ATHENS: The Greek coast guard recovered four bodies Tuesday after an inflatable boat carrying 38 migrants capsized off the island of Lesbos.
“The four bodies were discovered off the Gulf of Gera on Lesbos while 34 people were discovered on the coast nearby,” a police spokesperson said.
Identification of the victims and the survivors was ongoing, they added.
The migrants’ boat ran aground near the coast then began to sink as strong winds whipped up waves of up to 1.5 meters (five feet), according to the Greek ANA news agency.
Most of the survivors were from African countries and were taken to a reception and registration center on Lesbos, the agency said.
Lesbos, like other Greek islands in the Aegean Sea near neighboring Turkiye, is one of the main entry points into Europe for people fleeing war and poverty.
The perilous crossings are often fatal. In April, seven people, including three children, died when their inflatable boat capsized off the island.
Greece has seen an increase in the number of migrant and refugee arrivals further south on Crete, coming in particular from Libya.
The conservative government hardened its migration policy in July, suspending asylum claims for three months from people coming from north Africa.
The move has been criticized by a number of international organizations, including the UN refugee agency and the Council of Europe.
Four migrants die as boat capsizes off Greece
https://arab.news/wztka
Four migrants die as boat capsizes off Greece
- The four bodies were discovered off the Gulf of Gera on Lesbos
- Most of the survivors were from African countries
South Sudan officers face court martial over civilian massacre
- The increasingly unstable country is seeing a surge of fighting between government and opposition forces
JUBA: South Sudanese soldiers, including two officers, will face a court martial over a civilian massacre last month, the army spokesman said Wednesday.
The increasingly unstable country is seeing a surge of fighting between government and opposition forces, much of it in eastern Jonglei state where at least 280,000 people have been displaced since December according to the UN.
At least 25 civilians, including women and children, were killed in Ayod County in Jonglei state on February 21, according to the opposition.
Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said that two officers, including a major, and several non-commissioned officers, had been arrested and would face charges in the capital Juba, “before they are arraigned before a competent military court martial.”
He said the deaths were attributed to “some elements” under Gen. Johnson Olony, who was filmed in January ordering troops to “spare no lives” in Jonglei.
Koang said the soldiers had “moved out without the knowledge or authorization of the division commander.”
He also said they had been part of a militia group allied to opposition forces, parts of which had not yet been fully integrated into the army.
Military integration was among the core principles of a peace agreement that ended South Sudan’s five-year civil war in 2018 between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Riek Machar, but it was never implemented.
Koang said the army regretted the loss of lives, adding: “We would like to once again remind our forces that their mandate is to protect civilians and their property, not to do the opposite.”
It followed an impassioned plea from the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference on recent civilian killings — in Ayod, and also in Abiemnom County near the Sudan border where at least 169 people were killed on Sunday.
“We implore you to deploy resources to protect vulnerable populations and foster a climate of dialogue and reconciliation instead of violence and revenge, consoling the bereaved and supporting the afflicted,” it said in a statement.
