A senior Japanese official met with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Saleki on Wednesday to press for an explanation of the gas plant siege, as Tokyo confirmed the deaths of two more nationals, taking its toll to nine.
Japanese Senior Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shunichi Suzuki arrived aboard a government jet that is to repatriate the bodies of those known to have been killed in the hostage crisis, along with the seven Japanese who survived.
Tokyo announced late on Wednesday that it knew for sure that nine Japanese were killed after Islamist gunmen overran the desert facility. One Japanese citizen remains unaccounted for.
“Unfortunately, we have been able to confirm two more deaths,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
Seventeen Japanese were at the facility in Amenas when jihadists struck on Jan. 16 at the start of a four-day siege that left dozens of foreigners dead.
Suzuki carried a letter to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Suga said in Tokyo.
As well as Saleki, Suzuki also met Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mourad Medelci, Japan’s Kyodo News reported, citing Tokyo’s foreign ministry.
Japan has asked Algeria to fully investigate events at the gas plant and exactly how individuals died, Suga said in Tokyo.
Algeria has said that 37 foreigners of eight different nationalities and an Algerian were killed in the siege, which ended on Saturday.
Several are still missing and the bodies of others are so charred, they have not been identified.
The visit came as it emerged that Britain, Japan, the US and other countries whose nationals were caught up in the events at the plant issued a joint demarche to Algeria on Friday last week.
A demarche is a formal diplomatic move in which a country’s stance is conveyed in person to another government.
In a call, Japanese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Minoru Kiuchi told Medelci that Tokyo wanted Algiers to protect captives.
“Japan is strongly concerned about acts that put the lives of the hostages at risk and it is regrettable that the Algerian government pressed military rescue operations,” he said.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS