation operations twice because of bad weather.

Hadi said half of the Jemblung refugees, especially those who were living in areas quite safe from the threat of landslides, had returned home.

“We will continue to monitor the conditions of the refugees. Up until now, their needs have been fulfilled well as humanitarian aid from volunteers outside the area continues to flow. I want to thank you all for the support,” said Hadi.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/12/17/death-toll-banjarnegara-landslide-stands-70.html

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Bodies of five missing fishermen found in Bengal

The bodies of five fisherman who went missing after their trawler capsized near the Bay of Bengal in West Bengal’s South 24-Parganas, were recovered while search for two other fishermen continues, an official said Tuesday.

The trawler with 10 fishermen on board capsized Dec 12 near Kendo island in the Sunderbans, after it was caught in a storm. While three of the fishermen were rescued, seven went missing.

“Since last evening (Monday) we have fished out five bodies so far. The bodies have been brought to Diamond Harbour and after the legal formalities, they will be handed over to their families,” West Bengal United Fishermen Association president Joykrishna Haldar told IANS.

Haldar, who has been supervising the search operations, accused the Coast Guard of non-cooperation.

“Though they have been conducting search operations, if the Coast Guard had been cooperative, by today we could have fished out all the bodies,” he said.

“Unless the bodies are found, the families are unable to seek any kind of compensation from the government,” he added.

Earlier in August, a trawler capsized in the Bay of Bengal, killing seven fishermen.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

http://freepressjournal.in/bodies-of-five-missing-fishermen-found-in-bengal/

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Rescue operations in Red Sea retrieve 4 more bodies of missing fishermen

Rescue teams managed to retrieve early Tuesday morning four more bodies of fishermen who drowned after the collision of an Egyptian fishing boat with a Kuwaiti container ship at dawn on Sunday.

Rescue teams from the Suez canal authority, Gulf of Suez Petroleum Co "GUPCO" coordinating with Egyptian navy forces, retrieved the dead bodies from inside the sunken fishing boat.

The additional bodies retrieved put the total count of recovered bodies at 17 with 11 still missing from the "Badr El-Islam" fishing boat which collided with the Jeddah-bound Kuwaiti container ship travelling from Italy.

Thirteen others were rescued near Raes Gharib in the Gulf of Suez, there were at least 40 fishermen on the fishing boat.

Abdel Rahim Mustafa, The Red Sea Port Authority official spokesperson told Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website that rescue operations will continue until the retrieval of the fishermen's dead bodies.

On Monday dozens of the victims' families protested at South Sinai governorate headquarters demanding that the government continue rescue efforts to retrieve the bodies of the lost fishermen.

The South Sinai general attorney has ordered the detention of the Kuwaiti tanker captain and his assistant for four days, pending investigations.

The prosecution accused both the captain and his assistant of murder, attempted murder and not participating in saving the fishing boat and its crew.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/118068/Egypt/Politics-/Rescue-operations-in-Red-Sea-retrieve--more-bodies.aspx

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300 ‘Sendong’ victims remain unidentified

Over 300 victims of Tropical Storm Sendong (Washi) buried in unmarked graves here and in nearby Iligan City have remained unidentified despite DNA tests conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) medico-legal teams three years ago.

Dr. Tammy Uy, NBI-Northern Mindanao medico-legal chief, said money to buy the chemicals to complete the identification process had run out in 2012, forcing the agency to stop matching the extracted DNA with those of family members.

“We extracted the DNA from the bodily fluids of the cadavers, taken swabs from the family members but we cannot complete the matching with their family members. There is no more money for it,” Uy said.

No single death certificate for unidentified bodies

Tropical Storm Sendong inundated riverside communities in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in the early morning of December 17, 2011, killing some 1,100 residents and affecting around 660,000 families.

Three years after Sendong, the NBI has yet to issue a single death certificate for the unidentified bodies.

