Eleven people have died after a gas leak in northern India.
The leak happened in an industrial area in the city of Ludhiana, Punjab state.
Rajinder Pal Kaur Chhina, a member of the legislative assembly in Ludhiana, said at least nine people had also been taken to hospital.
A team from the National Disaster Response Force has been sent to the site along with a team of experts to determine the cause and source of the leak, she added.
The densely populated area has been sealed off and residents have been evacuated.
"The incident happened near a milk shop and a doctor's clinic although we cannot say for sure where the leak began," Ms Chhina told Reuters.
"People who came to buy milk in the morning fell unconscious outside."
Three of the bodies had "turned blue", local resident Anjan Kumar said in an ANI news agency video on Twitter.
Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner, Surabhi Malik, told the Press Trust of India news agency it was possible the gas may have spread from manholes.
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"We are going to collect samples from manholes. It is quite likely that some chemical reacted with methane in manholes," she said.
Image:Pic: AP
The state's chief minister, Bhagwant Mann, said the leak came from a factory, tweeting: "All possible help is being provided."
UK evacuations from Sudan could be 'impossible' once ceasefire ends, Cleverly warns
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The final UK evacuation flight from Sudan departed from the Wadi Saeedna airfield near Khartoum at 10pm local time on Saturday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has said.
A statement on the government’s foreign travel advice for Sudan website said: “The UK government is no longer running evacuation flights from Wadi Saeedna airfield.
“The last evacuation flight departed the airfield at 2200 Sudan time on 29 April.”
It comes as a government minister said the evacuation mission has been “extremely successful” but cannot last “forever”.
At least 1,888 people on 21 flights have been evacuated from Sudan - the vast majority of them British nationals and their dependents - but thousands more British citizens may remain.
It comes as fighting has broken out again in Khartoum despite the extension of an armistice between the country’s two warring generals having been brokered in the early hours of Friday.
In pictures: Saudi nationals are hoisted aboard evacuation vessel
Saudi naval and special forces are pictured hoisting evacuees aboard a vessel during a rescue operation from Port Sudan to Jeddah.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Heavy fighting again rocked Sudan’s capital as tens of thousands have fled the bloody turmoil and a former prime minister warned of the “nightmare” risk of a descent into full-scale civil war.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Army forces clashed with paramilitaries in Khartoum as deadly hostilities have entered a third week despite the latest ceasefire, which was formally set to expire at the end of the day.
209 Irish citizens and dependents evacuated from Sudan in total
A further 89 Irish citizens and their dependents have been evacuated from Sudan, bringing the total Irish evacuees to 209, the Department of Foreign Affairs has said.
The majority of Irish citizens evacuated by air in recent days have been carried on UK flights into Cyprus, the department said.
The UK Government had said its final flight departed from Wadi Saeedna airfield late on Saturday night.
It comes as a ceasefire in the conflict-stricken north African country appeared to falter, with residents reporting heavy explosions and gunfire breaking out again in the capital Khartoum despite the extension of the armistice between the country’s two warring generals.
Hundreds of people have died in the bloody conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
Micheal Martin, the Irish deputy premier and Foreign Affairs Minister, said Ireland’s Emergency Civil Assistance Team (Ecat) operation in Cyprus and Djibouti is now to be withdrawn.
The mission, named Operation Piccolo, has involved Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials being stationed in the countries with the aim of assisting in the evacuation.
Ireland has also received help from France and Spain to airlift Irish citizens, residents and visa holders to safety.
Members of the Defence Forces’ Special Operations Forces unit and the Army Ranger Wing supported the operation.
“On deployment, the team secured the DFA personnel on the ground, liaised with key actors in the airport and assisted DFA in the processing and evacuation of identified Irish citizens/dependents,” the Defence Forces said in a statement.
“The team were also on standby to provide medical assistance if required.”
Ireland will now maintain an “enhanced multi-location consular presence” for citizens who remain in Sudan - operating from Dublin, Nairobi, Cairo, Amman, Riyadh and Addis Ababa.
The department said embassies remain in close contact with any citizens in Sudan who have requested assistance.
“I wish to thank the ECAT team and all those involved in our consular response,” Mr Martin said.
“Our primary aim has been to offer our citizens every assistance through what has been an extremely difficult and challenging time.
