In this vacant and damaged village, news of Russia’s evacuation of occupied towns along the southern front cannot come soon enough.

Ukrainian-held Mala Tokmachka, just over a mile (2 kilometers) from Russian-held territory in the Zaporizhzhia region, has been left ghostly and battered by shelling, leaving the central square pockmarked, and the school’s facade torn off. Shrapnel is mixed in with fallen pine cones.

Raisa, a local woman passing some Ukrainian soldiers on her bicycle, said the explosions had picked up recently and she had heard small arms fire from the nearby highway. “There is no way out for us,” she said, of the remaining 200 civilians. “We have no water, gas or power for more than a year.”

Just 9 miles (15 km) down the road is Polohy, a town that Russian occupiers said Friday they would evacuate, a process which local sources said had got underway at the weekend, although some Russian soldiers apparently remain in place.

The town is a focus for Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive. While Kyiv has said it will not announce its commencement so as to cause maximum surprise, recent statements from Russian officials in occupied areas about attacks have indicated at least its opening stages are likely underway.

Polohy is one of over a dozen frontline settlements that occupying forces announced Friday would be emptied of civilians. A Russian occupation official, Yuri Balitsky, said “we cannot risk the safety of people and will provide funds for organized travel, lump sum payments, accommodation and meals.” He added children would undergo rehabilitation and rest in children’s camps,” echoing the language of previous incidents that Ukraine has dubbed forced deportation and on which the International Criminal Court based a war crimes indictment against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian officials have said the evacuations are being used to provide cover for the departure of Russian troops, and claimed civilians are being sent to the coastal town of Berdyansk, and Russian soldiers to the heavily destroyed city of Mariupol.

It is as yet unclear what impact these evacuations – which on Sunday Russian occupation officials said amounted to 1,600 people – will have on Moscow’s ability to hold frontline towns. But it is a sign of possible weakness, and in during past Ukrainian offensives, Russian positions have collapsed very suddenly, even as their spokespeople were articulating their avowed defense. At the best, these mass departures are recognition by Russian forces that the fight ahead of them will likely be intense.

The evacuees are also being moved all the way to the coastline – a reflection of the terrain to be fought over. Russia, according to satellite imagery, has built a substantial line of defenses along its southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Below this line of trenches and concrete, there are reports of some ongoing defenses, but not of a depth that would suggest Russia can easily afford to lose this initial frontline. Once Ukraine’s well-prepared offensive has pushed past this first boundary, there is a risk for Moscow that Kyiv’s move to the coast is a lot easier. That could be disastrous for the Russian occupation and Putin’s strategic hold of the land corridor that runs through Zaporizhzhia and connects the Crimean peninsula to the rest of occupied Ukraine and the Russian mainland.

Russia’s rage

In the Ukrainian-held city of Orikihv, one of the last major population centers before this frontline, the prospect of Russian forces being pushed decisively back cannot come fast enough. A constant artillery duel busies the horizon, together with intermittent mushroom clouds from enormous, often inaccurate Russian airstrikes.

Orikhiv is persistently battered by Russia’s rage as Ukrainian military pressure increases. The town’s rescue team said there is no longer any pattern to the shelling, which seems to strike at random times and locations. Dmytro Haydar, a rescuer, described the delicate balance his team must find between responding to strikes quickly and being caught in the regular “double-tap” follow-up attacks that Russian jets often launch to hit first-responders and survivors. “We saw them, as they leave a trail in the sky,” he said of one jet attack. “We had to stand near the basement because they launched guided bombs. There’s no particular time of day or place for the strikes.” Haydar gestured towards the recent sound of outgoing artillery fire and said: “That’s not necessarily Ukrainian. It could be from the Russian-held town of] Nesterianka. The frontline is 3 kilometers away, and then it’s them.”

The team’s chief, Andrew Grygorenko, said he was trapped at the start of the war in Russian-occupied Polohy, where he lived and worked as a rescuer. The Russians forced him and his men to continue their work. Grygorenko says his men one-by-one managed to escape. He evaded their tight scrutiny of his whereabouts when a local occupation official failed to turn up to work one day, and he drove a minibus of civilians out.

