BELEM, Brazil: Dozens of Indigenous protesters forced their way into the COP30 climate summit venue on Tuesday and clashed with security guards at the entrance to demand climate action and forest protection.
Shouting angrily, protesters demanded access to the UN compound where thousands of delegates from countries around the world are attending this year’s UN climate summit in the Amazon city of Belem, Brazil.
Some waved flags with slogans calling for land rights or carried signs saying, “Our land is not for sale.”
“We can’t eat money,” said Nato, an Indigenous leader from the Tupinamba community, who uses only one name. “We want our lands free from agribusiness, oil exploration, illegal miners and illegal loggers.”
Security guards pushed the protesters back and used tables to barricade the entrance. A Reuters witness saw one security guard being rushed away in a wheelchair while clutching his stomach.
Another guard with a fresh cut above his eye told Reuters he had been hit in the head by a heavy drumstick thrown from the crowd. Security confiscated several long, heavy sticks.
The protesters dispersed shortly after the clash. They had been in a group of hundreds who marched to the venue.
Security guards later allowed delegates to exit the venue, having earlier asked them to move back inside until the area was clear. Within the compound, the United Nations is responsible for security.
“Earlier this evening, a group of protesters breached security barriers at the main entrance to the COP, causing minor injuries to two security staff, and minor damage to the venue,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“Brazilian and UN security personnel took protective actions to secure the venue, following all established security protocols. Brazilian and UN authorities are investigating the incident. The venue is fully secured, and COP negotiations continue.”
The main entrance to the venue had been closed for repairs and the UN climate agency said it will reopen on Wednesday morning.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has highlighted Indigenous communities as key players in this year’s COP30 negotiations.
Earlier this week, dozens of Indigenous leaders arrived by boat to participate in the talks and demand more say in how forests are managed.
In a separate interview on Tuesday, a prominent Indigenous leader told Reuters that many from the Indigenous communities were upset with ongoing industry and development projects in the forest. Raoni Metuktire, also known as Chief Raoni, urged Brazil to empower native peoples to preserve the Amazon.
Protesters force their way into COP30 summit venue, clash with security
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Protesters force their way into COP30 summit venue, clash with security
- Indigenous protesters demand access to COP30 climate summit
- Indigenous leaders seek more influence in forest management talks
French court slashes jails term for trio over 2020 teacher beheading
- Brahim Chnina, the Moroccan father of a girl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, had his 13-year sentence reduced to 10 years
PARIS, France: A French court on Monday reduced on appeal the jail sentences of three men convicted over the 2020 terrorist beheading of a teacher who showed a class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered in October 2020 by an 18-year-old radical Islamist of Chechen origin in an act that horrified France.
His attacker, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was killed in a shootout with police.
Two friends of Anzorov, French national Naim Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, a Russian of Chechen origin, had their sentences of 16 years in prison reduced to six and seven years respectively by a Paris court of appeal.
Both were accused of having driven Anzorov and helping him to procure weapons before the beheading.
Brahim Chnina, the Moroccan father of a girl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, had his 13-year sentence reduced to 10 years.
His daughter, then aged 13, was not actually in the classroom at the time and during the first trial apologized to the teacher’s family.
The court however left the 15-year term for French-Moroccan Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui untouched.
The quartet were among the seven men and one woman found guilty in 2024 of contributing to the climate of hatred that led to the beheading of the history and geography teacher in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris.
Paty, who has become a free-speech icon, used the cartoons as part of an ethics class to discuss freedom of expression laws in France.
