SIDOARJO: The search for victims of last week’s Indonesian school collapse ended on Tuesday with the death toll climbing to 67, an official said.
Part of the multi-story Islamic boarding school on Indonesia’s Java island caved in on September 29 as more than 170 students gathered for afternoon prayers.
“Entering the 9th day, we have concluded the search and rescue operation for the victims,” head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Mohammad Syafii, told a press conference.
The agency’s operations director, Yudhi Bramantyo, said rescuers on Tuesday cleared all the rubble at the collapse site, scoured the area, and concluded it was very unlikely they would find more bodies.
“The total number of victims evacuated is 171, with 67 people dead, including eight body parts, and 104 people survived,” Yudhi told a press conference.
Budi Irawan, the deputy head of the national disaster agency (BNPB), said it is “very unlikely there are still bodies there.”
Only 17 bodies have been identified so far, according to the police’s Disaster Victim Identification unit.
The collapse was Indonesia’s deadliest disaster so far this year, according to the National Disaster Agency (BNPB).
Investigators have been examining the cause of the collapse, but initial indications suggest that substandard construction may have contributed to the incident, according to experts.
The families of the missing agreed last Thursday for heavy equipment to be used, after the 72-hour “golden period” for the best chance of survival came to an end. Lax construction standards have raised widespread concerns about building safety in Indonesia.
At least three people were killed and dozens were injured in September when a building hosting a prayer recital collapsed in West Java.
Indonesia school collapse toll hits 67 as search ends
https://arab.news/2mmej
Indonesia school collapse toll hits 67 as search ends
Fossil fuel lobbyists out in force at Amazon climate talks: NGOs
BELEM: Lobbyists tied to the fossil fuel industry have turned up in strength at the UN climate talks in the Brazilian Amazon, an NGO coalition said Friday, warning that their presence undermines the process.
A total of 1,602 delegates with links to the oil, gas and coal sectors have headed to Belem, equivalent to around one in 25 participants, according to Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO), which analyzed the list of attendees.
By comparison, hosts Brazil have sent 3,805 delegates.
The list compiled by KBPO includes representatives of energy giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and TotalEnergies, as well as state-owned oil firms from Africa, Brazil, China and the Gulf.
But it also includes personnel from a broad range of companies such as German automaker Volkswagen or Danish shipping giant Maersk, or representatives of trade associations and other groups.
The Venice Sustainability Foundation is on the list because its members include Italian oil firm Eni.
KBPO also counted Danish wind energy giant Orsted, as it still has a gas trading business, and French energy firm EDF — most of its power comes from nuclear plants but it still uses some fossil fuels.
The list includes state-owned Emirati renewable firm Masdar.
One of the analysts, Patrick Galey, head of fossil fuel investigations at Global Witness, told AFP that some of the names might appear “surprising” at first sight, but KBPO analyzes data and open source material to identify those linked to fossil fuels.
Any renewable company that is a subsidiary of a fossil fuel firm made the list, for instance, because they are “at the beck and call” of their parent group, Galey said.
KBPO said it considers a fossil fuel lobbyist any delegate who “represents an organization or is a member of a delegation that can be reasonably assumed to have the objective of influencing” policy or legislation in the interests of the oil, gas and coal industry.
KBPO started analyzing official lists of COP participants in 2021.
COP28 in oil-rich Dubai in 2023 had a record number of participants — over 80,000 — but also the most fossil fuel lobbyists ever counted by KBPO at 2,456, or three percent of the total.
In Belem, 3.8 percent of attendees are tied to fossil fuel interests, the largest share ever documented by KBPO.
The UN began publishing a more comprehensive list of participants at COP28, making historical comparisons tricky.
“It’s common sense that you cannot solve a problem by giving power to those who caused it,” said Kick Big Polluters Out member Jax Bonbon from IBON International in the Philippines, which was recently struck by a devastating typhoon.
“Yet three decades and 30 COPs later, more than 1,500 fossil fuel lobbyists are roaming the climate talks as if they belong here,” Bonbon said in a statement.
The numbers could be higher.
According to Transparency International, 54 percent of participants in national delegations either withheld their affiliation or selected a vague category such as “guest” or “other.”
