Niger’s military junta has announced plans to prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for high treason and undermining national security.
But in a sign that it is hardening its position, the junta said in a statement read out on state TV that it had gathered evidence to prosecute “the deposed president and his local and foreign accomplices for high treason and undermining the internal and external security of Niger”.
Junta-appointed Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine said he was optimistic that talks with Ecowas would take place in the coming days “to discuss how the sanctions against us will be lifted”.
The coup in Niger mirrored similar takeovers in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, amid an Islamist insurgency and a growing Russian influence in the wider Sahel region through its mercenary group Wagner.
Despite his captivity, Mr Bazoum was able to publish an article in The Washington Post stating that he was a hostage and that the coup would have “devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world”.
His daughter Zazia, 34, who was on holiday in France during the coup, told the UK-based Guardian newspaper last week that her father, mother and brother had no clean water or electricity and were living on rice and pasta.
It’s just insane. Where I live fire-fighters closely follow weather forecast, have deep understanding of wind patters in the area and if there’s any risk a forest fire will reach a village everyone is immediately evacuated. When volcano erupted in La Palma the mayor was personally knocking on doors to see if everyone left. Posting evacuation orders on X is a joke.
That’s terrifying. My family went to the Grand Canyon when I was a young teen and my brothers were even younger. They were romping around and I was sure one of them was going to die. That poor kid, and his poor family. I can’t imagine the absolute terror of watching your kid go over the edge.
“We pick up remains and they fall apart,” said Maui County police chief John Pelletier on Saturday, four days after a massive wildfire tore downhill through dry brush and grass and engulfed the island’s western edge.
Dozens of survivors shared their stories of escape and loss with the BBC, helping to piece together a more complete picture of the tragedy that unfolded on Tuesday, when fires moving at a mile per minute consumed the town.
One thing seemed to unite their accounts: residents say they had no official warning before they fled for their lives, raising painful questions about the effectiveness of the emergency response and whether more people could have been saved.
For Tee Dang, a tourist from Kansas, the first clue that her vacation had taken a deadly turn came in the form of an Airbnb host barrelling past her door and telling her family to run.
At 4:29pm, Maui’s emergency management agency had publicly announced perhaps its first evacuation order, writing on X (formerly known as Twitter) that residents of Kelawea Mauka, a neighbourhood on the edge of Lahaina, needed to leave.
Residents like Lynette “Pinky” Johnson loaded their cars with as many as could fit, before driving eastward along the Honoapiilani Highway - the only viable route to safety - as flames lapped at their wheels.
Damn. I remember looking at a book at the Grand canyon rim souvenir shop that documented all the hundreds of people who have died by falling into the Grand canyon over the many decades. It’s kind of a sobering reality when you stand right on the edge and look down hundreds of feet and realize that it wouldn’t take much for your life to end right then and there.
Somewhere a photographer from 20 years ago has a photo of me standing right at the edge probably of this exact same cliff. I still can’t believe I did that as I have a severe fear of heights, lol.
Hope the kid gets better and gains a healthy fear of heights after this.
Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon. Maybe it should be required reading—or at least required skimming—for anyone walking around out there. So many dumb-dumbs with cameras trying to get selfies on the edge, or just wanting to look over…
I remember reading that book. My takeaway from it was that if I go hiking in there, I’m taking a friend.
One of the major risk factors for dying out there was if you were a guy going out there by yourself. I’d bet they would all be alive today if they just had someone else there to tell them their idea was stupid, and sometimes you just need to say it out loud before you realize its dumb halfway through explaining it
I always have this harrowing thought every time I was there (I lived in AZ, it was a once-every-few-years sort of affair). I have a memory of my Dad posing for a picture there, right where there’s an ankle-high wall leading to certain doom. He didn’t fall, but it wouldn’t take much and it gives me such Call of the Void vibes looking at that photo.
Among his injuries were nine broken vertebrae, a ruptured spleen, broken hand and a collapsed lung. [...] "We're just lucky we're bringing our kid home [to North Dakota] in a car in the front seat instead of in a box."
... I'm not sure that's the best way to transport someone who was just diagnosed with nine broken vertebrae.
I was thinking there must be younger siblings in the back, so he had to travel in front. But now I realize both parents were there, so that means one of the parents is in the back seat…
I think they meant that they will drive him home in the front seat. The article seems to be written within the same week as the accident, I can’t imagine he’s been released from the hospital yet.
Among his injuries were nine broken vertebrae, a ruptured spleen, broken hand and a collapsed lung.
Jesus. 13 year old survives 100 foot fall, meanwhile I stretched too far to reach some chips in the highest parts of the cupboard and now I can’t look right.
Kids are made basically out of rubber. Adults however… Have you ever seen a rubber band that’s been sitting in a drawer for like 5 years without use? Yeah, kind of a similar thing.
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