President of Niger must be immediately released: OIC
The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the government
Updated 29 July 2023
Arab News
JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has demanded the immediate release of Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been detained following a coup d’état.
Bazoum has not been heard from since early Thursday when he was confined within the presidential palace, although the EU, France and others say they still recognize him as the legitimate president.
Hissein Brahim Taha, the organization’s chief, said on Saturday he was following with deep concern the developments in Niger, an OIC member. He strongly condemned any attempt to seize power by force, stressing Bazoum’s safety and need to restore the rule of law in the country.
The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the government just as the coup leaders met with senior civil servants to discuss how they would run the country and as the US and the European Union threatened sanctions against the regime.
Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted Bazoum, told state television that the junta met civil servants on Friday and asked them to continue their work as usual following the suspension of the constitution.
“The message given was not to stop the processes underway, to keep on with things,” said Brig. Gen. Toumba.
The US threatened to halt its economic support to Niger while the EU announced the immediate indefinite suspension of budgetary support and security assistance.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is in Australia as part of a Pacific tour, estimated America’s economic and security partnership with Niger at hundreds of millions of dollars and said its continuity depends on “the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order.”
Blinken said: “So that assistance, that support, is in clear jeopardy as a result of these actions, which is another reason why they need to be immediately reversed.”
While there are no signs of the junta backing down amid growing international pressure, analysts called for synergy in the interventions of the international community and continental organizations such as the AU and the regional bloc of ECOWAS, which is scheduled to meet over the coup on Sunday.
Agonizing wait as Switzerland works to identify New Year’s fire victims
Authorities begin moving bodies from burned-out bar in luxury ski resor Crans-Montana
At least 40 people were killed in one of Switzerland's worst tragedies
Updated 41 min 31 sec ago
AFP
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland: Families endured an agonizing wait for news of their loved ones Friday as Swiss investigators rushed to identify victims of a ski resort fire at a New Year’s celebration that killed at least 40 people.
Authorities began moving bodies from the burned-out bar in the luxury ski resort town Crans-Montana late Friday morning, with the first silver-colored hearse rolling into the funeral center in nearby Sion shortly after 11:00 am (1000 GMT), AFP journalists saw.
Around 115 people were also injured in the fire, many of them critical condition.
As the scope of the tragedy — one of Switzerland’s worst — began to sink in, Crans-Montana appeared enveloped in a stunned silence.
Mathias Reynard, president of the Council of State of Valais Canton, with Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani outside "Le Constellation" bar in Crans-Montana where a fire and explosion on New Year's Eve killed more than 40 people. (Reuters)
“The atmosphere is heavy,” Dejan Bajic, a 56-year-old tourist from Geneva who has been coming to the resort since 1974, told AFP.
“It’s like a small village; everyone knows someone who knows someone who’s been affected,” he said.
It is not yet clear what set off the blaze at Le Constellation, a bar popular with young tourists, at around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) Thursday.
Bystanders described scenes of panic and chaos as people tried to break the windows to escape and others, covered in burns, poured into the street.
‘Screaming in pain’
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, told AFP he had seen “bodies lying here, ... covered with a white sheet,” and “young people, totally burned, who were still alive... Screaming in pain.”
The exact death toll was still being established.
And it could rise, with canton president Mathias Reynard telling the regional newspaper Wallizer Bote that at least 80 of the 115 injured were in critical condition.
Swiss authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, an agonizing wait for family and friends.
Condolences poured in from around the world, including from Pope Leo XIV, who offered “compassion and solidarity” to victims’ families.
Online, desperate appeals abound to find the missing.
“We’ve tried to reach our friends. We took loads of photos and posted them on Instagram, Facebook, all possible social networks to try to find them,” said Eleonore, 17. “But there’s nothing. No response.”
‘The apocalypse’
The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear.
Le Constellation had a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took office on Thursday, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions” and announced that flags would be flown at half-mast for five days.
“We thought it was just a small fire — but when we got there, it was war,” Mathys, from the neighboring village of Chermignon-d’en-Bas, told AFP. “That’s the only word I can use to describe it: the apocalypse.”
Authorities have declined to speculate on what caused the tragedy, saying only that it was not an attack.
Several witness accounts, broadcast by various media, pointed to sparklers mounted on champagne bottles and held aloft by restaurant staff as part of a regular “show” for patrons.
‘Dramatic’
Pictures and videos shared on social media also showed sparklers on champagne bottles held into the air, as an orange glow began spreading across the ceiling.
One video showed the flames advancing quickly as revellers initially continued to dance.
One young man playfully attempted to extinguish the flames with a large white cloth, but the scene became panic-stricken as people scrambled and screamed in the dark against a backdrop of smoke and flames.
The canton’s chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, said investigators would examine whether the bar met safety standards.
Red and white caution tape, flowers and candles adorned the street outside, while police shielded the site with white screens.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said 13 Italians had been injured in the fire, and six remained missing, was among those to lay flowers at the site.
The French foreign ministry said nine French citizens figured among the injured, and eight others remained unaccounted for.
After emergency units at local hospitals filled, many of the injured were transported across Switzerland and beyond.
Patients are being treated in Italy, France and Germany, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country was ready to provide “specialized medical care to 14 injured.”
Multiple sources told AFP the bar owners were French nationals: a couple originally from Corsica who, according to a relative, are safe, but have been unreachable since the tragedy.