Uy said NBI Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) teams took DNA samples from 200 unidentified bodies in Cagayan de Oro and 124 more bodies in Iligan.

He said the bodies were buried in an unmarked vault in Bolonsori Public cemetery in Cagayan de Oro and in a cemetery in Iligan.

He said over 800 family members came to the NBI office in Cagayan de Oro to have their DNA taken by the NBI DVI teams.

Three years after, Uy said the money to complete the DNA tests ran out in 2012.

The official said the NBI and the courts would only declare a person dead through dental identification, fingerprints and DNA tests.

He said many families in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan are left in limbo not knowing whether their missing relatives are among the unidentified bodies.

“I really pity the families. There are no closures for many of them,” Uy said.

Uy said around P25 million is needed to buy the chemicals to complete the matching process to identify the cadavers.

He said the NBI DVI office in Manila tried to get the money from the P200 million DNA test funds for Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) victims last year but did not continue because the Commission on Audit will not allow diversion of funds.

“If only someone or maybe the local government fork up the money and buy the chemicals. We will immediately complete the process,” he said.



Losing loved ones

In a small house at Phase 1, Sendong Relocation Center in Barangay Indahag, this city, Alma Beromoy, 36, and her neighbor, Jennilyn Anguis, 27, sat and talked about their missing children a day before the third anniversary of Sendong.

Beromoy lost all of her five children aged one to seven years, while Anguis also lost all of her three children -- the youngest was just a 13-day baby -- on that tragic night.

Both mothers went to the NBI office in Cagayan de Oro to have their DNA taken in the hope that the tests can identify their children among the bodies.

“It’s really difficult every time December 16 and 17 comes around. We simply cannot forget what happened to our children,” Anguis said.

Anguis said she went to the NBI office to have her DNA taken and hoped, but three years later, no word about her lost children came.

“No word came, not even a whimper. We heard there was no more money,” she said.

“We could have moved on if we only knew what happened to our children. The tests could have done it,” Beromoy added.

Beromoy said she spent a tidy sum of money to submit documents and papers that the NBA required. Earning P200 a day selling rags, Beromoy said a lawyer even asked P900 from her for notary fees.

Anguis said she too incurred expenses when she went to the NBI and was asked some documents to prove her claim.

“We decided not to go to the NBI anymore because of these expenses,” she said.

Tuesday 16 December 2014

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2014/12/17/300-sendong-victims-remain-unidentified-382427

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Two aircraft tragedies foster close cooperation, solidarity

Two tragedies involving Malaysia Airlines' aircraft resulted in unprecedented global solidarity in modern aviation history as big and small countries pooled their resources to help Malaysia find the missing flight MH370 and deal with the aftermath of the flight MH17 crash.

The mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 on March 8 had made the search for it the largest mission in aviation history involving 26 countries, including major powers such as China, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The shooting down of flight MH17 in Ukraine on July 17 witnessed Malaysia's cooperation with Russia, the Netherlands, Australia and Ukraine as well as attracted the attention of the United Nations.

It was encouraging to note that when various parties believed attempts to negotiate with rebels to claim the bodies, the flight MH17 black box and secure safe passage for investigating teams to the crash site was impossible, Malaysia managed to negotiate with separatist leader Alexander Borodai in acquiring everything with no conditions set and at no cost.

In fact, the negotiation between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and the separatist leader was lauded by American Congressman Eni F H Faleomavaega who commended Najib's leadership in negotiating on the matter as reported in the media on Aug 1.

"Prime Minister Najib's personal involvement in the negotiation has set diplomatic standards worldwide. I appreciate that Prime Minister Najib did not delegate the negotiations to his assistants," said Faleomavaega.

The New York Times, in a report dated July 21, titled "Malaysia Premier Brokers Deal to Recover Black Boxes", hailed Malaysia's success while negotiations by the more powerful countries failed.

The newspaper stated: "Malaysia's strategy was more effective if compared to the pressure exerted by the major powers of the world against the rebel groups and the negotiation was an extraordinary process of diplomacy via telephone behind closed doors between Najib and Alexander."

