Foreign News
Frantic digging at scene of deadly Ethiopia landslides
At the scene Ethiopia’s deadliest landslides men are still digging through mounds of mud with their bare hands, spades and pick axes to find those missing – their efforts punctuated by the wails of women and children mourning the 229 people whose bodies have so far been found.
They are victims of a cruel act of nature: on Sunday, heavy rains caused a landslide in a village perched high on a mountain in the remote Gofa zone.
With four homes engulfed by the landslide, nearby villagers and police officers came in large numbers to dig through the mud in the hope of finding the occupants alive, while women and children looked on, praying and consoling each other.
The search continued on Monday, only for a second landslide to occur, burying hundreds of people – no-one knows exactly how many – under the mud.
When I arrived in Gofa, in the south-west of Ethiopia, late on Wednesday, between 100 and 200 mostly young men, were still digging as relatives sat nearby, hoping for the best.
The diggers had no earth-moving equipment – nothing has been flown in so far and it is impossible to bring it in as there is no road leading to the village.
There is only a narrow and now-muddy footpath along a cliff. It is a dangerous and steep climb up – and the walk down is also dangerous.
When a body has been found families have been forced to carry their relative down this footpath for a formal burial.
Sombre-looking men have been building tombs over graves, while women and children in these farming communities have not stopped weeping.
Disaster relief officials have been quoted as saying that drones are being used in the search-and-rescue operations.
One man I spoke to said he spotted them on Tuesday, but he has not seen any since.
For the villagers, there is only one option: to keep digging with spades, pick axes and their bare hands in the hope of finding their loved ones – alive.
Fortunately, the weather held up on Wednesday, making it easier.
Gofa is part of the state known as Southern Ethiopia, located around 320km (199 miles) south-west of the capital, Addis Ababa.
It is among the areas of the country that have been hit by particularly heavy rain and flooding in recent months.
But instances of landslides and floods go back further.
In May 2016, at least 60 were killed in floods and landslides following heavy rain across the south of the country.
The UN’s humanitarian office (Ocha) says $3bn (£2.3bn) is needed for Ethiopia to help those affected by El Niño over the last year – which has brought drought and flooding – as well as conflict, but the drive had been “woefully underfunded”.
“With the extremes of rain coming we also expect more of these kinds of emergencies to continue,” Ocha’s Ethiopia head, Paul Handley, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
In the area engulfed by the landslides, there were concerns about the stability of the slope and 10,000 people in the area needed to be evacuated “out of harm’s way”, Mr Handley added.
[BBC]
Vivek Ramaswamy won the Republican nomination for Ohio governor on Tuesday, putting the staunch ally of Donald Trump on a path to running the Rust Belt state.
In unofficial results, he defeated Casey Putsch, a car designer with an automotive-themed YouTube channel, for a place in the general election, according to US media reports.
Ramaswamy, a health-technology entrepreneur, gained national recognition during his unsuccessful run against Trump for president in 2024. He later threw his support behind Trump.
In the Ohio primary, even as he ran against Republicans, he focused on Democratic nominee Amy Acton, the former Ohio public health director who guided the state’s response to the Covid pandemic and ran unopposed.
During a victory speech, Ramaswamy thanked Ohio voters “for getting us to this point”, adding, “The real destination is in November.”
Acton, who will face Ramaswamy in the general election, said during her own victory speech that she is running for governor to make Ohio more affordable again.
“It shouldn’t be this hard,” she said. “It is time to put working families first.”
Ohio’s current governor, Republican Mike DeWine, cannot run for re-election because of term limits.
Trump boosted Ramaswamy in a social media post on Tuesday: “I know Vivek well, competed against him, and he is something SPECIAL. He is Young, Strong, and Smart!”
Vice President JD Vance, who previously represented Ohio in the US Senate, travelled to Cincinnati on Tuesday to cast his ballot for Ramaswamy and others.
The state has shifted towards Republicans in recent years, and Ramaswamy benefitted from name recognition and shuffling in the top ranks of the state’s Republican Party caused by the ascension of Vance to the vice presidency.
