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A30 world news
Diaranson 9 Juni 2021

British police officer admits kidnapping, raping woman

A court at London’s Old Bailey heard ecutive, went missing as she walked Common on March 14 that had
Tuesday that Wayne Couzens, 48, ac- home from a friend’s house in been banned because of coronavirus
cepted responsibility for the death Clapham, south London, on March restrictions. During the gathering,
of Sarah Everard though he was not 3. A major police investigation was Metropolitan Police officers grabbed
asked to enter a plea to a charge of launched and her body was found a hold of several women and pulled
murder. week later in a woodland in the coun- them away in handcuffs to scream-
Members of Everard’s family sat in ty of Kent, more than 50 miles (80 ki- ing and shouting from onlookers.
court to witness the defendant enter lometers) southeast of London. The actions of the police were widely
his pleas. condemned.
Everard’s disappearance and kill-
Medical reports about the Metro- ing caused a nationwide outcry, with The Metropolitan Police force has ex-
politan Police officer, who appeared women sharing experiences of being pressed shock and horror at Everard’s
(AP) — A British police officer by video link from Belmarsh prison, threatened or attacked — or simply killing. Couzens joined its ranks in
has pleaded guilty to the kid- are being prepared. A further hearing facing the everyday fear of violence 2018 and had most recently served
nap and rape of a woman as she before the judge, Adrian Fulford, will when walking alone. in the parliamentary and diplomatic
walked home in south London take place July 9. protection command, an armed unit
and whose body was found a week The outcry was clearly evident during responsible for guarding embassies in
later in the woods. Everard, a 33-year-old marketing ex- an unauthorized vigil on Clapham the capital and Parliament.

Displaced Syrians rally against ending cross-border aid

(AP) — Dozens of displaced peo- mains no alternative to delivering aid
ple in rebel-held northwest Syria The last border crossing, Bab al- The United States is seeking the re- at this scale and with this scope.
on Tuesday protested efforts by Hawa, has become a lifeline and the authorization of U.N. access to Bab
Damascus and its allies to end main point from which international al-Hawa and the reopening of other Dujarric said some of Syria’s most
humanitarian aid crossing from aid is brought into the northwest, border crossings before the mandate vulnerable are in the northwest,
Turkey into the impoverished home to over 4 million people, most for humanitarian aid deliveries ex- where 3.4 million are in need, in-
war-ravaged enclave. of them displaced. pires. There is strong support in the cluding the displaced who live in over
15-member council for maintaining 1,000 camps and informal settlements
The U.N. Security Council mandate The protesters in the Alteh displaced and even adding border crossings. along the Turkish-Syrian border.
for humanitarian aid deliveries, now persons camp, north of Idlib city,
reduced from four initial internation- held up signs calling the crossing a The United Nations and internation- Around 1,000 trucks cross the border
al crossing points to a single border “lifeline.” “The crossing is my path to al aid groups have called on Russia to each month with crucial aid. This is
crossing from Turkey to Syria’s rebel- health,” another read. not veto the extension. why the secretary-general has said a
held northwest, expires July 10. large-scale cross-border response for
“These borders are giving us every- “Bab al-Hawa is the last lifeline pre- an additional 12 months remains es-
Veto-wielding Russia, Damascus’ thing from medical supplies to food venting a humanitarian catastro- sential to save lives, Dujarric said.
close ally, has been pressing for the and medicines and everything we phe for millions of people in Syria,”
border crossing’s closure. Moscow need,” said Abdelsalam al-Youssif, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman Mohammed al-Jarrak, a protestor in
insists the Syrian government should who heads the camp. “If this decision for the U.N. secretary-general said Alteh camp, warned of a famine. “If
control all assistance going into the goes ahead, then the world will be Monday. “Despite ongoing efforts we are cut off, there will be a famine.
country — even to areas outside its responsible for killing and displacing to deliver a small number of trucks A massive famine that will benefit the
control. us.” cross-line from Damascus, there re- (Syrian) regime,” he said.

Death toll rises after Burkina Faso village attack

(AP) — The death toll from the deadliest at- has researched self-defense groups in the Sahel.
tack in Burkina Faso in years has risen to at While no group has claimed responsibility, Sahel
least 132 people and countless others wound- analysts say this attack was likely carried out by the The West African country had seen a relative calm
ed, security officials said Monday. al-Qaida linked group JNIM, which has recently in recent months, after a secret cease-fire between
strengthened its position in the area and is the most JNIM and the government was reached. Earlier
Jihadis on Friday night launched an assault on ci- influential group in the province, said Heni Nsaib- this year, jihadis told the AP they were instructed
vilians in Solhan village in the Sahel’s Yagha prov- ia, senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Loca- to lay down their guns and don’t understand the
ince, shooting people and burning down homes tion and Event Data project. recent surge in fighting.
and the market, the government said. Many of the
wounded were taken to hospitals in Dori town and “After the attack in Solhan, the assailants withdrew “I think there are attacks again because there are
the country’s capital, Ouagadougou. Nearly 800 and also planted explosives to prevent army access, new people recruited by the group (and)...not
people have fled to the nearby town of Sebba, ac- both the geographic aspect and the use of explo- everyone who laid down his gun returned to the
cording to an internal report for aid workers seen sives in this manner is not typical for Islamic State, community,” a former jihadi who left the group in
by The Associated Press. but rather JNIM modus operandi,” he said. October told the AP by phone.

An aid worker in Sebba said there were more than The attacks were a response to the presence of vol- The fighting has created the world’s fastest grow-
40 people with bullet wounds and burns from flee- unteer fighters in the area, community volunteers ing displacement crisis, more than 1.2 million peo-
ing the attack. The aid worker spoke on condition fighting alongside the army. Since the program ple are internally displaced in the country.
of anonymity because he wasn’t permitted to speak started last year, volunteers have become both per-
to the media. petrators of violence against civilians as well as tar- “The slaughter of over 100 civilians, the highest
gets for the jihadis who accuse them of supporting number of casualties from a single attack in recent
A local journalist, who also didn’t want to be named the army, with civilians bearing the brunt of the years in Burkina Faso, marks a shocking escalation
for fear of his safety, told the AP he saw wounded violence. in the violence that has engulfed the country since
people in Dori’s hospital lying all over the floor. 2015. Killed in the middle of the night by armed
“The militarization of the war against terrorism assailants, the victims include women and chil-
For five years, Burkina Faso’s ill-equipped and un- has created more insecurity than benefits, and both dren who were given no choice to flee, no chance
dertrained army has been struggling to stem a jihadi sides, jihadis and pro-state militias are targeting ci- to live,” said Manenji Mangundu, country direc-
insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State vilians,” said Tanguy Quidelleur a Ph.D. candidate tor for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Burkina
group, often arriving late or not at all to attacks. at the Institute of social sciences and politics who Faso.