KENYA – Staff and visitors have been left stranded and buildings submerged at Kenya’s famous Maasai Mara nature reserve, as the death toll in catastrophic flooding in the country’s southwest rose to at least 188 people.
Local authorities ordered some tourist facilities in the National Reserve to close after River Talek, one of the tributaries of the Mara River, burst its banks and swept through more than a dozen riverside tourist lodges and camps.
Videos on social media showed some buildings and vehicles fully submerged inside the popular park as tourists scrambled to leave affected areas.
Weeks of heavy rain and flash flooding has ravaged parts of Kenya for days, leaving dozens of people missing around the capital, Nairobi, and causing a devastating mudslide in the town of Mai Mahiu.
Two more bodies were retrieved from the site of the mudslide, bringing the total number of deaths there to 50, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said yesterday, revising down the earlier figure of 71 reported due to an error, Nakuru County governor Susan Kihika told CNN.
In Maasai Mara, camp owners were told to leave the affected properties and “move to higher ground further away from River Talek,” governor of Narok county Patrick Ole Ntutu said.
But local administrators went even further in their warnings, threatening legal consequences for people still left behind, even accusing those who stay of attempting suicide.
“We will forcefully evacuate anybody left in any homes or lodges along the river. We will take action against them because that is considered attempted suicide,” Narok county commissioner Kipkech Lotiatia told reporters.
Authorities said they had deployed two helicopters to rescue stranded tourists and local staff around the national reserve after receiving distress calls. The flooding was caused by swollen rivers after several days of continuous rainfall, the county said on X.
A tour guide told CNN he was awoken by sounds of rushing water after 1 a.m. yesterday. When he left his tent, flood waters rose to his waist and the entire Talek Bush Camp had been surrounded.
“My driver and I were the first to wake up, so we woke up all the 14 international tourists and 25 staff and climbed ladders to some water tanks that are raised,” 27-year-old James Apolloh Omenya told CNN via telephone.
“We were being rained on from around 2 a.m. to 5.30 a.m. but we couldn’t get out and the planes coming to rescue us couldn’t get in one time.”
The Kenya Red Cross said it had rescued more than 90 people and at least 14 camps around River Talek had been closed.
While parts of the Mara have flooded before in Kenya’s so-called long rains season, locals say the scale of this year’s deluge has been unprecedented.
The country has deployed “corps from the Paramilitary Academy” of its National Youth Service to Narok to “join the multi-agency team for search and rescue operations following the heavy downpour,” a statement on X said.
The Horn of Africa, a region of East Africa that includes Kenya, is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. Heavy rains have also affected Tanzania and Burundi.
“Kenya is facing a worsening flood crisis due to the combined effects of El Niño and the ongoing March-May 2024 long rains,” International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) CEO Jagan Chapagain said in a post on X earlier this week, referring to the climate pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and impacts weather all over the world.
“The unfolding devastation highlights the government’s obligation to prepare for and promptly respond to the foreseeable impacts of climate change and natural disasters,” said Nyagoah Tut Pur, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement yesterday. “Kenyan authorities should urgently ensure support to affected communities and protect populations facing high risk.” (CNN)…[+]

SOUTH KOREA – South Korea’s parliament has passed a bill for a new, independent investigation into the 2022 Halloween crush in the capital, Seoul, that killed more than 150 people.
The single-chamber, opposition-led National Assembly approved the measure in a bipartisan vote with 256 in, three abstentions, and no opposition yesterday. It will become law once signed by President Yoon Suk-yeol, which is considered a formality.
The legislation will create a fact-finding committee of nine members who will look into the cause of the crush, how the authorities handled it, and who should be blamed, a process that could last up to 15 months.
The crush took place on October 29, 2002, when revellers flooded the narrow alleyways of Seoul’s popular nightlife district of Itaewon to celebrate the first Halloween free of COVID-19 curbs in three years. Nearly 200 people were injured in the ensuing surge, with most of the victims in their 20s and 30s.
Anger that the government ignored safety and regulatory issues mounted in the aftermath of the disaster.
Police faced strong public criticism and scrutiny over their response, having dispatched just 137 officers to the area despite estimating in advance as many as 100,000 people would gather.
In 2023, a special police investigation concluded that police and municipal officials failed to formulate effective crowd control steps.
Investigators also said police had ignored hotline calls by pedestrians who warned of swelling crowds before the surge turned deadly.
Bereaved families and opposition lawmakers have repeatedly called for an independent probe as few have been held accountable for the incident, despite more than 20 police and other officials on trial.
In January, prosecutors charged Kim Kwang-ho, the former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, for negligence by failing to ensure there were enough officers at the scene. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Two former senior police officers were sentenced in February for destroying evidence linked to the crush.
According to the new bill, once the committee determines who is responsible and who should face charges, it would report them to the government’s investigation agencies. The agencies would then conclude investigations of the suspects within three months.
An earlier bill, which was backed by the opposition-led parliament, was vetoed by Yoon in January because of disputes over the panel’s powers, such as whether the fact-finding committee can request arrest warrants.
However, at a meeting last Monday with opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, Yoon said he would not oppose the bill should the disputes be resolved.
Yoon’s shift comes as he faces growing public calls to cooperate with Lee’s party, which secured a landslide victory in the April 10 elections.
In a meeting with Yoon’s ruling People Power Party last Wednesday, Lee’s party agreed to remove contentious clauses from the draft bill, including granting full investigative power to the panel. (Al Jazeera)…[+]