Ramaswamy burst onto the national political scene in 2023 as a neophyte with a knack for using social media and podcast appearances to bolster his image. His mile-a-minute cadence and brash attacks resulted in viral moments during the 2024 Republican presidential debates, but he dropped out early due to lackluster support from voters.
Ramaswamy went on to serve as a top Trump surrogate during the 2024 presidential race and was involved in the effort to start Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, before ceding control of the project to Elon Musk.
When he announced his run for Ohio governor, Ramaswamy cleared the Republican primary field of most competitors. He has drawn on his personal fortune to help fund his campaign; The Columbus Dispatch reported he loaned his operation $25m (£18.4m).
His victory sets up a general election campaign focused on the lingering fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Acton had a highly visible role as the state’s public health director during the height of the crisis. Under DeWine’s leadership, Ohio took a more moderate approach to the pandemic response than other Republican-controlled states. Still, Ohio suspended in-person dining and postponed its presidential primary in 2020 as the virus spread.
But ongoing political backlash to Covid-19 restrictions, including masking and school closures, has opened up a path for Republicans to attack Acton six years later.
Ramaswamy recently released an ad claiming that Acton “called off Ohio’s election at the last minute, defying a judge’s order and abusing her power.”
DeWine – who has endorsed Ramaswamy – took the unusual step of defending Acton from the ad’s claims.
“I told her to issue the health order,” DeWine told NBC4 news station. “The decision was mine.”
The race promises to get more intense and expensive heading into the general election in November.
Meanwhile, seven Republican senators in Indiana who voted against Trump’s redistricting plan faced challengers in Tuesday’s primary election.
Five of the Trump-backed challengers have beat the incumbents, while one has lost. Results for the seventh race have not yet been determined.
The Indiana Republicans defied intense pressure from Trump last December by rejecting his demands to pass a voting map meant to favour their party in midterm elections, scheduled for November.
In one of the most conservative states in the US, 21 Republicans in the Senate joined all 10 Democrats to torpedo the redistricting plan last year.
Trump warned at the time that Republicans who did not support the initiative could risk losing their seats.
[BBC]
Spanish police have seized what is thought to be a national record haul of cocaine from a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Between 30,000 to 45,000kg were found when the Civil Guard intercepted a freighter in international waters, the body’s main union, the AUGC, announced. It called the move a “historic blow to drug trafficking”.
The vessel was intercepted off Spain’s Canary Islands on Friday and around 20 people were arrested, the AUGC told the AFP news agency. It had travelled from Sierra Leona and was on its way to Libya.
The Civil Guard has declined to give details of the investigation for legal reasons.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters in Madrid that the seizure was “one of the biggest, not only nationally but internationally”.
The Civil Guard shared a photograph on X showing the drugs stuffed into the hold of the intercepted vessel.
“Today history is being written in the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard,” it wrote.
“Intercepted in international waters the largest known seizure: between 30,000 and 45,000 kg of cocaine on board a freighter.”
While the boat was headed to Libya, AFP reported that the pattern of previous operations suggests that it was due to offload the drugs onto smaller vessels for distribution in Europe.
In January, Spanish authorities made its biggest seizure of cocaine at sea from a ship that was carrying almost 10 tonnes.
[BBC]
Three people have died and a UK national is seriously ill in hospital after a suspected hantavirus outbreak on a small cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The operator of the MV Hondius ship, tour company Oceanwide Expeditions, said a Dutch husband and wife, as well as a German national, had died but the cause has not yet been established.
However, the Dutch company said hantavirus has been confirmed in the case of the 69-year-old UK national who is in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Hantavirus is usually passed to humans from rodents via their faeces, saliva or urine. It can cause severe respiratory illness. Rarely, it can be transmitted between people.
The MV Hondius vessel is currently off the coast of Cape Verde and has 149 people onboard.
Oceanwide Expeditions said there were also two crew members on board “with acute respiratory symptoms, one mild and one severe”.