The prime minister had tabled a motion on the unfortunate MH17 tragedy at a special parliament sitting on July 23, strongly condemning the barbaric, inhumane and savage act of those believed to have shot down the aircraft.

Last September, the Dutch Safety Board (DBS) announced the preliminary report of the MH17 tragedy which revealed the aircraft blew up in the air due to structural damage after some "object at high speed" penetrated and there was no evidence of technical or human error which may have caused the crash.

Malaysia is currently a member of an international criminal investigation team probing the MH17 tragedy, and all fragments of the aircraft have been gathered for an investigation that would be led by the Netherlands.

As for flight MH370, which is now 10 months into its disappearance, the search mission is now centred in the Indian Ocean floor at a depth of between 3,000 to over 7,000 metres.

Flight MH370, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radar screens about an hour after departing from the KL International Airport.

The cooperation and assistance extended by the people during these two tragedies, a silver lining as expressed by Najib, triggered greater solidarity among the people, who came together as one to mourn with those who lost their loved ones.

Tuesday 16 December 2014

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1268733

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India: Surat now carries out DNA profiling of unidentified bodies

DNA profiling or DNA fingerprinting is being done of all the unidentified bodies that are found in Surat for past one month. Till now, DNA profiling was done only in specific cases to establish the identity of a deceased in the city. This change makes Surat the only city in Gujarat to do DNA profiling of all the unidentified bodies for establishing the proper identity of a deceased person.

Surat police commissioner Rakesh Asthana said, "DNA profiling will help towards proper identification of unidentified bodies."

DNA profiling had helped in establishing the identity of a woman victim of July 26, 2008 serial bomb blast in Ahmedabad and several others in all over the state, sources said.

"Its efficiency is unquestionable. When we fail to get any identity marks on a body, it is DNA profiling which helps us to establish the identity of a victim. I had a case where the body of a woman was found from the river. We got the report published in the newspaper and when her family came down from Ahmedabad we established her identity through DNA profiling," said JT Sonara, police inspector, Katargam.

Over 500 unidentified bodies are found in the city every year.

"It is very difficult for police to establish the identity of each victim in serious cases of accidents where there are multiple deaths. In such cases, DNA profiling comes in handy in proper identification of the disfigured bodies," a police officer said.

Dr Oliver Solanky, founding president, Ekta Trust, a city based NGO, which works for proper disposal of unclaimed bodies, said, "It is a big step taken by the city police. We appreciate the police commissioner on his decision to get DNA profiling done on all the unclaimed bodies found in the city."

"We are already overburdened. However, we will do our best," said an officer of Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Surat.

Tuesday 16 December 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/surat/Surat-now-carries-out-DNA-profiling-of-unidentified-bodies/articleshow/45531427.cms

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DR Congo boat disaster: 129 bodies recovered

At least 129 people drowned when a passenger ship capsized on Lake Tanganyika in the southeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a new official death toll Sunday.

"Rescue workers recovered a total of 129 bodies," Laurent Kahozi Sumba, minister for transport of DRC's Katanga province, told AFP, adding there were a number of women and children among the victims in Thursday's disaster.

The new toll represented a dramatic increase on the provisional figure given Saturday by the government of DRC's Katanga province, which had spoken of at least 26 dead.

So far, the number of survivors stood at 232, mostly men, Kahozi Sumba said, adding that rescue workers had found more people in the water after clinging to petrol cans and other floating objects for more than 48 hours and were now in a very weakened condition.

"The search for other survivors and bodies is continuing," he added.

The accident took place Thursday night in the north of Katanga province, between the towns of Moba and Kalemie.

Officials said strong winds and overloading caused the M/V Mutambala, which was bound for Uvira further north in South Kivu province, to capsize.

The boat was carrying cargo as well as passengers.

The Great Lakes of Central Africa, the best-known of which are Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, can be as treacherous in bad weather as many seas.

