Carita, Indonesia | AFP | A volcano-triggered tsunami has left at least 222 people dead and hundreds more injured after slamming without warning into beaches around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, officials said Sunday, voicing fears that the toll would rise further. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the wave, which hit …
Read More »Eleven die after eating ‘toxic’ rice at Indian temple
New Delhi, India | AFP | Eleven people have died after eating rice that had likely been contaminated with a toxic substance at a Hindu temple ceremony, a health official said Saturday. Another 29 people were critically ill and undergoing emergency treatment across various hospitals in Mysore, a city in …
Read More »BUDUDA: At least 41 dead in Uganda landslide
Bududa, Uganda | AFP | At least 41 people were killed after a river in eastern Uganda burst its banks, sending a torrent of mud and rocks barrelling into homes, disaster officials and survivors said Friday. Rescue teams continued picking through the rubble late Friday, searching for survivors and victims …
Read More »Our nation’s next disaster
How the re-launch of Uganda Airlines is most likely going to bring our country to tears – unless THE LAST WORD | ANDREW MWENDA | The decision by Uganda government to re-establish a state-run airline is a strategic blunder. More than two decades ago, Uganda took a strategic decision to …
Read More »Kenya floods leave 112 dead in two months: Red Cross
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Flooding across Kenya triggered by weeks of torrential rain has left 112 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, the Red Cross said Friday. Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet made an appeal for $5 million (four million euros) to help those …
Read More »MPs, CSOs want government to invest in disaster preparedness
Kampala, Uganda | GODFREY SSALI | The Parliamentary Forum on Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation has challenged government to increase the budgetary allocation towards disaster response and management programs as a way of protecting Ugandans against floods. Addressing a press conference at Parliament Monday 26, March 2018, organized by Civil Society …
Read More »Mobile phones help transform disaster relief
Barcelona, Spain | AFP | Mobile phones are helping transform how relief agencies respond to humanitarian crises by enabling them to pin point where aid is needed most after hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters. At the same time, mobile apps that need just a few taps of the finger to …
Read More »48 Malians drown in single day trying to reach Europe: government
Bamako, Mali | AFP | Flags flew at half-mast in Mali on Thursday as the government announced 48 of its citizens drowned in the Mediterranean on a single day over the weekend, all trying to reach Europe. The west African nation accounted for the fifth largest contingent of arrivals to …
Read More »‘It could have been me’: S.Leone struggles to recover from disaster
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Gathered in a Freetown church, worshippers struggled Sunday to come to terms with the devastation wrought by the flooding and mudslide that struck the Sierra Leone capital six days ago, as the arduous search for bodies continued. “I just close my eyes and imagine, I …
Read More »Death toll in SLeone flood disaster reaches 441
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | The death toll from a mudslide and flooding that struck Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown has reached 441, the government said on Saturday. “Four hundred and forty-one corpses (were) buried as at yesterday,” the deputy minister of information and communication, Cornelius Deveaux, told AFP, adding that …
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