MADRID: Ten of the more than 600 migrants who forced their way into the Spanish territory of Ceuta last month by violently storming a heavily fortified border fence with Morocco were arrested Tuesday, police said.
The 10 sub-Saharan African migrants, who were arrested at an immigrant holding center in Ceuta, are accused of belonging to a criminal organization, assaulting a police officer and causing damage, Spain’s Guardia Civil said in a statement.
Among those arrested is the suspected head of the group that led the coordinated assault on the border on July 26 in which 22 police officers were injured, it added.
The man, who is from Togo, “offered strong resistance during his detention causing light injuries” to a police officer, the statement said.
Two of the other arrested men are from Cameroon, with the rest from Guinea.
Pictures released by police showed the men being escorted by armed officers into a green and white police van, their hands handcuffed behind their backs.
A total of 602 migrants reached Ceuta last month storming the double border fence and attacking police with caustic quicklime, excrement, stones and sticks.
They even set spray cans on fire, using them as “flame-throwers,” and used saws and shears to cut the fence, according to police.
Police said they seized molotov cocktails as well as several bags with hashish from the migrants who stormed the border.
The scramble over the barbed wire-decked barrier was the biggest in Ceuta since February 2017, when more than 850 migrants entered the overseas territory over four days.
Last week 116 migrants made a similar bid to enter Ceuta but were promptly sent back to Morocco, prompting criticism from human rights groups.
Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other territory in North Africa, have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa, drawing migrants trying to reach the bloc.
A total of 4,382 migrants have entered the two territories by land since the start of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
More than 32,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea and land this year, making it the main entry point for migrants arriving in Europe, after Italy and Greece.
Police arrest 10 migrants who stormed Spain-Morocco border
Police arrest 10 migrants who stormed Spain-Morocco border
- The 10 sub-Saharan African migrants are accused of belonging to a criminal organization
- Pictures released by police showed the men being escorted by armed officers into a green and white police van
2025 among world’s three hottest years on record, WMO says
- All eight datasets confirmed that the last three years were the planet’s three hottest since records began, the WMO said
- The slight differences in the datasets’ rankings reflect their different methodologies and types of measurements
BRUSSELS: Last year was among the planet’s three warmest on record, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday, as EU scientists also confirmed average temperatures have now exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming for the longest since records began.
The WMO, which consolidates eight climate datasets from around the world, said six of them — including the European Union’s European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the British national weather service — had ranked 2025 as the third warmest, while two placed it as the second warmest in the 176-year record.
All eight datasets confirmed that the last three years were the planet’s three hottest since records began, the WMO said. The warmest year on record was 2024.
THREE-YEAR PERIOD ABOVE 1.5 C AVERAGE WARMING LEVEL
The slight differences in the datasets’ rankings reflect their different methodologies and types of measurements — which include satellite data and readings from weather stations.
ECMWF said 2025 also rounded out the first three-year period in which the average global temperature was 1.5 C above the pre-industrial era — the limit beyond which scientists expect global warming will unleash severe impacts, some of them irreversible.
“1.5 C is not a cliff edge. However, we know that every fraction of a degree matters, particularly for worsening extreme weather events,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at ECMWF.
Burgess said she expected 2026 to be among the planet’s five warmest years.
CHOICE OF HOW TO MANAGE TEMPERATURE OVERSHOOT
Governments pledged under the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to avoid exceeding 1.5 C of global warming, measured as a decades-long average temperature compared with pre-industrial temperatures.
But their failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions means that target could now be breached before 2030 — a decade earlier than had been predicted when the Paris accord was signed in 2015, ECMWF said. “We are bound to pass it,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. “The choice we now have is how to best manage the inevitable overshoot and its consequences on societies and natural systems.”
Currently, the world’s long-term warming level is about 1.4 C above the pre-industrial era, ECMWF said. Measured on a short-term basis, average annual temperatures breached 1.5 C for the first time in 2024.
EXTREME WEATHER
Exceeding the long-term 1.5 C limit would lead to more extreme and widespread impacts, including hotter and longer heatwaves, and more powerful storms and floods. Already in 2025, wildfires in Europe produced the highest total emissions on record, while scientific studies confirmed specific weather events were made worse by climate change, including Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean and monsoon rains in Pakistan which killed more than 1,000 people in floods.
Despite these worsening impacts, climate science is facing political pushback. US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change “the greatest con job,” last week withdrew from dozens of UN entities including the scientific Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The long-established consensus among the world’s scientists is that climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse. Its main cause is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, which trap heat in the atmosphere.