Shipwrecks involving overloaded vessels are frequent and the numbers of fatalities often very high due to a shortage of life jackets and the fact that many people in the region cannot swim.

In March, at least 210 Congolese refugees returning home from Uganda drowned when an overcrowded boat sank on Lake Albert, on the border between the two countries.

That shipwreck, which came days after Kinshasa launched a campaign to enforce the wearing of life jackets on the nation's waterways, was the deadliest in Congolese history, the government said.

Lake Tanganyika, which is one of the world's biggest freshwater lakes as well as being the longest, also borders Tanzania, as well as Burundi and Zambia.

The first Europeans to discover the lake were Richard Burton and John Speke, who stumbled across the inland sea on an 1857 expedition to explore inland from the east African coast.

Tuesday 16 December 2014

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/662878-129-drown-in-dr-congo-boat-disaster.html

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Indonesian landslide death toll rises to 56, another 52 people still missing

Indonesian rescuers dug through mud with shovels and their bare hands for a third day on Monday in the hunt for dozens of people still missing after a landslide engulfed a village, as the death toll rose to 56.

Fifty-two people are still unaccounted for after heavy rain triggered the landslide that swallowed houses in Jemblung village on Java island late Friday. Officials say the chances of finding anyone alive are now slim.

More than 1,000 rescuers, including police and soldiers, have been digging through huge mounds of red mud and debris that cascaded onto the village, which lies in a valley surrounded by hills, with a sound like thunder.

"We hope and pray that we can rescue some of the missing but the chances are slim," local search and rescue chief Agus Haryono said.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said late Monday 17 bodies, including those of four children, were retrieved Monday, taking the death toll to 56.

Bulldozers and excavators were still trying to clear a huge pile of fallen trees and earth blocking the main road to the site, in the hope of speeding up the rescue effort, he added.

Several people were seriously injured in the disaster and hundreds of others evacuated from the area.

Rescue efforts have been hampered by persistent heavy downpours.

President Joko Widodo visited the scene at the weekend and urged authorities to speed up rescue efforts.

Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo has said the search-and-rescue effort at the site of the landslide in Banjarnegara, Central Java, will continue until all victims have been found.

“We expect that by Dec.21, all the victims will have been found. Up to now the bodies of 40 victims have been recovered,” he told The Jakarta Post in Banjarnegara on Monday.

Heavy rains that fell in Central Java over the past several days have caused landslides in several highland areas such as the one that occurred in Jemblung hamlet in Banjarnegara regency, Central Java, on Friday evening.

As many as 108 villagers were buried when the side of a 300-meter-high hill collapsed and covered their houses.

According to official data, Jemblung hamlet comprised 103 houses with a total population amounting to 320 people. Fifty-three of the houses, along with their occupants, were buried during Friday’s landslide disaster, while many of the other houses were severely damaged.

Hundreds of survivors have been evacuated to temporary shelters in village halls, schools, musholla (houses of prayer) and undamaged houses.

Landslides triggered by heavy rains and floods are common in tropical Indonesia during the rainy season. The national disaster agency estimates around half the country's population of 250 million lives in areas prone to slippages.

The vast Indonesian archipelago is prone to natural disasters and is frequently hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Tuesday 16 December 2014

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/indonesian-landslide-death-toll-rises-56-another-52-people-still-mis

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/12/15/governor-expects-all-landslide-victims-be-found.html

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Death toll continues to rise in Indonesian landslide

Rescue workers in Indonesia on Sunday continued their search for more than 70 people left missing after a mudslide two days previously buried 105 houses in the village of Jemblung in central Java.

"The rescue team has found 32 bodies ... and is still searching for 76 people buried in the landslide," National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a text message.

Sutopo said 25 of the victims had been identified, adding that more than 2,000 people were taking part in the search. Some 600 people had been forced from their homes and were being accommodated in temporary shelters at several locations, he said.

