BHUBANESWAR: Flights to and from the capital cities of India’s eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal, including Kolkata, will be suspended from Thursday evening to Friday morning as the region braces for a cyclone set to hit during that time, officials said.
Cyclone ‘Dana’, currently over the Bay of Bengal, is expected to cross the coasts of the states between midnight and Friday morning with wind speeds of 100-110kph, gusting up to 120kph, the weather department said.
Both states have closed schools in the areas that are expected to be bear the brunt of the storm and asked fishermen not to venture out to sea.
Television footage showed fishermen rushing to secure their straw homes and boats with ropes, and officials escorting residents in coastal areas to shelters as heavy winds and rains pounded parts of Odisha on Thursday.
The Adani group’s Dhamra port in the state’s Bhadrak region has also suspended operations.
“We have evacuated approximately 50,000 people so far, and a total of around 300,000 people are likely to be evacuated,” Special Relief Commissioner Deoranjan Kumar Singh said.
Neighboring West Bengal state has also issued a red alert for three districts located close to the area where the cyclone is expected to make landfall, officials said.
The state’s capital city of Kolkata remained overcast on Thursday with short spells of rain.
Severe storms lash coastal cities in India and neighboring Bangladesh during the cyclone season from April to December each year, causing extensive damage.
Odisha’s worst cyclone in recent years was in 1999, which raged for 30 hours and killed 10,000 people.
At least 16 people were killed when a cyclone lashed India and Bangladesh in May, packing speeds of up to 135kph.
Flights suspended at India’s Kolkata, Odisha state as cyclone approaches
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Flights suspended at India’s Kolkata, Odisha state as cyclone approaches
- Cyclone Dana is expected to cross the coasts of the states between midnight and Friday morning with wind speeds of 100kph-110kph
- Severe storms lash coastal cities in India and neighboring Bangladesh during the cyclone season from April to December each year
Ethiopia’s prime minister accuses Eritrea of mass killings during Tigray war
- Landlocked Ethiopia says that Eritrea is arming rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport
- Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s government Tuesday for the first time acknowledged the involvement of troops from neighboring Eritrea in the war in the Tigray region that ended in 2022, accusing them of mass killings, amid reports of renewed fighting in the region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while addressing parliament Tuesday, accused Eritrean troops fighting alongside Ethiopian forces of mass killings in the war, during which more than 400,000 people are estimated to have died.
Eritrean and Ethiopian troops fought against regional forces in the northern Tigray region in a war that ended in 2022 with the signing of a peace agreement.
Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told The Associated Press that Ahmed’s comments were “cheap and despicable lies” and did not merit a response.
Both nations have been accusing each other of provoking a potential civil war, with landlocked Ethiopia saying that Eritrea is arming and funding rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport.
“The rift did not begin with the Red Sea issue, as many people think,” Ahmed told parliamentarians. “It started in the first round of the war in Tigray, when the Eritrean army followed us into Shire and began demolishing houses, massacred our youth in Axum, looted factories in Adwa, and uprooted our factories.”
“The Red Sea and Ethiopia cannot remain separated forever,” he added.
Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare.
Gebremeskel said the prime minister has only recently changed his tune in his push for access to the Red Sea.
Ahmed “and his top military brass were profusely showering praises and State Medals on the Eritrea army and its senior officers. … But when he later developed the delusional malaise of ‘sovereignty access to the sea’ and an agenda of war against Eritrea, he began to sing to a different chorus,” he said.
Eritrea and Ethiopia initially made peace after Abiy came to power in 2018, with Abiy winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts toward reconciliation.
In June, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of having a “long-brewing war agenda” aimed at seizing its Red Sea ports. Ethiopia recently said that Eritrea was “actively preparing to wage war against it.”
Analysts say an alliance between Eritrea and regional forces in the troubled Tigray region may be forming, as fighting has been reported in recent weeks. Flights by the national carrier to the region were canceled last week over the renewed clashes.