“Our experienced consular teams in Dublin and in the region will continue to actively respond to the needs of our citizens as the situation evolves.
“I would like to thank our EU partners, the UK, Jordan, Norway and Djibouti for their strong cooperation in this challenging mission,” the Tanaiste added.
Citizens have been urged to follow the Embassy of Ireland in Kenya on Twitter (IrlEmbKenya) for updated advice.
(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Emergency aid supplies reach Sudan, as fighting sputters on
An aircraft carrying eight tons of emergency medical aid landed Sunday in Sudan to resupply hospitals devastated by more than two weeks of fighting between forces loyal to rival generals.
The supplies are enough to treat hundreds of wounded, as the civilian death toll from the countrywide violence topped 400. The conflict erupted on April 15 between the nation’s army and its paramilitary force, and threatens to thrust Sudan into a raging civil war.
More than two-thirds of hospitals in areas with active fighting are out of service, a national doctors’ association has said, citing a shortage of medical supplies, health workers, water and electricity.
On Sunday, the aircraft carrying medical aid took off from Jordan and landed in the city of Port Sudan, said the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The supplies, including anesthetics, dressings, sutures and other surgical material, are enough to treat more than 1,000 people wounded in the conflict, the ICRC said.
“The hope is to get this material to some of the most critically busy hospitals in the capital” of Khartoum and other hot spots, said Patrick Youssef, ICRC’s regional director for Africa.
The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which monitors casualties, said Sunday that over the past two weeks, 425 civilians were killed and 2,091 wounded. The Sudanese Health Ministry on Saturday put the overall death toll, including fighters, at 528, with 4,500 wounded.
Some of the deadliest battles have raged across Khartoum. The fighting pits the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, against Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
The generals, both with powerful foreign backers, were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudan‘s fitful transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other.
Ordinary Sudanese have been caught in the crossfire. Tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad and Egypt, while others remain pinned down with dwindling supplies. Thousands of foreigners have been evacuated in airlifts and land convoys.
On Sunday, fighting continued in different parts of the capital where residents hiding in their homes reported hearing artillery fire. There have been lulls in fighting, but never a fully observed cease-fire, despite repeated attempts by international mediators.
Over the weekend, residents reported that shops were reopening and normalcy gradually returning in some areas of Khartoum as the scale of fighting dwindled after yet another shaky truce. But in other areas, terrified residents reported explosions thundering around them and fighters ransacking houses.
Youssef, the ICRC official, said the agency has been in contact with the top command of both sides to ensure that medical assistance could reach hospitals safely.
“With this news today, we are really hoping that this becomes part of a steady coordination mechanism to allow other flights to come in,” he said.
Youssef said more medical aid was ready to be flown into Khartoum pending necessary clearances and security guarantees.
Countries rush to evacuate foreign citizens from Sudan
The conflict between Sudan‘s army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has triggered a rush to evacuate foreign diplomats and citizens.
Several countries have taken nationals out by air, while some have gone via Port Sudan on the Red Sea, about 800 km (500 miles) by road from Khartoum. This is the status of some countries’ efforts:
UNITED STATES
U.S. forces evacuated American and some foreign diplomats on April 22.
A convoy organized by the U.S. government arrived at a Sudanese port city on Saturday, evacuating U.S. citizens, local staff and others, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said.
Washington has previously said it was positioning naval assets to assist evacuations if necessary.
Britain said it has evacuated 1,888 people, mostly British nationals and their dependents, on 21 flights since Tuesday. The government decided the last evacuation flight would leave on Saturday evening, citing a decline in demand from British nationals and continued volatility on the ground.
The government had estimated there were about 4,000 Britons in Sudan. It evacuated its diplomats and their families on April 22.
Cyprus said it had activated a humanitarian rescue mechanism at Britain’s request to let third countries use it for reception and repatriation of foreign citizens evacuated from Sudan. Cyprus is home to two large British military bases.
Egypt has evacuated a total of 6,399 Egyptians, 1,072 of whom were evacuated on Friday. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday some 16,000 people had crossed from Sudan to Egypt, including 14,000 Sudanese citizens.
Germany said on Wednesday it had ended its operation to evacuate people from Sudan, with over 700 people flown out of the country, including around 200 German citizens. Germany’s evacuation mission brought out people from more than 30 countries, including Belgian, British, Dutch, Jordanian and U.S. citizens as well as Germans.
