Region

RABAT — Moroccan police have arrested 25 more African migrants near the border with a Spanish enclave where at least 23 people died in a June crossing attempt, an official said on Monday.

The arrests are the latest after courts handed heavy prison sentences to several dozen people, many from Sudan, on charges including entering Morocco illegally and violence against security personnel.

A judicial source told AFP that 25 migrants from Sudan and Chad were detained on Sunday in the Gourougou forest near the frontier with the Spanish territory of Melilla, a rare African land border with the European Union.

The official accused the migrants of using “violence” as they were arrested.

They are to appear before prosecutors in the border town of Nador on Monday.

“Morocco is acting as a policeman for European immigration policy,” said Omar Naji, Nador chief of the AMDH rights group.

Authorities “should have protected these asylum seekers instead of arresting them”, he said.

Gourougou is home to grim makeshift camps where migrants from across central and southern Africa sleep rough as they prepare for attempts to breach the fortified Melilla barrier.

On June 24, some 2,000 mostly Sudanese migrants attempted to enter the enclave by force.

At least 23 people died in the attempt, the worst toll in years of such attempted crossings, and rights groups accused both Spanish and Moroccan authorities of using excessive force.

Since the tragedy, Morocco has sentenced dozens of migrants to prison terms on charges including illegal entry and belonging to criminal gangs, and Nador’s top court has issued even heavier penalties on appeal.

The AMDH says the high death toll was the result of renewed cooperation between Madrid and Rabat after they ended a year-long diplomatic stand-off in April.

Spain’s ombudsman said last week that Madrid had failed to respect the legal rights of the migrants, calling the fatal tragedy “foreseeable”.

Under international law, migrants have a right to claim asylum, and it is forbidden to send potential asylum seekers back to where their lives or well-being might be in danger.

The Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta have long been a magnet for people fleeing violence and poverty across Africa to seek refuge in Europe.

PARIS — At least four Iranian inmates died in a fire in Tehran's notorious Evin prison overnight, the judiciary said on Sunday, further stoking tensions one month into protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

The Iranian authorities blamed the fire on "riots and clashes" among prisoners, but rights groups said they had little faith in the official version of events.

"Four prisoners died due to smoke inhalation caused by the fire, and 61 were injured," the judiciary authority's website Mizan Online reported.

Four others were in "serious condition" and that the fire had been extinguished, it added.

Prisoners' relatives and rights groups voiced grave fears for the inmates.

Gunshots and explosions were heard during the blaze from inside the complex, illuminated by flames and smothered by smoke, in video footage posted on social media channels.

The fire came after four weeks of protests over the death of 22-year-old Amini, after her arrest for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.

The wave of demonstrations has turned into a major anti-government movement in the Islamic republic, confronting its clerical leadership with one of its biggest challenges since the ousting of the shah in 1979.

Evin, infamous for the ill-treatment of political prisoners, also holds foreign detainees and thousands facing criminal charges.

Hundreds of those arrested during the recent demonstrations and in a crackdown on civil society have been sent there.

“We do not accept official explanations” the Norway-based non-government group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said about Iran’s official comments, adding that it had received reports that guards had sought to “incite” prisoners.

There were also reports, backed by images, of explosions rocking the inside of the prison complex, gunshots heard and even a projectile being fired from outside into the jail.

“Prisoners, including political prisoners, are completely defenceless inside that prison,” said Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran.

Iranian rights activist Atena Daemi, herself a long-time inmate of Evin, wrote on Twitter that in the early hours of Sunday several buses and ambulances were seen leaving the prison.

She said that some prisoners in Ward 8, that houses political detainees, had been transferred to another jail.

Citing a Tehran prosecutor, the official IRNA news agency said the clashes at Evin had “nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country”.

The four inmates who died had been convicted of robbery, Mizan said.

Evin prison holds French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and US citizen Siamak Namazi, whose family said he was taken back into custody days ago after a temporary release. Namazi’s US attorney Jared Genser said he had spoken to his family, and that he was unharmed.

Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was held in Evin for most of her 800-plus days behind bars in Iran, told AFP she had heard that all the women political prisoners were safe.

But supporters of Austrian prisoner Massud Mossaheb said he was suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation and tear gas.

“He can barely speak... He is in big distress,” their Twitter account said.

Hossein Sadeghi, the father of rights activist Arash Sadeghi who was arrested days ago, said he had received no calls from his son. “We are very worried about his condition,” he wrote on Twitter.

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh are also among those believed to be held at Evin — sometimes dubbed “Evin University” because of the many intellectuals held there.

Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard stressed that Iranian authorities “have the legal obligation to respect and protect the lives and well-being of all the prisoners”.

Rights groups reported night-time protests in Tehran in solidarity with Evin detainees and more demonstrations were held Sunday, including at Tehran University.

“Another Cinema Rex fire is happening,” they chanted in a video circulating on social media — referring to the deadly 1978 fire at a movie theatre in southwestern Iran which killed hundreds, and is seen by some as having triggered the 1979 revolution.

“Enough is enough!”

At least 108 people have been killed in the Amini protests, and at least 93 more died in separate clashes in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan province, according to IHR.

The European Union has agreed to level new sanctions, a move expected to be endorsed by its foreign ministers on Monday.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted that the fire may be out but “our concern for the people held there and their human rights cannot and will not stop”.

AHATLAR, Turkey — Sitting on the stairs of his house overlooking the Black Sea, the father of a dead miner accepts condolences from relatives and neighbours. His scarred Turkish village lost three of its young men in this Friday’s mining disaster.

Three out of 41 miners killed in the coal mine explosion in the town of Amasra on Friday were from Ahatlar, a village on its outskirts, where funeral services were held on Sunday.

“My son is gone. I am falling apart, this is ruining me,” said grieving Kemal Yildirim, father of Saban, who was in his early 20s when he died.

“Friends gave me the sad news. We hurried to the pit on Friday. He was one of the last remaining ones to be pulled out at 7 am the next day,” he said.

The young miner’s pregnant wife is expecting twins. He was employed by the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises’ mine in 2019 after graduating from university.

A relative hung flags outside the house. Shoes piled up on the doormat, and women covering their heads with scarves packed into a room, while men waited under a blue canvas outside, protected from the rain.

Hundreds of people from neighbouring villages also gathered outside the house as an imam led the funeral service. Saban’s wife hugged the coffin, which was covered with a Turkish flag.

“Take me, not him,” said the grieving father, so moved he could barely breathe.

Officials said 28 miners were wounded and 58 survived following the blast, which according to preliminary findings was caused by firedamp — a term referring to a build-up of methane gas.

‘Gas smell’

Saban had told his wife “the mine had been smelling of gas inside for 10 days,” his father said. “He was going to take an annual vacation.”

“His dream was to raise his children. I am devastated,” he said.

The sister of another miner killed in the explosion said he too had smelt gas.

Her brief exchange with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday was caught by cameras.

Erdogan attended funerals in nearby villages after arriving at the mine together with ministers and rescuers.

In the village of Makaraci, which lost four men, a tearful sister told Erdogan: “President, my brother knew, he said there was a gas leak 10, 15 days ago. He said ‘they will explode us soon’. How come it’s negligence? He said ‘they will explode us here’... He knew it”.

Erdogan, after a moment of silence, was heard answering: “Sorry for your loss, may Allah give patience.”

‘Mine martyrs’ 

The government has described the dead as “mine martyrs”.

Mevlut Ozgun, a relative of the Yildirim family, said the three from Ahatlar were “all young sons”.

“They had been miners for only three or four years,” he told AFP outside the house.

“It’s dangerous, causes diseases in the future but what could have they done? That was how they [made] their living.”

Erdogan sparked controversy on Saturday when he linked the killings to destiny.

“We are people who believe in the plan of destiny,” he told reporters, surrounded by rescue workers. Such accidents “will always be, we need to know that too.”

