Kenya flooding delays school reopening
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan President William Ruto has postponed next week’s planned reopening of schools until further notice as heavy rains and floods that have killed more than 200 people continue.
In his state of the nation address Friday, the president said that “meteorological reports paint a dire picture,” citing the possibility of Cyclone Hidaya hitting coastal Kenya in the coming days.
Kenya and other parts of East Africa have been overwhelmed by flooding, with more than 150,000 displaced people living in camps across the country.
Schools originally were to reopen this week, but the education ministry postponed that by a week. Students will now wait for the announcement of new reopening dates as some schools remain flooded and others have been damaged. Some displaced people have been living in schools while the government prepares to relocate them to camps.
The government has ordered people living near 178 dams and reservoirs that are either full or nearly full to evacuate or be forcibly moved.
Water levels at two major hydroelectric dams have reached historic highs and the government has warned those living downstream along the Tana River.
Last week, a boat capsized on the river, which flows to the Indian Ocean, leaving seven people dead and 13 others missing.
Attackers leave 13 people dead in Syria
BEIRUT — Suspected members of the Islamic State group attacked three posts for Syrian government forces and pro-government gunmen early Friday, killing at least 13, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media reported.
The attack wounded others who were taken to hospitals in the central province of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said 15 people were killed in the attacks on three posts near the central town of Sukhna and blamed IS.
The conflicting casualty counts could not immediately be reconciled.
Athr Press and Sham FM, both pro-government media outlets, said 13 soldiers and pro-government gunmen were killed in the attacks and that IS gunmen were behind it. They gave no further details.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but the area was once a stronghold of the extremist group that was officially defeated in Syria in March 2019.
However, IS sleeper cells have been blamed for deadly attacks against Syrian government forces and against members of the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria.
Missing campers’ belongings are found
MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities said Thursday that they have found tents and questioned three people in the case of two Australians and an American who vanished over the weekend in the Pacific coast state of Baja California.
María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the state’s chief prosecutor, would not say whether the three people questioned were considered possible suspects or witnesses in the case. She said only that some were tied directly to the case and others indirectly.
Andrade Ramírez said evidence found along with the abandoned tents was somehow linked to the three. The three foreigners were believed to have been surfing and camping along the Baja coast near the coastal city of Ensenada, but did not show up at their planned accommodations over the weekend.
“A working team (of investigators) is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation,” Andrade Ramírez said. “There is a lot of important information that we can’t make public.”
“We do not know what condition they are in,” she added. While drug cartels are active in the area, she said “all lines of investigation are open at this time. We cannot rule anything out until we find them.”
Refugee camp bombing kills 5 in Congo
DAKAR, Senegal — A bomb at a refugee camp in eastern Congo has killed at least five people, including children, a spokesperson for the Congolese army said Friday.
Two children and their mother were among the dead, and more than 20 other people were injured, John Banyene, a civil society activist based in Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, told The Associated Press.
Lt Colonel Ndjike Kaiko, the army spokesperson, blamed the attack on the Mugunga refugee camp in North Kivu on a rebel group, known as M23, with alleged links to Rwanda, in a statement provided to the AP.
A military spokesman for the rebel group, Lt. Col. Willy Ngoma, denied any role and accused the army of planting the bomb.
M23 has seized more territory this week, capturing the mining town of Rubaya.
The town holds deposits of tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, a key component in the production of smartphones. It is among the minerals that was named earlier this month in a letter from Congo’s government questioning Apple about the tech company’s knowledge of “blood minerals” being smuggled in its supply chain.
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