The regular effective targeting of Russian positions by Ukrainian firepower sparked a manhunt in the town for an informant. “They were searching for spotters, and those disloyal to the new power”, he said. “There are many missing people and many dead. We don’t know even the full picture. After liberation of our town, we will find many more there.”

King Charles III and Queen Camilla have shared their “most sincere and heartfelt thanks” in a new message from the monarch released by Buckingham Palace on Monday, as the coronation long weekend comes to an end.

The newly-crowned sovereign wrote that he and his wife wanted in particular to pay tribute to those who helped make events in London, Windsor and beyond “as happy, safe and enjoyable as possible.”

“To those who joined in the celebrations – whether at home, at street parties and lunches, or by volunteering in communities – we thank you, each and every one,” King Charles wrote. “To know that we have your support and encouragement, and to witness your kindness expressed in so many different ways, has been the greatest possible Coronation gift, as we now rededicate our lives to serving the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and Commonwealth.”

In addition to the King’s message of gratitude, the palace released four new official photographs of the King, Queen and members of the royal family taken after Saturday’s historic coronation service. All were taken by renowned British photographer Hugo Burnand at Buckingham Palace.

One portrait shows the King photographed in the palace’s Throne Room dressed in the full regalia – the Robe of Estate and the Imperial State Crown while holding the Sovereign’s Orb and Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross.

He is seated on one of a pair of 1902 throne chairs that were built for use at King Edward VII’s coronation by future King George V and Queen Mary.

In a separate portrait, Queen Camilla was photographed wearing Queen Mary’s Crown and Robe of Estate in the Green Drawing Room.

The King and Queen also sat for a portrait together in the Throne Room.

Finally a fourth photograph was released of the King and Queen flanked by “working royals” – members of the family who carry out official duties on behalf of the monarch.

London-based Burnand has long held close ties to the royal family, having previously taken the official photos for both Charles and Camilla’s wedding in 2005, and William and Kate’s wedding in 2011. He’s also been privately taking photographs of Charles and Camilla for over two decades.

Burnand also took several photos of the King and Queen released by the palace ahead of the coronation.

The coronation of King Charles III on Saturday was a once-in-a-generation royal occasion, with thousands turning out in the streets of London to watch history in the making despite gloomy and wet weather conditions.

The service, rich in tradition and pageantry, was held at London’s Westminster Abbey – the nation’s coronation church since 1066.

Music underpinned the entire celebration, in keeping with history. Each stage was marked by either a grand choral work, an ethereal motet, an extravagant organ composition or an evocative melody, all performed by some of the most accomplished singers and musicians in the world.

The Duke of Sussex flew back to the UK for his father’s big day, sitting in the third row, wearing a morning suit with his military medals. He arrived alongside his uncles, Prince Edward and Prince Andrew, and two of his cousins, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

He did not appear later on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the customary appearance, instead catching a commercial flight back to Los Angeles to join the fourth birthday celebrations of his son, Prince Archie.

The occasion marked the first time the prince had publicly reunited with members of his family since the release of his controversial memoir, “Spare.”

The rest of the holiday weekend saw the sunshine return once more as thousands across the country took part in street parties and community lunches in celebration of the newly-crowned King. Others attended a jubilant coronation concert held in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Meanwhile on Monday, Prince Louis, the youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, conducted his first royal engagement at the age of five, as part of the Big Help Out – a nationwide volunteering initiative marking the end of the coronation weekend.

The youngster, who is fourth in line to the throne, joined his parents and siblings, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, in helping to renovate a scout hut.

Iran hanged two people on Monday who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy, according to the judiciary news agency Mizan.

Yusef Mehrdad and Sadrullah Fazeli Zare were arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to death in April 2021 for running online “anti-Islam groups and channels,” Mizan said.

Authorities convicted both after they were found to be members of a Telegram channel titled “Critique of Superstition and Religion,” according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Members of the Telegram channel allegedly shared opinions insulting Islam. One member allegedly said that they set religious books on fire, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom claimed. Iran’s state-run AlAlam said Mehrdad was filmed burning the Quran.