His comments sparked anger among his opponents, and triggered protests in Istanbul with a few demonstrators saying “it was not an accident but a massacre”.

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who also attended funerals in Amasra, said the state was obliged to ensure the safety of its people.

“In which century we are living? Why [do] the mine accidents happen only in Turkey?” he said.

Emin Koramaz, who leads the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, said on Twitter: “If you send miners hundreds of metres underground without taking the necessary precautions, without inspection and without creating safe conditions, you cannot call it an accident”.

MOGADISHU — The Mogadishu government on Saturday threatened to sanction businesses that pay extortion money to Al Shabaab, looking to choke a lucrative cash pipeline the Islamist militants use to fund a deadly insurgency.

Somalia's ministry of commerce and industry said the full force of the law would be brought against traders who pay the Al Qaeda ally, which experts say raises millions of dollars through a complex and extensive taxation system.

The ministry said any business found to have paid or collaborated with Al Shabaab in any way would "face legal action" including having their government-issued trading permits revoked.

"Any merchant who obeys instructions issued by the terrorists, and pays them income, will never be allowed to do business in Somalia again," the ministry said in a letter to traders.

"Any company found to involve members of Al Shabaab, or that sponsors their merchandise, will have their property including real estate confiscated by the government."

Al Shabaab has been trying to overthrow the central government in Mogadishu for more than 15 years and regularly stages deadly bombings and armed attacks on civilian and military targets.

Despite an international effort to degrade the group, the militants control swaths of countryside, and use threats of violence to collect taxes in territory under their jurisdiction.

The group taxes real estate, road cargo at checkpoints and slaps customs on imports passing through the capital's main port, according to a 2020 report by the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute.

The think tank then estimated Al Shabaab raised at least $15 million a month, rivalling the government's own tax collection efforts.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has vowed all-out war on Al Shabaab and the warning to traders comes as the armed forces, backed by local militias and international allies, wage an aggressive counter-insurgency campaign.

The extremists have staged a series of attacks in recent months, with a triple bombing in the city of Beledweyne this month killing 30 people, and a hotel siege in Mogadishu leaving 21 dead in August.

The government has announced a crackdown on media outlets that publish what it deems propaganda for Al Shabaab and warned that offenders would be punished.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Two Palestinians were critically wounded on Saturday by Israeli forces fire in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, amid heightened tensions in the occupied territory.

One Palestinian was hit by "live bullets to the chest" during clashes with Israeli forces in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, southwest of Nablus, the ministry said, adding that another was also critically wounded.

Both were taken to hospital in the nearby town of Salfit.

The Israeli forces said in a statement that "suspects hurled rocks" at soldiers who responded to "a violent riot" near Qarawat Bani Hassan.

The troops used live fire "to stop the suspects", the army said, adding that "hits were identified".

The latest violence follows an Israeli raid in the flashpoint city of Jenin on Friday that left two Palestinian dead.

Hours later Israeli forces killed a Palestinian accused of firing shots at the Beit El settlement in the occupied West Bank, wounding a resident.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the dead man as 23-year-old Qais Shajaeyah.

The Israeli forces said on Saturday it arrested a "second suspect involved in the shooting attack", 19-year-old Muhammad Odeh.

Odeh, an alleged member of militant group Hamas, was apprehended "along with two additional suspects" accused of involvement in the shooting, the army added.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, on Friday had called on "our resistance... to continue their steadfastness and their heroism with all means".

Violence has surged in recent months in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, amid near daily West Bank raids and an uptick in attacks on Israeli troops.

More than 100 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed since the start of the year, the heaviest toll in the West Bank for nearly seven years, according to the United Nations.

The expansion of military operations in Jenin and elsewhere in the West Bank followed deadly attacks on Israelis earlier this year.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 June War.

Around 475,000 Israelis now live in settlements across the territory, which are considered illegal by most of the international community.

They live alongside some 2.8 million Palestinians, who in different areas of the West Bank are subject to Israeli military rule or live under limited Palestinian governance.