The French government said on Thursday that it had so far evacuated a total of 936 people from Sudan. Those included not only French nationals but also Britons, Americans, Canadians, Ethiopians, Dutch, Italians and Swedes.
The United Nations secretary-general thanked France for its “vital assistance” in transporting 400 U.N. personnel and their dependents out of Sudan.
Italian military planes flying from Djibouti evacuated 83 Italians and 13 others, including children and the Italian ambassador. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said some Italian NGO workers and missionaries had decided to stay in Sudan, while 19 others had been taken to Egypt.
NETHERLANDS
About 100 Dutch nationals have been evacuated from Sudan since April 23, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said. Half left on four Dutch evacuation flights to Jordan, which also carried about 70 people from 14 other countries.
The Netherlands aims to evacuate a total of around 150 Dutch nationals and has supplied two military planes to the international effort, which are also available for other nationalities.
SWITZERLAND
Switzerland has shut its embassy and evacuated all Swiss staff and their families.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The United Arab Emirates evacuated its citizens, other nationalities and humanitarian cases from Sudan by plane on Saturday. Around 128 evacuees, including British and U.S. citizens, landed in the capital Abu Dhabi.
Russia has not yet announced any evacuation of its embassy or its nationals from Khartoum. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russians in Sudan were in close contact with Moscow.
All Japanese people who wished to leave have been evacuated, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
A further 363 Indonesian citizens evacuated from Sudan arrived home on Sunday on a second flight by the country’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, the country’s foreign ministry said.
A first group of Indonesian evacuees arrived back in the country on Friday, and a total of 748 citizens have been evacuated from Sudan as of Sunday.
China said most Chinese nationals have been safely evacuated in groups to neighbouring countries. The defence ministry deployed naval ships to pick up and evacuate citizens on Wednesday.
The foreign ministry said between Tuesday and Thursday, nearly 800 people were transferred by sea and more than 300 travelled to neighbouring countries by land.
The Chinese consulate-general in Jeddah issued a notice on Wednesday advising citizens who planned to evacuate to Saudi Arabia to enter through the Jeddah Islamic Port.
More than 1,200 Indians evacuated from Sudan had arrived in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as of Thursday, and would soon be repatriated to India, the country’s junior foreign minister V. Muraleedharan said.
Canada conducted its first evacuation operation in Sudan on Thursday, airlifting over 100 people, including Canadians and other nationals, on two flights from the war-torn North African country, senior government officials said.
Canada would deploy about 200 troops to coordinate evacuations from war-torn Sudan, Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand said on Wednesday. About 180 Canadians had already been evacuated with the help of other countries.
There are about 1,800 Canadians in Sudan, out of which about 700 have requested assistance from the foreign ministry, according to the Canadian government.
Chad conducted its first evacuation flights from Sudan carrying more than 200 people, including dozens of children, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.
Ukraine said it had rescued 87 of its citizens - most of them pilots, aircraft technicians and their families - among a total of 138 civilians, who also included citizens of Georgia and Peru.
Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry said on Thursday the government had evacuated 342 people who arrived in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from Port Sudan.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Saturday 65 Iranian citizens had left from Port Sudan, through Jeddah, to Iran.
ICYM: US conducts 1st evacuation of its citizens from Sudan war
Hundreds of Americans fleeing two weeks of deadly fighting in Sudan reached the east African nation’s port Saturday in the first U.S.-run evacuation, completing a dangerous land journey under escort of armed drones.
American unmanned aircraft, which have been keeping an eye on overland evacuation routes for days, provided armed overwatch for a bus convoy carrying 200 to 300 Americans over 500 miles or 800 kilometers to Port Sudan, a place of relative safety, U.S. officials said.
The U.S., which had none of its officials on the ground for the evacuation, has been criticized by families of trapped Americans in Sudan for initially ruling out any U.S.-run evacuation for those among an estimated 16,000 Americans in Sudan who wish to leave.
Ex-Sudanese PM warns conflict risks becoming ‘nightmare for world’ as civilian death toll hits 411
Airstrikes rocked parts of Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Saturday despite the extended ceasefire by the country’s two warring factions, as the former Sudanese prime minister urged both sides to get together for peace talks.
