Former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad says departure to Russia wasn’t planned

Former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad says departure to Russia wasn’t planned

Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups. Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec. 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He said he left in co-ordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he planned to keep fighting.

Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec. 8 to Russia.

“I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said.

A U.K.-based war monitor said Israeli airstrikes early Monday hit missile warehouses in Syria and called it the “most violent strikes” since 2012. Israel has been pounding what it says are military sites in Syria after the dramatic collapse of Assad’s rule, wiping out air defences and most of the arsenal of the former Syrian army.

Israeli troops have also seized a border buffer zone, sparking condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.

Obstacles to establishing Syrian ties

Meanwhile, European Union nations on Monday set out conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria and kick-starting aid amid uncertainty about its new leaders’ intentions just over a week after they seized power.

At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats said they want guarantees from members of Syria’s interim government that they are preparing for a peaceful political future involving all minority groups, one in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.

Since Assad’s ouster, few reports have surfaced of reprisals, revenge killings or sectarian violence. Most looting or destruction has been quickly contained.

But the new leadership has yet to lay out a clear vision of how Syria will be governed. The interim government was set up by former opposition forces led by the Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate that the EU, U.S. and Canada consider to be a terrorist organization.

The interim government is set to rule until March. Arab foreign ministers have called for UN-supervised elections based on a new constitution. The UN envoy to Syria has pressed for removing sanctions.

To understand more, the EU is sending an envoy to Damascus for talks with those at least temporarily in charge.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc wants a “stable, peaceful and all-comprising government in place,” but that it will probably take weeks, if not months, for Syria’s new path to be clear.

“Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future, and we have to make sure that this goes to the right direction,” she told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers. “For us, it’s not only the words, but we want to see the deeds.”

Syria has been shattered by five decades of Assad family rule. Its economy has been destroyed, poverty is widespread, inflation and unemployment are high and corruption seeps through daily life. Millions of people have fled the country.

Hundreds of thousands of them live in Europe, and while some EU countries have suspended asylum applications from Syrian refugees, only those willing to return will be helped to get home, for now.

More than 100,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada since 2015.

In 2011, the EU began imposing asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials and organizations in response to Assad’s crackdown on civilian protesters, which turned into civil war. The sanctions have been slapped on some 316 people and 86 entities accused of backing Assad.

Published at Mon, 16 Dec 2024 14:11:51 +0000

‘Several hundred’ feared dead after Cyclone Chido hits French territory of Mayotte

The death toll in the French territory of Mayotte from Cyclone Chido is “several hundred” and may run into the thousands, the island’s top government official told a local broadcaster on Sunday.

France rushed rescue teams and supplies to its largely poor overseas department in the Indian Ocean that has suffered widespread destruction.

“I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand. Even thousands … given the violence of this event,” Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ere.

He had previously said it was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years.

Bieuville said it was extremely difficult to get an exact number of deaths and injuries after Mayotte was pummelled by the intense tropical cyclone on Saturday, causing major damage to public infrastructure, including the airport, flattening neighbourhoods and knocking out electricity supplies.

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The French Interior Ministry confirmed at least 11 deaths and more than 250 injuries earlier Sunday but said that was expected to increase substantially.

Mayotte, in the southwestern Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, is France’s poorest island and the poorest territory in the European Union. It has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two main islands.

Bieuville said the worst devastation had been seen in the slums of metal shacks and informal structures that mark much of Mayotte. Referring to the official death toll so far, he said that “this figure is not plausible when you see the images of the slums.”

“I think the human toll is much higher,” he added.

Millions in region could be impacted

Chido blew through the southwestern Indian Ocean on Friday and Saturday, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Mayotte was directly in the cyclone’s path, though, and took the brunt. Chido brought winds in excess of 220 km/h, according to the French weather service, making it a Category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale.

Later, Chido made landfall in Mozambique on the African mainland, and there were fears for more than two million people in the country’s north who could be impacted, according to authorities there.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his “thoughts” were with the Mayotte people, and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was due to travel to Mayotte on Monday. Retailleau had warned on Saturday night after an emergency meeting in Paris that the death toll “will be high,” while newly appointed Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office on Friday, said infrastructure had been severely damaged or destroyed across Mayotte.

Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims while on a visit Sunday to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.

France wants to open air, sea bridge to Mayotte

Rescuers and firefighters were sent from France and the nearby French territory of Réunion, and supplies were also rushed in on military aircraft and ships. Damage to the airport’s control tower meant only military aircraft were able to fly in.

Patrice Latron, the prefect of Réunion, said authorities aim to establish an air and sea bridge from Réunion to Mayotte. About 800 more rescuers were to be sent in the coming days, and more than 80 tonnes of supplies had been flown in or were on their way by ship. Some of the priorities were restoring electricity and access to drinking water, Latron said.

The French Interior Ministry said 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers have been deployed to “help the population and prevent potential looting.”

In some parts of Mayotte, entire neighbourhoods of metal shacks and huts were flattened, while residents reported trees had been uprooted, boats flipped or sunk and many areas were without power.

Chad Youyou, a resident of Hamjago in the north of the island, posted videos on Facebook showing the extensive damage in his village and across the surrounding fields and hills, where almost every tree had been levelled.

“Mayotte is destroyed — we are destroyed,” he said.

Cyclone slams into northern Mozambique

Chido continued its eastern trajectory into northern Mozambique, where it continued to cause serious damage, while farther inland, landlocked Malawi and Zimbabwe warned they might have to evacuate people because of flooding.

In Mozambique, UNICEF said Cabo Delgado province, home to about two million people, was the first region to be hit, and many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed.

UNICEF Mozambique spokesperson Guy Taylor said communities faced the prospect of being cut off from schools and health facilities for weeks, and Mozambique authorities warned there was a high danger of landslides.

December through to March is cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and southern Africa has been pummelled by a series of strong ones in recent years. Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.

The cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water may later spark deadly outbreaks of the waterborne disease cholera, as well as dengue fever and malaria.

Studies say the cyclones are getting worse because of climate change. They can leave poor countries in Africa — which contribute a tiny amount to global warming — having to deal with large humanitarian crises, underlining their call for more help from rich nations to deal with the impact of climate change.

Published at Sun, 15 Dec 2024 18:40:49 +0000