Displaying items by tag: deaths

Demonstrations against President Ortega’s corruption, his autocratic style, and his control over congress, the courts, the military, and the electoral board started on 19 April and are being met with violence. The church tried to intervene, but called off peace talks after police killed 16+ people on a peaceful march led by victims' mothers. There are now 113 dead. The Pope said, ‘I am united with my brother bishops in Nicaragua and their grief over violence committed by armed groups. The Church is always in favour of dialogue, but for that it requires an active commitment to respect freedom and, above all, life.’ On 2 June residents hid indoors as pro-government snipers shot people in the street. A local church later opened its doors to offer refuge and medical care to 21 individuals who had been detained and reportedly abused by police. Ortega accuses ‘right-wing groups’ of terrorising the country. Seven weeks of violence have made daily life dangerous for a population increasingly in open rebellion against the government. See

A dam burst in Kenya on 9 May after heavy rain, causing huge destruction and killing at least forty people. The breach happened on farmland 120 miles northwest of Nairobi. The dead are thought to include children and women trapped in mud. The Kenyan Red Cross says it has rescued some 40 people so far, and over 2,000 people have been left homeless. There are fears that the death toll could rise as the search-and-rescue operation continues. The Patel dam, one of three reservoirs owned by a large-scale farmer, broke its walls and swept away a primary school and hundreds of homes downstream, following the heavy rains that have been pounding the country. The toll now brings to 162 the number of people who have died countrywide as a result of the rains since March, according to official statistics. More than 220,000 people have had their homes destroyed.

Many lives are being lost in car crimes and road accidents. Road deaths are a national crisis, with 134,000+ killed over 10 years. Vehicle crime hotspots are Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town, and Durban. Cars are hijacked to commit another crime, or exported into neighbouring countries. In spite of 18,900+ police deployed countrywide over Easter to keep road users safe and a road safety campaign, 510 people died between 29 March and 9 April. A motoring magazine reported: ‘South Africans have bad attitudes towards safe road use; education and enforcement will not stop them playing by their own rules. Without a change of attitude among road users and respect for the law, efforts to decrease fatalities and crashes by a noticeable margin will fall flat.’ See

As the death toll climbs to 72 from floods and mudslides in Peru, experts say the rainy season could last another two weeks. To date, over half a million people in and around the country's capital, Lima, have been affected by the storms and flooding. Pray for the thousands forced to evacuate hundreds of thousands of homes. Pray for those attempting to repair the seriously damaged infrastructure, with hundreds of bridges destroyed. These have been Peru’s worst floods in recent memory. ‘We are confronting a serious climatic problem,’ said President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. The disaster came after a period of severe drought and is blamed on abnormally high Pacific Ocean temperatures. The country is ill-prepared for the growing challenges of climate change. The disaster affects more than half the nation. See also