Zare and Mehrdad were denied family visits and phone calls for eight months after their arrest. Mehrdad reportedly went on hunger strike in February 2022 to protest the authorities’ refusal to allow him to make phone calls, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said.

United Nations experts have previously called on Iran to stop the persecution of religious minorities, under what they described as a policy of targeting dissenting beliefs and religious practices, including Christian converts and atheists.

“Such state-sanctioned intolerance furthers extremism and violence. We call on the Iranian authorities to de-criminalize blasphemy and take meaningful steps to ensure the right to freedom of religion or belief,” the experts said in a statement published in August.

The executions come days after the execution of a dual Swedish-Iranian national, Habib Chaab, who was convicted for leading a national Arab separatist group accused of attacks in Iran.

A joint report issued by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) revealed at least 582 executions were carried out last year – a 75% increase from the previous year.

It was the highest number of executions in the Islamic republic since 2015, according to the report released last month.

The report found there was a “surge” of executions in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September. Amini’s death sparked a months-long national uprising, which was eventually quashed by a brutal police crackdown.

Golf fans are accustomed to hearing a curling putt described as ‘snaking.’ What they are less familiar with, though, is the sight of a snake dangling off the end of a club.

During the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow on Saturday, Rickie Fowler was on hand to provide a safe demonstration.

Fowler was on the par-five seventh hole of his third round at the PGA Tour event in Charlotte, when his tee shot went careening right towards the waters along the side of the fairway.

While searching for his ball, the American spotted a snake settled amongst some rocks. North Carolina is home to a range of snake species, many of which inhabit the waters of the Tar Heel state. Comments on the PGA’s Twitter post wavered on what species of snake Fowler handled, but it is thought to be a northern watersnake, a nonvenomous species native to North America.

Angling his wedge, Fowler gently hooked the snake to lift it out from between a gap in the rocks before it slithered away. The fact that the 34-year-old is a long-time partner with Puma-Cobra made it a fitting collaboration.

Rickie Fowler the … snake charmer?!

No fear with a wedge from @RickieFowler pic.twitter.com/nJLwQhsE5J

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 6, 2023

He eventually took a penalty drop but managed to save par, carding a three-under 68 before repeating the score on Sunday to finish tied for 14th at eight-under overall, 11 shots behind champion Wyndham Clark.

It lifts him three places to world No. 50 ahead of the PGA Championship later at Oak Hill this month, where he will again chase a first career major after three runner-up finishes.

Fowler will be hoping to avoid the fate that befell Richard Brand at last year’s event. The English golfer’s second round was derailed when a squirrel raced onto the green to stop his ball and roll it around before scampering away.

To rub salt into the wounds, Bland was not allowed to move his ball or replay his shot under US Golf Association rulings.

Snakes and squirrels have continued golf’s ever growing story of animal run-ins, with dogs, deer, and alligators all penning chapters in recent years.

Nigerian MP Ike Ekweremadu will be sentenced in the UK Friday after being found guilty of an organ harvesting plot, but fellow lawmakers in his country have joined growing calls for leniency in his case.

Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and a middleman Obinna Obeta, 51, were found guilty in March of trafficking a 21-year-old Nigerian street trader to the UK to provide a kidney for the Ekweremadus’ daughter, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement.

Prosecutors say the victim was brought to the UK after being offered a reward of up to £7,000 ($8,810) and the promise of work in the country, but he was unaware that he was expected to provide a kidney in return.

A medical consultant called off the planned transplant after becoming suspicious of the circumstances surrounding it and the victim fled, sleeping rough for days before reporting the plan to UK police last May, the CPS said.

Ekweremadu, Beatrice and Obeta will be sentenced at the UK’s Old Bailey Court Friday and face up to 10 years in prison under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

‘A distinguished public servant’

Ekweremadu was a former deputy senate president in Nigeria for 12 years and his case elicited sympathy in Nigeria where some saw him and his wife as victims of circumstance who were desperate to help their sick daughter.

Some of the country’s political class wrote to the UK court appealing for leniency ahead of his sentencing, including Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said Wednesday he wrote to the British judiciary on behalf of Ekweremadu asking them to “temper justice with mercy.”