US – Police in riot gear massed on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus and ordered a large group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators inside an encampment to leave the area or face arrest after violence instigated by pro-Israel counter-protesters.
The barricaded encampment was full of hundreds of people and tents. Some protesters prayed as the sun set over the campus, while others chanted “we’re not leaving” or passed out goggles and surgical masks. They wore helmets and headscarves and discussed the best ways to handle pepper spray or tear gas as someone sang over a megaphone.
A few made homemade shields out of plywood in case they clashed with police forming skirmish lines elsewhere on the campus. “For rubber bullets, who wants a shield?” a protester called out.
Meanwhile, a large crowd of students, alumni and neighbours gathered on campus steps outside the tents, sitting as they listened and applauded various speakers and joined in pro-Palestinian chants. A small group of students holding signs and wearing T-shirts in support of Israel and Jewish people demonstrated nearby.
The law enforcement presence and continued warnings stood in contrast to the scene that unfolded the night before, when counter-demonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones, releasing pepper spray and tearing down barriers. Fighting continued for several hours before police stepped in, though no arrests were made. The tepid response from the authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement that “a group of instigators” perpetrated the previous night’s attack, but he did not provide details about the crowd or why the administration and school police did not act sooner. (Al Jazeera)…[+]

US – The body of a fifth construction worker has been recovered after a ship hit Baltimore’s Key Bridge in March, causing it to collapse.
Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, 49, was among six victims of the disaster.
Salvage teams found his missing truck as they continue their recovery work at their site.
The six men were all from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras or Mexico, and worked for a Maryland-based contracting company.
In total, eight workers were on the Francis Scott Key Bridge on 26 March when it was struck by the Dali container vessel, plunging them into the waters below.
Two of them were rescued on the day and five bodies have been recovered since then. A search continues for the sixth.
Mr Luna was a husband and father from El Salvador who had lived in Maryland for nearly two decades, according to non-profit organisation Casa.
“Behind each person lost in this tragedy lies a loving family,” said Maryland police, commenting on the discovery of Mr Luna’s body in his vehicle.
The incident is the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI, which is looking into the circumstances that led to the crash.
A separate probe is under way by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Meanwhile, the city is suing the operators of the container ship, alleging that the vessel was “clearly unseaworthy”. The operators have already asked a court to limit their liability.
The bridge’s collapse led to the closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest in the US and a key hub for the transport of vehicles.
Four alternative channels have since been opened as the salvage operation continues.
The state governor met a House of Representatives committee to discuss aid for rebuilding the collapsed bridge.
Apart from two of the ship’s pilots, 21 crew members – almost all of whom are of Indian origin – remain on the ship. There is no timeline yet for when they will disembark or head back to sea. (BBC)…[+]

BOGOTA – Colombia will sever diplomatic relations with Israel, said President Gustavo Petro.
Speaking to a crowd in the capital Bogota, the Colombian president referred to the Israeli government as “genocidal.”
“The era of genocide, of the extermination of an entire people before our eyes, before our humanity, cannot return,” said Petro, adding that if Palestine dies, humanity dies.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz denounced Colombia’s decision. “Relations between Israel and Colombia have always been warm, and no antisemitic and hate-filled president can change that,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
The Colombian president has expressed his intention to cut off diplomatic ties with Israel on several occasions since the UN Security Council adopted in March a resolution on ceasefire in Gaza.
Colombia recalled its ambassador to Israel in October, a few days after Israel launched military operations in densely-populated areas in Gaza in response to Hamas attack. (Xinhua)…[+]