Terrified residents in some areas of the city reported explosions nearby and fighters ransacking houses, although residents in other areas said shops were reopening as the scale of the fighting dwindled.
Clashes were continuing around the presidential palace as well as the state broadcaster’s HQ and a military base in Khartoum.
The country’s former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok on Saturday urged for both sides to come together for peace talks to stop a full-blown civil war on the scale of the Libya and Syria conflicts.
UK will continue to support British nationals still in Sudan, transport secretary says
The UK will continue to provide support for British nationals in Sudan now that evacuation flights have ended, the transport secretary has said.
Mark Harper told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “The evacuation that we have conducted is the longest and largest evacuation of any western nation.
“We have taken out 1,888 British nationals, which I think is a testimony to the hard work of both those on the ground who have put themselves at risk and also those working at HQ to get that evacuation in place.”
He added: “We have now got some staff based at Port Sudan which is where we are going to continue providing consular support for British nationals that have chosen to remain in the country.”
What is happening in Sudan and why? The war and conflict explained
Tension had been building for months between Sudan’s army and the RSF, which together toppled a civilian government in an October 2021 coup.
The friction was brought to a head by an internationally-backed plan to launch a new transition with civilian parties. A final deal was due to be signed earlier in April, on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.
Both the army and the RSF were required to cede power under the plan and two issues proved particularly contentious: one was the timetable for the RSF to be integrated into the regular armed forces, the second was when the army would be formally placed under civilian oversight.
Two years ago, Issa Ali’s mother took all her belongings and left her family to join followers of the charismatic church leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge in the Shakahola forest in south-east Kenya.
“He told them that’s where Jesus’ second coming will happen,” the 16-year-old said.
When he saw his mother again earlier this year, he said she was “nearly unrecognisable”, and had gone from being well built to shockingly frail.
“She told us it could be the last time we would see her, that her earthly life had lost all meaning and that she would be going to heaven soon. We tried to stop her, but couldn’t – she wasn’t herself at all,” Ali said.
The next time he heard of his mother was when his friends told him last week that she had been found dead in shallow graves in the forest, although her death has not yet been officially confirmed to him.
Ali’s mother’s apparent fate is just one story among scores in the case of a “starvation cult” – led by Nthenge – that has gripped and shocked Kenyans since police began unearthing corpses in the forest about two weeks ago.
On 15 April, one day after police raided the forest following a tip-off, Nthenge was arrested on suspicion of luring his followers into the remote area and brainwashing them into fasting to the death in order to “meet Jesus”.
The Shakahola forest has been declared an active crime scene and is cordoned off. A dusk to dawn curfew is in place. Nthenge is in police custody pending a court hearing, as are a few other men suspected of conspiring in the mass killing.
Hassan Musa, a Kenya Red Cross regional manager, said that by Friday 410 people had been reported missing by their loved ones, including 227 children under the age of 18 years. So far more than 100 bodies have been discovered.
As the scale of the deaths emerged last week, the town of Malindi, roughly 50 miles from the forest and known for its sandy white beaches and Swahili-inspired architecture, was thrown into a state of unease.
Fear and speculation dominated conversations in market stalls, bars and hotels as distressed families filled in missing person reports at police stations, or queued at public hospitals and even morgues in an attempt to find out if they had lost a loved one to the cult.
Some had travelled hundreds of miles, including Rogers Mwibo, 30, who had come from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Mwibo said his understanding was that two of his missing family members were probably dead and that the whereabouts of a third were unknown.
Mwibo came to the town after watching families of the cult’s victims on TV describe similar behavioural changes in their loved ones to those he had witnessed in his mother before she went missing.
“After Mum joined the church, she used to talk about Jesus all the time,” he said. “She used to even tell me to quit my job because it is not important, saying that I should follow her because Jesus is coming back soon.”
Also in Malindi was Joyce Makori, 38, who counted herself among the fortunate few after finding her husband, Daniel, alive on a roadside by the Shakahola forest.
The couple had grown apart after nearly a decade of marriage when he left her and his children for the cult, though they occasionally spoke over the phone. Makori said that in recent years she had been disturbed by his behaviour. For instance he was adamant, she said, that the world would be ending in June this year.