“We are now using this particular intervention to seek for clemency in the sentencing. … The conviction has already been done but we are seeking clemency because this is the first time our colleague is getting involved in this kind of thing,” Lawan said.

Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, the country’s junior parliament, described Ekweremadu as “a brilliant lawyer, a distinguished public servant and a dedicated family man.”

The speaker of parliament of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, Sidie Mohamed Tunis said he also written to the chief clerk of the Old Bailey Court seeking leniency for the Ekweremadus.

Ekweremadu served as speaker of the ECOWAS parliament between 2011 and 2015.

But the calls for clemency failed to hold sway over the UK court and some in Nigeria questioned why high profile politicians were using their influence to advocate for a convicted criminal.

IPC Justice, a non-governmental organization dedicated to fighting corruption in politics wrote on Twitter: “… Nigeria has a reputation for not enforcing laws against political elites, which could lead to the perception of condoning criminal activity if the Speaker advocates for clemency for someone convicted of a serious crime.”

Prosecutors in the UK have described the Ekweremadus guilty verdict as “a landmark conviction.”

They were among at least three Palestinian men killed in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, authorities said.

Palestinian militant group Hamas named the operatives and confirmed they were the killers of the British-Israeli settlers Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee.

Lucy Dee, 48, was killed alongside Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, when a car they were traveling in was shot at in the Jordan Valley in April. The sisters were killed in the shooting while their mother succumbed to her wounds in hospital several days later.

They had been on a “family outing” during the Passover holiday, according to a statement issued by the council of Efrat, the Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank where they lived.

The Al Qassam Brigade, the militant wing of Hamas, said the men killed Thursday were Hassan Qatanani, Muath al-Masri, and Ibrahim Jaber.

The brigade called them “heroes of the Jordan Valley operation that was carried out about a month ago, in which three settlers were killed, in response to the occupation’s crimes against Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the assault on Muslim women.”

The Dee family’s deaths came at a time of heightened tensions and increased violence in the region, following Israeli police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Dozens of rockets were launched from Lebanon, Gaza and Syria into Israeli territory, followed by Israeli retaliatory strikes.

The Israel Defense Forces Thursday morning released the same names for the men killed in Nablus.

They were located following “an extensive ISA (Israel Security Agency) and IDF intelligence and operational effort,” the security forces said.

“During an exchange of fire, both of the terrorists were killed. In addition, Ibrahim Jaber, a senior operative who aided the two terrorists, was killed,” the military statement said. It also said two M-16 rifles and an AK-47 were found in the apartment where the men were discovered.

At the time the Dees were killed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the killings as a “heinous attack” by “terrorists” and instructed Israeli police “to mobilize all border police units in reserve and the IDF to mobilize additional forces,” according to his office.

Thousands of mourners attended their funerals.

A statement from the Dee family on Thursday said they were “delighted to hear that the terrorists were eliminated today.”

“Most of all, that it was done in a way that apparently did not endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers, because that was one of the most important things from our family’s perspective,” the statement said.

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said, “Israel’s defense establishment will reach any terrorist that harms our citizens.”

“I commend our security forces for neutralizing the terrorists who conducted the terror attack in Hamra, which took the lives of Lucy Dee, and her daughters Rina and Maya,” he said.

Palestinian woman shot dead in Huwara

In a separate development on Thursday, a Palestinian woman was shot and killed after stabbing an Israeli soldier in the flashpoint town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank, officials said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health named her Iman Ziad Ahmad Odeh, 26.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said she was shot in the chest by Israeli soldiers and transferred in a critical condition to Nablus Hospital, where she died.

The victim of the stabbing was 20, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday. He was mildly injured and taken to hospital.

“The soldier was lightly injured, pushed away the assailant and neutralized her along with an additional soldier in the area,” the IDF said

Sudanese actress Asia Abdel-Majid was killed in crossfire during fighting in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday, amid clashes between two warring factions that have devastated Sudan and led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

It is unclear if it was the RSF or the army that fired the shot that killed Abdel-Majid.

