Nepal bulldozers quake survivors’ relief camp
Reuters, Kathmandu
Police in riot gear stood guard on Tuesday as Nepali civic officials used bulldozers to tear down a relief camp in the capital for victims of the 2015 earthquake, in a bid to force people to return to their home villages. The quake killed 9,000 people and destroyed nearly one million homes, monuments and other structures, but reconstruction has been slow and the government’s attention has been diverted by a prolonged political crisis.
2 UN experts kidnapped in DR Congo
AFP, Kinshasa
Two foreign experts from the United Nations have been kidnapped in the violence-wracked central Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, UN and Congolese sources said Monday.. “What we can say for now is that two members of our Group of Experts are missing and MONUSCO is looking for them,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said, referring to the UN peacekeeping mission in the troubled central African country.
Pirates hijack freighter off Somalia’s coast
AP, Mogadishu
Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia, Somali officials and piracy experts said Tuesday, the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel on the crucial global trade route since 2012. The Aris 13 on Monday reported being approached by two skiffs, John Steed with the organization Oceans Beyond Piracy said. The ship was carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, he said. Eight Sri Lankan crew members were aboard.
S Sudan rebels kidnap 8 local aid workers
Reuters, Juba
South Sudanese rebels have kidnapped eight locals working for a U.S. charity and are demanding aid deliveries as ransom, a military spokesman said on Monday, as food in the famine-hit nation looks increasingly likely to become a weapon of war.
The aid workers were taken from a village near Mayendit, about 420 miles (680 km) northeast of the capital of Juba, Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang told Reuters.