When news broke of the bodies being found, she decided to try to find him. In the days just before his rescue last week, she said he gave the sense over their phone call that he was under threat.
“Where it has reached, I am going to die,” she recalled him saying. “They have taken away my phone and suspect that I am sharing information outside. On this path I am on I could either be captured, die in the forest or be killed … I can’t leave.”
Makori said she had had a tough time trying to persuade the local authorities to help her locate her husband. She carpooled to Shakahola with 10 other people who also wanted to look for their families, and eventually got some help from the police once she had determined his general location.
Many other cult followers are still believed to be in the forest. Local activist Victor Kaudo, who helped tip off authorities to the cult’s activities, has raised concern over the pace of the rescue missions. The activist and some followers’ families say that exhuming bodies has been prioritised over trying to rescue survivors.
“Everyday we are losing lives,” said Kaudo. “There are many more people there who need our help.”
President William Ruto, whose administration has been perceived as religious-leaning, strongly condemned Nthenge’s cult as a fringe movement, comparing rogue pastors like Nthenge to terrorists who “use religion to advance weird, unacceptable ideology”.
Rescue teams report that Nthenge’s following had wide reach: his followers were not only locals but people from across the country, with a handful from other African countries, including Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.
Thirty-four cult followers have been rescued so far, a number in a critical condition. A few others died before they made it to the hospital. The survivors – some of whom tried to resist rescue efforts – were taken to private facilities, such as local schools, where they are receiving counselling. Sources in close contact with the victims say that a number of them have refused to address recent events, and that others are traumatised or don’t buy into suspicions of wrongdoing on Nthenge’s part.
Natalia Gumenyuk, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said Russian logistics were being targeted to undermine morale and spread panic.
“This work is preparatory to the large-scale full-scale offensive that everyone expects,” she told Ukrainian media on Sunday.
Aerial and naval drone attacks on Sevastopol have worried residents, holidaymakers and the Russian navy.
Last year, the Russian navy withdrew its main submarine force to Novorossiysk, 180 miles away on the Russian mainland coast to avoid drone attacks.
Following the attack on Saturday on the fuel depot, Russian media later reported traffic jams over the Crimea Bridge as residents and holidaymakers fled.
'Russians don't feel peace'
Sevastopol is significant as it is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Ms Gumenyuk said that Russians “don’t feel peace in the bays of Sevastopol” any more.
Ukraine’s military said that the drone attack had destroyed 40,000 tonnes of fuel. Russian officials confirmed the drone strike and said that nobody had been injured in the attack.
Huge flames engulf the fuel depot in Crimea
Credit: AP
The strike on the fuel depot comes as Ukrainian officials talk up the start of their much-anticipated counter-offensive, possibly aimed at recapturing the peninsula.
On Saturday evening, in an interview with Swedish media, Volodymyr Zelenksy said that although Ukraine has not yet received all the sophisticated weapons it had asked for, it would shortly launch its counter-offensive.
“There will be a counter-attack, and I think it will succeed,” he said. “Have we had enough armaments for that? I would say that we are on the way to the fact that we are.”
Ukraine accused of shelling village
Russian officials in occupied Melitopol, regarded as the “Gateway to Crimea”, have reported a build-up of Ukrainian soldiers and also on increased incursions by Ukrainian patrols across the Dnipro River, which forms the frontline.
And officials in the Bryansk region of southern Russia on Sunday also accused Ukrainian forces of shelling a village near the border and killing four people. Ukraine has denied responsibility.
Villages in Bryansk and Belgorod have been hit several times since the start of the war.
“Four civilians have been killed,” Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app. Two other citizens were being treated in hospital, he added.
Mr Bogomaz earlier said that one residential building had been completely destroyed and two other houses partially destroyed.
Mr Bogomaz blamed the incident on “Ukrainian nationalists”. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
Two years ago, Issa Ali’s mother took all her belongings and left her family to join followers of the charismatic church leader Paul Mackenzie Nthenge in the Shakahola forest in south-east Kenya.
“He told them that’s where Jesus’ second coming will happen,” the 16-year-old said.
When he saw his mother again earlier this year, he said she was “nearly unrecognisable”, and had gone from being well built to shockingly frail.