They were of British and Dutch nationality and both required urgent medical care, it said. It said it had not been established that hantavirus had been confirmed in the pair. And it added that no other persons with symptoms had been identified.
Negotiations are in progress with local authorities following what Oceanwide Expeditions described as “a serious medical situation”.
Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s minister of health, said of the British patient that he was critical and had been admitted to a private facility.
“He’s being taken care of. As you know, hantavirus, like all viruses, don’t have any specific treatment, so they are giving symptomatic treatment and support as much as they could.”
He said health workers and anyone who had contact with the patient would now be traced and tested.
Outlining a timeline, the company said a passenger had become unwell while onboard and died on 11 April.
His cause of death could not be determined, and his body was taken off the ship after it docked at St Helena on 24 April.
The passenger’s wife also disembarked on St Helena and the firm said it was told she had become unwell during the return journey and later died.
“At this time, it has not been confirmed that these two deaths are connected to the current medical situation on board,” it added.
On 27 April, the firm said, another passenger – the British national – became seriously ill and was “medically evacuated” to South Africa.
The 69-year-old remains in a critical but stable condition in Johannesburg after it was confirmed a variant of hantavirus had been identified.
The firm added that on Saturday, a third passenger onboard MV Hondius died.
The cause of death has not been established, Oceanwide Expeditions said. It confirmed the passenger was German.
Oceanwide Expeditions said the cause of the deaths were being investigated.
“The disembarkation of passengers, medical evacuation and medical screening require permission from, and co-ordination with, the local health authorities,” it said. “Local health authorities have visited the vessel and assessed the situation.
“The medical transfer of the two ill persons on board has not yet taken place.”
It added that the option of sailing on to Las Palmas or Tenerife was being considered “to be the gateway for disembarkation, where further medical screening and handling could take place”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “acting with urgency” to support the MV Hondius, and thanked South African authorities for taking care of the British patient.
WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, said: “I am in close contact with our teams to ensure a co-ordinated, science-based response.
“Hantavirus infections are uncommon and usually linked to exposure to infected rodents.
“While severe in some cases, it is not easily transmitted between people. The risk to the wider public remains low. There is no need for panic or travel restrictions.”
According to the South African government, MV Hondius departed from Ushuaia in southern Argentina about three weeks ago, before it completed its journey to Cape Verde, where it is anchored outside the capital, Praia.
It is described as a 107.6m (353ft) polar cruise ship, with space for 170 passengers in 80 cabins, along with 57 crew members, 13 guides and one doctor.
One passenger onboard the MV Hondius, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC: “The latest word is that a plane is on its way and once it gets here three people will be evacuated from the ship and flown straight to Europe.
“Then the rest of us will almost certainly sail to the Canary Islands.
“The Cape Verde authorities clearly want nothing to do with us. This is what we’re hearing from the captain and staff. From what I can see the mood (on the ship) is pretty good.
“Only one person has been tested (the one now in South Africa) and he tested positive for hantavirus. So, we don’t actually know yet if the other cases are that or something unrelated.
“If they are all hantavirus then the transmission is a bit mysterious. We’ve been informed that there are no rodents on board, and person-to-person transmission is difficult/rare.
“Hopefully the other patients on board will be tested soon and then we’ll know better what’s going on.”
President of the Cape Verdean Public Health Institute, Maria Da Luz, said passengers would not be disembarking in Cape Verde in order to protect the local population, Cape Verde’s media outlet A Nacao reports.
Oceanwide Expeditions said strict precautionary measures were in process on board, including isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring.
“All passengers have been informed and are being supported,” it said.
“Oceanwide Expeditions is in close contact with those directly involved and their families, and is providing support where possible.”
Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles told the BBC the time between people being exposed to hantavirus and showing symptoms could be anywhere from one to eight weeks.
“With this incubation period are we going to see more people coming down with the disease in the next days and weeks?”
The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was monitoring reports, and ready to support British nationals.
Hantavirus was in the headlines last year after the wife of Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman died from a respiratory illness linked to hantavirus in March 2025.
[BBC]
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