The ground around the disaster site is reportedly still unstable, forcing rescuers to be careful while digging for fear of causing more mudslides. Sutopo said that rescue teams had also been hampered by the fact that many roads and bridges were destroyed.

President Joko Widodo (seen above in white) visited the area on Sunday, and promised to relocate the people made homeless by the disaster. He also warned Indonesians to be "vigilant," saying that there were many other areas in the country where landslides were a likely event.

Friday's mudslide in the Barnjarnegara district, some 460 kilometers (285 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta, was triggered by three days of torrential rains.

About 2,000 rescuers, including soldiers, police and volunteers, were digging through the mud and the wreckage of crumpled homes, getting some relief from clear weather following days of heavy rain. Excavators, meanwhile, shoved aside earth and the remains of decimated wooden homes.

Residents of Jemblung village in Central Java province’s Banjarnegara district said they heard a roaring sound followed by the raining down of red soil that buried more than 100 houses late Friday.

“The landslide looked like it was spinning down,” said one resident, Subroto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. “I managed to rescue a pregnant woman, but could not save the other man.” He said one side of the hill collapsed, then another. “In five minutes, there were three (major landslides) and they swept away everything,” Subroto said.

By late afternoon Sunday, 32 bodies had been pulled from the debris, while hopes faded that the 76 people still missing would be found alive, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency.

Many roads and bridges were destroyed, hampering rescue efforts, Nugroho said.

Many people in Jemblung village said they were aware that the earth on the 150-meter (yard) hill that flanked their remote farming village may not hold. After hearing a deep rumbling sound just after dusk Friday, some fled to safer ground.

But others were either at home or at the local mosque when the mud, rocks and trees tumbled onto their village.

Wawan Wahyuni, a 20-year-old farmer, said he watched helplessly as his grandfather and dozens of his neighbours disappeared beneath mud more than 6 metres (20 feet) deep in some spots.

“I saw them buried alive,” Wahyuni said. “They were yelling ‘Allah Akbar! (God is great!) before being slowly buried.” Wahyuni himself was buried up to his chest until survivors rescued him seven hours later.

Banjarnegara is located on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java, about 460 kilometres (285 miles) east of Jakarta.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile, flood-prone plains close to rivers.

Landslides caused by heavy rains and floods are common in Indonesia during the rainy season, which runs from November to March. The national disaster agency estimates that about half of the countriy's 250 million population lives in areas that are prone to landslides.

Sunday 14 December 2014

http://www.dw.de/death-toll-continues-to-rise-in-indonesian-landslide/a-18128112

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The forensics expert who offered to help ID tsunami victims - a decision which almost cost him his life

He was at home with his family on Boxing Day 2004 when he saw TV coverage of the disaster and flew out five weeks later when bosses at the National Police Improvement Agency asked for volunteers.

His role was body recovery and identification and he set up a mortuary, exhumed bodies and helped to identify westerners from their DNA or fingerprints.

In sweltering heat, he worked 16 hour days and what was supposed to be a two-week trip lasted two months during which he worked on identifying as many as 300 bodies.

With colleagues, he worked his way through containers full of bodies, becoming obsessed with the task of bringing closure to grieving relatives desperate for news about missing loved-ones.

The work involved travelling around the devastated country, recovering bodies which may have been buried to preserve them, then bringing them back to the capital and sending them on to the right embassy when their identity was discovered.

The smell of death, which he experienced passing through stricken villages, has remained with him to this day. Without a proper debrief on his return, his life spiralled out of control to the point where he attempted suicide.

He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and his employers - now replaced by the College of Policing - settled out of court, paying him more than £400,000 after he was deemed unfit to work.

The married 46-year-old father-of-two from Consett, County Durham, was not prepared for the mayhem he faced when he flew out from Heathrow.

"I didn't think it was going to be as bad as it was when I turned up there, with all the devastation, the heat and the smell," he said.