“She told us it could be the last time we would see her, that her earthly life had lost all meaning and that she would be going to heaven soon. We tried to stop her, but couldn’t – she wasn’t herself at all,” Ali said.
The next time he heard of his mother was when his friends told him last week that she had been found dead in shallow graves in the forest, although her death has not yet been officially confirmed to him.
Ali’s mother’s apparent fate is just one story among scores in the case of a “starvation cult” – led by Nthenge – that has gripped and shocked Kenyans since police began unearthing corpses in the forest about two weeks ago.
On 15 April, one day after police raided the forest following a tip-off, Nthenge was arrested on suspicion of luring his followers into the remote area and brainwashing them into fasting to the death in order to “meet Jesus”.
The Shakahola forest has been declared an active crime scene and is cordoned off. A dusk to dawn curfew is in place. Nthenge is in police custody pending a court hearing, as are a few other men suspected of conspiring in the mass killing.
Hassan Musa, a Kenya Red Cross regional manager, said that by Friday 410 people had been reported missing by their loved ones, including 227 children under the age of 18 years. So far more than 100 bodies have been discovered.
As the scale of the deaths emerged last week, the town of Malindi, roughly 50 miles from the forest and known for its sandy white beaches and Swahili-inspired architecture, was thrown into a state of unease.
Fear and speculation dominated conversations in market stalls, bars and hotels as distressed families filled in missing person reports at police stations, or queued at public hospitals and even morgues in an attempt to find out if they had lost a loved one to the cult.
Some had travelled hundreds of miles, including Rogers Mwibo, 30, who had come from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Mwibo said his understanding was that two of his missing family members were probably dead and that the whereabouts of a third were unknown.
Mwibo came to the town after watching families of the cult’s victims on TV describe similar behavioural changes in their loved ones to those he had witnessed in his mother before she went missing.
“After Mum joined the church, she used to talk about Jesus all the time,” he said. “She used to even tell me to quit my job because it is not important, saying that I should follow her because Jesus is coming back soon.”
Also in Malindi was Joyce Makori, 38, who counted herself among the fortunate few after finding her husband, Daniel, alive on a roadside by the Shakahola forest.
The couple had grown apart after nearly a decade of marriage when he left her and his children for the cult, though they occasionally spoke over the phone. Makori said that in recent years she had been disturbed by his behaviour. For instance he was adamant, she said, that the world would be ending in June this year.
When news broke of the bodies being found, she decided to try to find him. In the days just before his rescue last week, she said he gave the sense over their phone call that he was under threat.
“Where it has reached, I am going to die,” she recalled him saying. “They have taken away my phone and suspect that I am sharing information outside. On this path I am on I could either be captured, die in the forest or be killed … I can’t leave.”
Makori said she had had a tough time trying to persuade the local authorities to help her locate her husband. She carpooled to Shakahola with 10 other people who also wanted to look for their families, and eventually got some help from the police once she had determined his general location.
Many other cult followers are still believed to be in the forest. Local activist Victor Kaudo, who helped tip off authorities to the cult’s activities, has raised concern over the pace of the rescue missions. The activist and some followers’ families say that exhuming bodies has been prioritised over trying to rescue survivors.
“Everyday we are losing lives,” said Kaudo. “There are many more people there who need our help.”
President William Ruto, whose administration has been perceived as religious-leaning, strongly condemned Nthenge’s cult as a fringe movement, comparing rogue pastors like Nthenge to terrorists who “use religion to advance weird, unacceptable ideology”.
Rescue teams report that Nthenge’s following had wide reach: his followers were not only locals but people from across the country, with a handful from other African countries, including Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.
Thirty-four cult followers have been rescued so far, a number in a critical condition. A few others died before they made it to the hospital. The survivors – some of whom tried to resist rescue efforts – were taken to private facilities, such as local schools, where they are receiving counselling. Sources in close contact with the victims say that a number of them have refused to address recent events, and that others are traumatised or don’t buy into suspicions of wrongdoing on Nthenge’s part.
A drone strike caused a fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, sending a vast column of black smoke into the sky before it was extinguished, the city’s Moscow-installed governor has said.
Experts examined the site and “it became clear that only one drone was able to reach the oil reservoir”, Mikhail Razvozhaev said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday.
He said no one had been injured in the fire and another drone was downed, its wreckage found on the shore near the terminal.