Failed negotiations between Sudanese army head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan RSF and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo over a disputed power-sharing arrangement exploded into violence in mid-April, sparking a mass exodus of refugees from the country and resulting in the deaths of at least 528 people.

Previous ceasefires and promises of peace talks between both leaders have failed to curb the ongoing conflict with eyewitness accounts of fighting in Khartoum reported on Thursday, despite a seven-day truce announced just days earlier.

Abdel-Majid was buried in the grounds of a kindergarten where she worked, her nephew said, adding that it was unsafe to take her to a cemetery.

The kindergarten is next door to Abdel-Majid’s home, where she was alone when the shelling took place.

She was considered a pioneer of theater in Sudan and the country’s first professional stage actress, establishing a kindergarten in Bahri and becoming a teacher when she retired.

‘Torn apart’

Witnesses said the Sudanese army and the RSF are fighting using light and heavy weapons in the vicinity of the Presidential Palace – the most violent since the start of the clashes – as the conflict nears its fourth week.

At least 190 children have been killed and another 1,700 injured in the country since the violence broke out last month, according to reports received by UNICEF, the UN body’s Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on Thursday. Due to the intensity of the violence, UNICEF was unable to confirm the estimates, she added.

Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned on Wednesday that people trapped in battlefields are running out of water and food.

“Families across Sudan, including those of our colleagues, are being torn apart, and having to choose between remaining trapped in the battlefield, or risking their lives to flee or reach an overcrowded hospital,” Egeland said in a statement.

“They are running out of everything, including water, food, electricity, fuel, and cash. We need the international community to put as much effort into secure humanitarian access, regardless of ceasefire and in providing aid to millions of people as they have in evacuating their own citizens,” he added.

The violence has triggered a mass exodus of refugees from Sudan, with the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) on Thursday warning that $445 million is needed to help the 860,000 refugees and returnees who could escape the country by October.

According to a UNHCR statement, the plan was designed by “134 partners, including UN agencies, national and international NGOS and civil society groups” and includes a contingency strategy for new arrivals (refugees, returning refugees and others) to neighbouring countries.”

At the same time, hundreds of evacuees arrived from Sudan in Nigeria on Wednesday after being held up for days at the Egyptian border for days, as reports over the chaotic border response to the uptick in evacuees continue.

The first contingent of 376 Nigerians were flown home in a military aircraft and a local carrier and arrived in the capital Abuja shortly before midnight, according to the Nigerians In Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM).

Last week, more than 7,000 Nigerian nationals, mostly students fleeing the Sudan conflict had been left stranded at the Egyptian border due to the unavailability of visas, NIDCOM said while appealing to Egyptian authorities “to kindly allow the already traumatized travellers to transit to their final destinations.”

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi believes there are enough votes among Arab League members for Syria to return to the organization, adding that it is “only the beginning” of bringing a political end to the Syrian crisis.

The Syrian president had been boycotted by several Arab states for his crackdown on protests in 2011, violence which led to more than a decade of civil war.

Safadi said that “everybody” in the Arab League is on board to end the Syrian crisis, but there are differences on what the best approach is.

“The return to the Arab League will be symbolic…but ultimately in order for us to really end it [the crisis], we will have to make sure that the whole international community is on board, because at the end of the day there are sanctions, European sanctions, American sanctions, and there’s going to be a tremendous need for a global effort for re-construction,” he added.

Some opposition

The rehabilitation of the Syria has faced opposition from Western countries. The United States said it “will not normalize relations with the Assad regime and we do not support others normalizing with Damascus either,” according to State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel.

“We’ve made this abundantly clear to our partners,” Patel said at a department briefing Wednesday. “The US believes that a political solution that is outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is the only viable solution to this conflict in Syria.”

The foreign ministers of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan met in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday to discuss how to normalize ties with Syria. According to a statement issued after the meeting, Syria has agreed to help end drug trafficking across its borders with Iraq and Jordan.

“We are not taking the threat of drug smuggling lightly. If we do not see effective measures to curb that threat, we will do what it takes to counter that threat, including taking military action inside Syria to eliminate this extremely dangerous threat not just in Jordan, but through Jordan to the Gulf countries, other Arab countries and the world.”

