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A30 world news
Dialuna 8 november 2021

Oil tanker explodes in Sierra Leone, killing at least 98

address a leakage emanating try’s health care sector is still
from the collision,” the agen- Injured people whose clothes recovering from the 2014-
cy said. had burned off in the fire that 2016 Ebola epidemic, which
followed the explosion lay killed many of the West Af-
In this deeply impoverished naked on stretchers as nurses rican nation’s doctors and
country, however, crowds attended to them Saturday. nurses.
still rushed in to scoop up the Hundreds of people milled
fuel, witnesses said. It was outside the main gates of the President Julius Maada Bio,
not immediately known what mortuary and near the hospi- who was in Scotland attend-
caused the leaking fuel to ig- tal’s main entrance, waiting ing the U.N. climate talks
nite but a massive explosion for word of their loved ones. Saturday, deplored the “hor-
soon followed. rendous loss of life.”
Osman Timbo, said his
Video obtained by The As- 13-year-old brother, Mo- “My profound sympathies
sociated Press showed a gi- hamed, was among those with families who have lost
ant fireball burning in the who had died. loved ones and those who
night sky as some survivors have been maimed as a re-
with severe burns cried out “He left home and said he sult,” he tweeted.
in pain. The charred remains was going to buy bread for us
(AP) — An oil tanker lided with another truck as of some victims lay strewn at to eat,” Timbo said. “When I Vice President Mohamed
truck exploded near Sier- it was pulling into a gas sta- the scene, awaiting transport heard about the explosion, I Juldeh Jalloh visited two
ra Leone’s capital, killing tion near a busy intersection to mortuaries. went to the scene and I saw hospitals overnight and said
at least 98 people and se- in Wellington, just east of the my younger brother lying Sierra Leone’s National Di-
verely injuring dozens of capital of Freetown, accord- Nearly 100 injured people down and he was burned all saster Management Agency
others after large crowds ing to the National Disaster were taken to area hospitals, over. I felt so bad. I loved him and others would “work tire-
gathered to collect leak- Management Agency. officials said. About 30 se- so much!” lessly” in the wake of the
ing fuel, officials and wit- verely burned people at Con- emergency.
nesses said Saturday. “Both drivers came out of naught Hospital were not ex- Hospital officials called in as
their vehicles and warned pected to survive, according many doctors and nurses as “We are all deeply saddened
The explosion took place late community residents to stay to Foday Musa, a staff mem- they could overnight to tend by this national tragedy,” he
Friday when the tanker col- off the scene while trying to ber in its intensive care unit. to the wounded. The coun- said on his Facebook page.

UN Security Council calls for end to Ethiopia hostilities

(AP) — The U.N. Security Council called the crisis and create the foundation for peace and Child malnutrition levels are now at the same level
for an end to the intensifying and expanding stability throughout the country.“ as they were at the start of the 2011 famine in So-
conflict in Ethiopia on Friday, and for unhin- malia, he warned.
dered access for humanitarian aid to tackle Council members said the language in the state-
the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade in ment was watered down after objections from Rus- The press statement reiterated the Security Coun-
the war-torn Tigray region. sia to the original statement which “called on all cil’s support for the African Union’s role in re-
parties to immediately end hostilities without pre- solving the conflict and gave strong support to the
The U.N.’s most powerful body expressed serious conditions.” “strategy and efforts to achieve a cease-fire and a
concern about the impact of the conflict on “the prompt and peaceful resolution of the conflict” be-
stability of the country and the wider region,” and But the statement, read by Mexico’s U.N. Ambas- ing undertaken by the AU’s high representative for
called on all parties to refrain “from inflammatory sador Juan Ramon De La Fuente Ramirez, the cur- the Horn of Africa region, former Nigerian presi-
hate speech and incitement to violence and divi- rent council president, did call for an end to hos- dent Olusegun Obasanjo.
siveness.” tilities -- though without the word immediately. It
did single out “the expansion and intensification of The Security Council statement did not mention
The press statement was approved by the 15 coun- military clashes in northern Ethiopia.“ the announcement earlier Friday that the Tigray
cil members the day after the first anniversary of forces, which in August linked up with the Oro-
the war in the northern Tigray region that has killed In recent weeks, the conflict has expanded, with mo Liberation Army, have joined with seven other
thousands of people and displaced millions. It was Tigray forces seizing key cities on a major high- armed and opposition groups in an alliance against
only the council’s second statement on the conflict, way leading to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and prime minister Abiy Ahmed to seek a political tran-
and the first to address the worsening conflict. linking up with another armed group, the Oromo sition. The alliance left open the possibility of his
Liberation Army, with which it struck an alliance ouster by force.
“Today the Security Council breaks six months of in August.
silence and speaks again with one united voice on Amid fears that the violence could lead to a division
the deeply concerning situation in Ethiopia,” said Months of political tensions between Ethiopian of Ethiopia similar to the break-up of former Yugo-
Ireland’s U.N. Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Na- Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and slavia in the 1990s, council members “reaffirmed
son. “For the first time, the Council clearly calls the Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s their strong commitment to the sovereignty, politi-
for a cessation of hostilities. We believe this should government exploded into war last November. cal independence, territorial integrity and unity of
happen immediately, and that all civilians must be Following some of the fiercest fighting of the con- Ethiopia.“
protected.” flict, Ethiopia soldiers fled the Tigray capital, Me-
kele, in June. Facing the current Tigray offensive,
The statement was drafted by Ireland, Kenya, Ni- president Abiy declared a national state of emer-
ger, Tunisia and St. Vincent and The Grenadines. gency with sweeping detention powers on Tuesday.
Those countries and the United States had called
for an open Security Council meeting on Ethio- The Tigray forces say they are pressuring Ethiopia’s
pia on Friday afternoon, but it was postponed until government to lift a deadly months-long blockade
early next week, probably Monday. Diplomats said on their region of around 6 million people, where
African Union representatives weren’t available to basic services have been cut off and humanitarian
participate so the meeting was delayed. food and medical aid are denied.

The council called on the parties “to put an end U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said
to hostilities and to negotiate a lasting cease-fire, last month that at least 5.2 million people in the
and for the creation of conditions for the start of region need humanitarian assistance including at
an inclusive Ethiopian national dialogue to resolve least 400,000 “living in famine-like conditions.”