The leader of the Indian Ocean Comoros islands urged restraint on Saturday as thousands of angry expats rallied in France following a plane crash that killed 152 people. Comoran President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi urged members of the Comoran diaspora in Marseille and Paris to show “calm and serenity at a time of contemplation and mourning to secure national and international solidarity.”
His appeal came in the wake of Tuesday’s crash of an Airbus A310 near the islands’ capital Moroni in which all but one of its 153 passengers and crew perished. Police said at least 10,000 people — some wearing black armbands and carrying banners reading “Never again” and “Life is priceless” — marched in memory of the victims in the southern French city of Marseille, home to a large expatriate community.
Organizers put the number taking part at around 40,000.
The disaster has sparked protests among the substantial Comoran community in France over the condition of the 19-year-old Airbus that the airline, Yemenia, used on the final leg of its Paris to Moroni service.
Yemenia initially decided on Saturday to suspend all flights to Moroni in response to the public anger, but later went back on this and said it would run some services. Abd al-Khaleq al-Qadhi, the airline’s chief executive, said the company would run services between the Yemeni capital Sanaa and Moroni.
“We have canceled all additional flights between Sanaa and Moroni but we are keeping the regular, twice weekly flights” between the two capitals, Qadhi said.
Earlier on Saturday, Yemenia issued a statement in Paris saying it would suspend all Moroni flights, citing “serious incidents in recent days and major risks that some passengers posed to airport staff, our company and [other] passengers.”
Since the crash, survived only by a 12-year-old girl now recovering in a Paris hospital, members of the Comoran community have blocked check-in desks in Paris and Marseille for Yemenia flights to Moroni, prompting the airline on Thursday to suspend services from Marseille.
The Comoran ambassador to France, Abdallah Mirghane, and his wife on Friday visited the girl in hospital, a statement issued by the Comoros embassy in Paris said.
Search teams continued meanwhile to scour the waters off the Comoros on Saturday, amid conflicting reports about the discovery of plane wreckage.
Officials in Yemen told state news agency Saba that US helicopters had spotted debris and were trying to recover them.
“Helicopters of the American team which is taking part in search operations have found a large piece of the aircraft floating on the surface of the sea near the coast of the Comoros,” a civil aviation commission linked to the transport ministry said in a statement carried by the agency.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
RSS