"It was very hot at that time of year, we were in white Jeeps going from one area to another and you could smell the decaying bodies as we went through the villages and I think that smell sticks with you for ever.

"We would come across villages and people were living in blue UN tents and they would come and greet you, almost as if we were there to save them but my role was not to do that.

"They thought we were there to help them but we were recording the deceased, so it was quite heart-wrenching to drive away from them."

Mr Collins, who had 12 years experience investigating crime scenes with Durham Police before becoming a trainer, said the role was to identify foreigners, not locals, as the Sri Lankan government decided unidentified nationals should be buried in mass graves.

"There was not the infrastructure to identify Sri Lankans from their DNA or fingerprints. It sounds quite coarse, it was a production line of bodies we were working in," he said.

Clothing would be recorded, teeth photographed and DNA would be retrieved and sent away for analysis which could be compared to a missing person's samples, perhaps left on a toothbrush, a comb or linked to a surviving relative.

There was great satisfaction in successfully identifying a tsunami victim so their loved-ones could hold a proper funeral, he said.

"When you are working in that kind of role, it becomes obsessive if you have three containers full of bodies and there are people grieving.

"You will do everything within your means professionally to identify those people."

That was the driver for the 16-hour shifts and for only taking three days off in six weeks.

But the workload was to take its toll, and his return to the UK and life as a trainer went badly.

Mr Collins developed PTSD without realising, disengaged from his family and became depressed, suffering from guilt and flashbacks.

He has since sought help from a therapist and has begun rebuilding his life.

Previously, he used to wish he had never got involved with the disaster relief effort, but that has now changed.

"I am obviously very proud of what I did, it did cost me a lot," he said. "There are people worse off than me, they have lost loved ones and I appreciate that.

"If someone said 'would you go and do it again', I used to say no.

"I would probably say yes, but I wouldn't be as naive about what it was like to work on a disaster and how you must take care of yourself, or people must take care of you when you come back, so you don't end up with a mental illness."

Sunday 14 December 2014

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/the-forensics-expert-who-offered-to-help-id-tsunami-victims-a-decision-which-almost-cost-him-his-life-30834314.html

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DR Congo: At least 129 feared dead after 'overloaded' boat capsizes

Officials revealed the new death toll today which marks a dramatic rise on their previous announcement when they said 26 people died in the disaster.

Women and children were among those left dead during the incident which happened in Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rescue workers have been scouring the area for survivors and bodies since the disaster on Thursday.

Some 232 people, mainly men, survived the boat capsizing with a number of people found 48 hours afterwards clinging onto floating objects in weakened conditions.

Transport minister Laurent Kahozi Sumba said: "The search for other survivors and bodies is continuing."

Deadly shipwrecks are frequent on the lakes and rivers of in the Congo.

Boats are often overloaded, life jackets frequently missing and many people cannot swim.

Officials said strong winds and overloading caused the M/V Mutambala, which was bound for Uvira further north in South Kivu province, to capsize.

The boat was carrying cargo as well as passengers.

The Great Lakes of Central Africa, the best-known of which are Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, can be as treacherous in bad weather as many seas.

Shipwrecks involving overloaded vessels are frequent and the numbers of fatalities often very high due to a shortage of life jackets and the fact that many people in the region cannot swim.

In March, at least 210 Congolese refugees returning home from Uganda drowned when an overcrowded boat sank on Lake Albert, on the border between the two countries.

That shipwreck, which came days after Kinshasa launched a campaign to enforce the wearing of life jackets on the nation's waterways, was the deadliest in Congolese history, the government said.

Lake Tanganyika, which is one of the world's biggest freshwater lakes as well as being the longest, also borders Tanzania, as well as Burundi and Zambia.

The first Europeans to discover the lake were Richard Burton and John Speke, who stumbled across the inland sea on an 1857 expedition to explore inland from the east African coast.

By the time they arrived at the body of water Speke's sight was failing and Burton could barely walk.