The Metropolitan Police has faced criticism for its handling of anti-monarchy protests during the Coronation of King Charles III in London after 64 people were arrested, of whom four were charged with offenses.

Many accused the force of taking a heavy-handed approach toward demonstrators. Several opposition lawmakers and human rights groups have condemned the police’s actions.

Graham Smith, the chief executive of Britain’s largest anti-monarchist group, Republic, was among those arrested. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 he said suggestions that the arrests were necessary was “disgraceful.”

“They stopped us because the law was introduced, rushed in last week, to give them the powers to stop us on any flimsy pretext,” he said Monday.

“That law means we no longer in this country have the right to protest, we only have the freedom to protest contingent on the permission of senior police officers and politicians and it’s my view that those senior police officers were under immense pressure from politicians,” he added.

However, a senior UK government minister defended the actions of the Metropolitan Police during the anti-monarchy protests in London on Saturday, saying officers had to make “tough calls.”

UK culture secretary Lucy Frazer said that, while the right to protest remains “really important” in a democracy, tactics by demonstrators have shifted in recent years to interrupt people going about their daily lives.

Frazer told the BBC the police were tasked with balancing people’s right to protest with overseeing an international event on the world stage.

Thousands gathered in central London on Saturday to celebrate the once-in-a-generation occasion. But it also drew demonstrators, with protesters wearing yellow T-shirts booing and shouting “Not My King” throughout the morning.

Labour lawmaker Chris Bryant posted on Twitter Saturday: “Freedom of speech is the silver thread that runs through a parliamentary constitutional monarchy.”

Jess Phillips, also a Labour lawmaker, said on Twitter: “Our nation and our King is not so fragile as to not be able to take harmless protest of a different view.”

UK director of Human Rights Watch, Yasmine Ahmed, described the police’s actions as alarming and “something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London.”

The MET police statement said the arrests were “for various offences including breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”, including “religiously aggravated offence”, “possession of class A drugs”, “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” “breach of the peace” and “racially aggravated public order offence.”

Defending the force’s actions, Commander Karen Findlay said that, while they “absolutely understand public concern,” police also “have a duty to intervene when protest becomes criminal and may cause serious disruption.”

Members of environmental activist group Just Stop Oil were also arrested on The Mall outside Buckingham Palace, the UK’s PA Media news agency reported, adding that a large group of the protesters were seen in handcuffs.

According to PA, Animal Rising said some of its supporters were apprehended on Saturday while at a training session “miles away from the coronation.” A spokesman for the campaign group, Nathan McGovern, described the arrests as “nothing short of a totalitarian crackdown on free speech and all forms of dissent.”

“We have 401 deaths in Bushushu and Nyamukubi villages in Kalehe territory,” Kasi said.

Videos from the area show buildings swept away in the water and mud, with debris strewn across the villages.

“The Congolese government and its partners should find a safe place where the victims will be relocated and ask the population not to use the flowing waters and the lake during this period,” Chebujongo said, adding that there are “no machines to clear the mud and clear the landslides in the road to allow the population to circulate Bushushu-Nyamukubi villages. People are crossing the lake, another danger.”

Kasi said rescue operations were ongoing in spite of difficulties. “We are in a disaster. We work despite difficult conditions,” he said.

The provincial government said Saturday it was relocating residents affected by the floods to safer sites. It also said the government was funding medical care for the injured, including funeral costs for the deceased.

President Felix Tshisekedi declared Monday a national mourning for victims of the floods, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said, adding that a national government delegation had arrived in Kalehe to assist local response efforts.

The DRC is located within the River Congo Basin where flood disasters are frequently reported. According to a World Bank report, climate-related disasters, including flooding “are likely to increase in frequency and magnitude” in the Central African country due to climate change.

The DRC continues to grapple with devastating effects of flooding across the country. In December, more than 120 people were killed after heavy rains caused severe flooding in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, authorities said.

In 2020, more than 15,000 homes were destroyed and at least 25 people killed by floodwaters in South Kivu, a province already ravaged by armed conflict, the UN Refugee Agency reported at the time.

Months earlier, around 39 people died when torrential rains triggered landslides in Kinshasa.