Tourists flee wildfires on Greek island of Rhodes
Rhodes, GreeceReuters Thousands of tourists and residents fleeing wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes took refuge in schools and shelters on Sunday, with many evacuated on private boats as flames threatened resorts and coastal villages. Thousands spent the night on beaches and streets during what Greece said was its biggest safe transport of residents […]
Residents in for months-long displacement as Philippine volcano spews lava, gases
Manila, Philippines Reuters At least 14,000 people evacuated from around a volcano spewing lava and noxious gases in the central Philippines may remain displaced from their homes for months, authorities warned on Tuesday. Incandescent lava was seen flowing slowly from the mouth of the 2,462-metre Mayon volcano, which was placed on a high alert level […]
Syrians in Sudan flee war for second time
Cairo, Egypt/Qamishli, Syria Reuters Radwan Hisham Wahba fled Syria in 2012 for Sudan, hoping to build a new life after being shot when his country collapsed into civil war. Now, as violence engulfs his adopted home, he and many other Syrians living there are on the move once more. Days after escaping the bloodshed in […]
Fighting flares in Sudan; Bashir moved from jail as allies walk free
Khartoum, SudanReuters Sudan’s army and a paramilitary force battled on Khartoum’s outskirts on Wednesday, undermining a truce in an 11-day conflict that civilian groups fear will tighten the military’s grip and revive the sway of an ousted autocrat’s loyalists. The army said Omar al-Bashir, the 79-year-old former dictator toppled in 2019, had been transferred from […]
Sudan lab seizure poses biohazard risk during lull in battles
Khartoum, Sudan Reuters Fighting in Sudan eased on Tuesday and more foreigners and locals fled the capital Khartoum, where marauding combatants created what a UN agency said was a “high risk of biological hazard” by seizing a laboratory. The World Health Organization said one of the warring parties had taken control of a national health […]
Sudan factions agree to 72-hour ceasefire as foreigners are evacuated
Khartoum, SudanReuters Sudan’s warring factions agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting on Tuesday, while Western, Arab and Asian nations raced to extract their citizens from the country. The Sudan Armed Forces said the US and Saudi Arabia mediated the truce. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the agreement first and said it followed two […]
To stay or go? The dilemma Ukrainians near front face every day
Kalynivka, Ukraine Reuters It was finally time for Vasyl Kurlyshchuk to leave. When Ukraine’s State Emergency Service evacuation team arrived outside the gate of his small home in the eastern village of Kalynivka on Tuesday, the 74-year-old began slowly sorting through his papers and faded picture albums. Residents queue to fill up bottles with fresh […]
Turkey’s Antakya turns into a ghost city after third quake
Antakya, TurkeyReuters Trucks, emergency vehicles and excavators lined the desolate streets of Turkey’s Antakya Tuesday night, after the third major earthquake in two weeks accelerated an exodus from the once-lively city. In the pitch-black streets, passing headlights revealed mounds of rubble, frames of broken windows, and entangled rebar. Red and blue flashing lights from military […]
Large convoy from Mariupol reaches safety, refugees talk of “devastating” escape
Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine Reuters A large convoy of cars and vans carrying refugees from the ruins of Mariupol arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday after waiting days for Russian troops to allow them to leave. Mariupol, now mostly Russian-controlled, has been flattened during the 80-day-old war. Ukraine has gradually been evacuating civilians from […]
Mariupol evacuee recounts heart-stopping terror in the bunkers of Azovstal
Bezimenne, Ukraine Reuters Cowering in the labyrinth of Soviet-era bunkers far beneath the vast Azovstal steel works, Natalia Usmanova felt her heart would stop she was so terrified as Russian bombs rained down on Mariupol, sprinkling her with concrete dust. Usmanova, 37, spoke to Reuters on Sunday after being evacuated from the plant, a sprawling […]