Speke later continued his travels alone and discovered Lake Victoria.

The disaster comes as aid agencies have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in Congo which they are struggling to contain.

They said there are 600,000 displaced people in Katanga, a dramatic rise from 55,000 three years ago.

Sunday 14 December 2014

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/546890/Boat-capsize-129-dead-Lake-Tanganyika-Congo

http://news.yahoo.com/least-129-dead-dr-congo-boat-capsizes-140111156.html

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Suez Gulf crash, kills 13 Egyptian fishermen with 13 missing

An early morning crash between two vessels in the Gulf of Suez on Sunday has left at least 13 Egyptian fishermen dead and a further 13 missing, officials said.

The vessel that struck the fishing boat carrying 40 men failed to stop following the accident, said Bakri Abul Hassan, the head of Egypt's main fishermen's trade union.

The accident occurred in the Gulf of Suez between Ras Ghareb on the Egyptian mainland and El-Tor on the Sinai Peninsula, he told AFP.

The bodies of 13 fishermen were retrieved from the Gulf, which links the Red Sea to the Suez Canal and Mediterranean.

Another 14 fishermen were pulled from the water. A search and rescue operation for the missing, comprising of ten local boats, was underway, a port official told official daily al-Ahram.

"We received an SOS signal early Sunday from fishermen working in the Red Sea saying that a fishing boat has sunk with 40 fishermen on board," Abu Hassan told Anadolu Agency.

"The boat sank after a cargo ship coming from the Suez Canal crashed into it," Abu Hassan said.

A Panamanian-flagged vessel suspected of involvement in the collision was later stopped near the port of Safaga, south of the Gulf, said Abdel Rahim Mustafa, spokesman for Public Authority of Red Sea Ports.

A man who survived the accident, al-Sayyed Mohamed Arafat, told reporters that he had jumped from the fishing boat before the collision with the other vessel.

He said he had drifted in the water for four hours clinging to a wooden crate before being rescued.

Egypt is no stranger to maritime disaster and in February 2006, around 1,000 people – most of them Egyptians, were killed when a ferry caught fire and sank in the Red Sea.

Sunday 14 December 2014

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/suez-gulf-crash-kills-13-egyptian-fishermen-13-missing-837693569

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Dozens of bodies found 'piled up' in Sierra Leone hospital after unreported Ebola outbreak

Dozens of bodies were discovered in a Sierra Leone hospital on Wednesday after an Ebola outbreak went unreported by health officials.

By the time the World Health Organisation (WHO) was called in, 87 people were dead, and the virus had hit eight of the area's 15 chiefdoms.

The WHO response team arrived on Wednesday, and what they found was disturbing. "They uncovered a grim scene," the agency said in a statement.

The local hospital had curtained off a section of the facility where 25 bodies were found. The organisation buried 87 people in 11 days, "including a nurse, an ambulance driver, and a janitor drafted in to removing bodies as they piled up."

The district had only reported 119 Ebola cases through December 9, and only 24 cases were reported last week. Over 350,000 people live in Kono District.

"We are only seeing the ears of the hippo," feared Sierra Leone Director of Disease Prevention and Control Dr Amara Jambai.

Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of reported Ebola cases with 7,897 infections since the outbreak began early this year.

However, Liberia reported 3,177 deaths from the virus, while Sierra Leone reported just 1,768.

Sierra Leone Health Minister Abu Bakarr Fofanah said that only laboratory-confirmed deaths are being recorded by the West African nation.

"It is difficult to put an exact figure on the deaths," he told Reuters. "They are adding suspected cases, so that is causing the discrepancies in the results. We are going by the textbook."

As of December 7, over 6,000 people have died from the Ebola outbreak that began in Guinea this spring. There have been nearly 18,000 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola infection this year.

Saturday 13 December 2014

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/dozens.of.bodies.found.piled.up.in.sierra.leone.hospital.after.unreported.ebola.outbreak/44362.htm

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