A Ukrainian military intelligence official said more than 10 tanks of oil products with a capacity of about 40,000 tonnes intended for use by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were destroyed, RBC Ukraine reported.
Andriy Yusov did not claim that Ukraine was responsible for the explosion in comments reported by RBC, instead describing the blast as “God’s punishment” for a Russian strike on a Ukrainian city on Friday.
“This punishment will be long-lasting. In the near future, it is better for all residents of temporarily occupied Crimea not to be near military facilities and facilities that provide for the aggressor’s army,” RBC quoted Yusov as saying.
Earlier a spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces said he did not have any information to suggest Ukraine was responsible for the fire.
Sevastopol has come under repeated air attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv has repeatedly declared its intention to retake the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014 to an international outcry.
After previous attacks on Crimea, Ukraine has stopped short of openly claiming responsibility but emphasised it has the right to strike any target in response to Russian aggression.
An oil depot is on fire in Sevastopol after being hit by a drone in the early morning. pic.twitter.com/ll8zY2v8a2
Razvozhayev reported on Monday the Russian military destroyed a Ukrainian surface sea drone that attempted to attack the harbour and a second drone had exploded. The blasts shattered windows in several apartment buildings but did not inflict any other damage, he said.
The fire in Sevastopol comes a day after a barrage of Russian missiles hit residential areas in Ukraine killing 25 people and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged allies to provide his troops with better air defences, including fighter jets.
“Air defence, a modern air force – without which effective air defence is impossible – artillery, armoured vehicles. Everything that is necessary to provide security to our cities, to our villages, both in the hinterland and on the front lines,” Zelenskyy listed in a video message on Friday night.
He condemned the attack in the city of Uman in the early hours of Friday that he said killed at least 23 people, including four children.
Ten residential buildings were hit by missiles in Uman, in the Cherkasy region, officials said. One block of flats was destroyed. Eighteen people were injured in the attack, nine of whom were being treated in hospital.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a woman and her two-year-old daughter were also killed by night-time Russian shelling.
“Russian evil can be stopped by weapons – our defenders are doing it. And it can be stopped by sanctions – global sanctions must be enhanced,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter earlier in the day.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, on Friday gave the total number of missiles fired at Ukraine during the night as 23. Of these, 21 were shot down, along with two drones. The Ukrainian military said cruise missiles were also fired near the capital, Kyiv, with air defences downing 11 of them.
Shelling in the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk killed seven people and injured 19, local authorities reported on Friday.
A huge fire broke out on Saturday at a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the main port in Moscow-annexed Crimea, with authorities saying it was the result of a drone attack.
Sevastopol is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet and has been hit by a series of drone attacks since the Kremlin's Ukraine offensive launched last year.
"A fuel reserve is on fire in the Kazachya Bay district" of the city, the Moscow-installed governor of the peninsula Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram in the early hours of Saturday.
"According to preliminary information, it was caused by a drone strike."
He said the fire's size was "around 1,000 square metres" and published images of huge clouds of smoke rising into the air.
April 29 (Reuters) - A fuel tank was ablaze in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol in what appeared to be a drone strike, the Moscow-installed governor said on Saturday.
"According to preliminary information, the fire was caused by a drone hit," Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Sevastopol, on the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has come under repeated air attacks since Russia's full-fledged invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. Russian officials have blamed the attacks on Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
Razvozhaev said no one was hurt in Saturday's fire.
"The situation is under the control of our firefighters and all operative services," he wrote. "Since the volume of fuel is large, it will take time to localise the fire."
British nationals in Sudan have 24 hours to catch a flight before they are stopped, the deputy prime minister has said.
The flights will stop at 6pm UK time on Saturday, Oliver Dowden confirmed.
Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, he said more than 1,500 people had now been flown out of the country.
But he said there had been a "significant decline in British nationals coming forward", so the government would cease the flights.
Countries are in a race against the clock to evacuate their citizens from Sudan after the two warring factions extended a ceasefire by 72 hours yesterday.
The initial three day ceasefire was due to expire at 11pm UK time on Thursday. Despite this agreement, there are continued reports of heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum and the western region of Darfur.
Thousands have fled the country in recent days with food becoming scarce, electricity cut off across much of the capital and other cities, and many hospitals shut down.
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At least 512 civilians and fighters have been killed so far in the fighting, according to the country's health ministry, with 4,200 others injured.
Asked if that would mean abandoning British nationals who haven't been able to make it in time, Mr Dowden rejected the claim.
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Sudan rescue flights 'to end in next 24 hours'
He said: "Every single British national that has come forward and their eligible dependents has been put safely onto a plane.
"We are seeing those numbers declining significantly. And just like other countries, as those numbers decline, we have put an end date on this.
"What I would say is that even beyond that, we will maintain consular support in Sudan, particularly at the exit route. So both to the north, to south and particularly Port Sudan itself."
Asked what his advice would be for those left behind, Mr Dowden said: "Well, first of all, we have been very clear that this would be a time limited operation.
"We gave a very clear signal over 24 hours ago that people should expect that as the ceasefire comes to an end, we would be winding down the number of flights.
"We are now saying to those people, you have another 24 hours if you are eligible to make your way to the airport and we will get you on a plane, just as we have done for every other person that has come forward who is eligible, making it the longest and largest evacuation effort of any Western country."
Mr Dowden also said the Government was aware of NHS doctors being turned away from evacuation flights, saying: "We are in touch and engaging rapidly with the Sudanese Doctors Association to see what further support we can provide for them."
He added that after the 6pm deadline for flights, the Foreign Office will maintain "consular support at the other exit routes and in particular at Port Sudan".
By Hugo Bachega in Uman & Antoinette Radford in London
BBC News
A wave of Russian air strikes on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, has left at least 25 people dead.
23 people - including four children - were killed in an attack that hit a block of flats in the central city of Uman, officials said.
And a woman and her three-year-old daughter were killed in the city of Dnipro, according to the local mayor.
The Russian defence ministry said its military had targeted Ukrainian army reserve units with the strikes.
State-owned RIA news agency said Russia was aiming for the reserve units and used high-precision weapons on Friday.
In Uman, a town that has been largely spared Russian attack, a nine-storey apartment building partially collapsed after it was hit by a missile.
Oleksander, a 35-year-old resident of the block hit in Uman, said he had been woken up after he heard a powerful explosion.
"I couldn't understand what was happening. I went to the balcony and saw glass everywhere. It was horrible," he told the BBC.
"Russia is a terrorist state. You can see, there's no military object here. And it happened at four o'clock in the morning, as people were sleeping".
Another resident, 60-year-old Vanda, said she heard an explosion and "everything shook".
"We tried to find ways to leave the building. I heard a voice of a child who was screaming in the flat next to ours. We wanted to help other people. There was smoke and fire everywhere," she said.
"Peaceful people were just sleeping."
More than 10 hours after the attack, rescuers were still working at the site while residents tried to retrieve some of their belongings. In nearby buildings, some residents were already fixing broken windows.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the apartment block was among 10 residential buildings that were damaged in Uman.
The state rescue service said the child killed in the city was born in 2013 and another 11 people needed hospital treatment.
Mr Zelensky said the attacks showed further international action needed to be taken against Russia.
"Evil can be stopped by weapons - our defenders are doing it. And it can be stopped by sanctions - global sanctions must be enhanced," he said in a tweet..
The head of the Kyiv city military administration said it was the first Russian missile attack on the capital in 51 days.
There are no immediate reports of civilian casualties in the capital.
Twenty-one out of 23 missiles and two attack drones were shot down by Ukraine's air defence system, officials said in a post on the messaging service Telegram.
The Russian-installed mayor of Donetsk said seven people were killed in the separatist-run city when Ukrainian artillery shells hit a minibus. BBC News has been unable to immediately verify the claim.
The attacks come as Ukrainian forces say they are ready to launch a military offensive with new equipment, including tanks, supplied by Western allies.
"As soon as there is God's will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it," Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told an online news briefing on Friday.
Russia has struggled to make headway in a winter offensive including a 10-month battle for control of the strategically important city of Bakhmut.
The Russian defence ministry said on Friday its military had targeted Ukrainian army reserve units with long-range strikes using high-precision weapons, according to a report by the state-owned RIA news agency.
Moscow has previously said it does not deliberately target civilians, but thousands have been injured and killed across Ukraine since Russia's invasion.
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