At least 16 migrants from Venezuela and Haiti died early Friday in a bus crash in southern Mexico, authorities said.
Mexico’s National Immigration Institute originally reported 18 dead, but later lowered that figure. Prosecutors in the southern state of Oaxaca later said there had been an overcount due to some of the bodies being dismembered, and that the real death toll was 16.
Both sources said the dead include two women and three children, and that 29 people were injured. There was no immediate information on their condition.
Photos from the scene showed the bus rolled over onto its side on a curvy section of highway in the southern state of Oaxaca. The cause of the crash in the town of Tepelmeme, near the border with the neighboring state of Puebla, is under investigation.
The institute said a total of 55 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, were aboard the vehicle.
It was the latest in a series of migrant deaths in Mexico amid a surge in migrants traveling toward the U.S. border. Because migration agents often raid regular buses, migrants and smugglers often seek out risky forms of transportation, like unregulated buses, trains or freight trucks.
Last week, 10 Cuban migrants died and 17 others were seriously injured after a freight truck they were riding in crashed on a highway in the neighboring state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala.
The National Immigration Institute said all of the dead Cuban migrants were women, and one of them was under 18.
In a burial plot next to a field outside the remote Ukrainian hamlet of Hroza, residents removed undergrowth and cleared away litter to make space for more graves.
Working quietly, it was something to distract them from the horror of what happened the day before.
As dozens of people gathered in the local cafe for a meal to honour a soldier who died in the war against Russia, a missile struck, killing at least 52 people.
It was one of the most deadly attacks during 20 months of fighting, and one that has devastated the tiny, tight-knit community.
Shock is giving way to grief, as well as questions about how the Russians could have known about the gathering in what some Hroza residents say was a deliberate attack.
Among those killed was Olya, 36, who is survived by three children. Her husband died too.
Her father, Valeriy Kozyr, was at the cemetery preparing to bury her and his son-in-law.
“It would have been better if I had died,” he said quietly as he wept. “Oh God, you cannot punish me like this. To leave the father and take the children!”
Wiping tears from his face, the 61-year-old explained that he must now work out how to care for his three grand-children aged 10, 15 and 17. Kozyr wants to bury Olya and her husband side-by-side in a single grave.
He told Reuters he was not in the cafe on Thursday because he worked night shifts as a security guard, and so was spared.
Nearby, three brothers were readying a plot in which to bury their parents, both killed in what President Volodymr Zelenskiy has called a deliberate Russian assault on civilians.
Moscow denies targeting civilians in its full-scale invasion, a position it repeated on Friday in response to the Hroza strike. Thousands have been killed in a bombing campaign that has hit apartment blocks and restaurants as well as power stations, bridges and grain silos.
One brother began to dig while another picked up discarded plastic bottles.
“We lost 18 people on one street, where our parents lived,” said the third, 41-year-old Yevhen Pyrozhok. “On one side, the neighbours are gone, and on the other side a woman is gone.”
The men said they did not know when they would be able to have the funeral because their parents’ bodies were still being examined by investigators in Kharkiv, the closest big city in northeastern Ukraine.
Valeriy Kozyr, 61, cries as he sits next to graves after losing his daughter and other relatives in a Russian military strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a cemetery outside the village of Hroza, Kharkiv region, Ukraine October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Acquire Licensing Rights
Not all of the victims have been identified. Regional police investigator Serhiy Bolvinov told reporters late on Thursday that authorities would have to use DNA to identify some of the victims, because their remains were beyond recognition.
“Corpses lay there in that yard, and nobody could identify them,” said Valentyna Kozienko, 73, speaking near her home close to the site.
‘HALF THE VILLAGE GONE’
As darkness fell on Thursday, dazed emergency crews carried bodies placed in white bags on to the back of a pickup truck. A local man knelt down and wept as he lay his hand on the remains of a loved one before they too, were taken away.
Local resident Oleksandr Mukhovatyi said he lost his mother, brother and sister-in-law.
“Someone betrayed us. The attack was precise, it all landed in the coffee shop.”
On Friday, rescue workers continued to sift through the rubble of the flattened cafe and nearby shop, while diggers pushed away debris.
On a low table set up a few metres (yards) away, members of the emergency services and local community laid flowers and lit candles in small coloured jars to commemorate the dead.
The Manipur state government has asked the Assam Rifles to push back the Myanmar nationals
The Manipur state government has a sought detailed report from Assam Rifles Authority to clarify on the facts as to how 718 Myanmar nationals were allowed to enter into India in Chandel district without proper travel documents.
A report has been received that 718 fresh refugees have crossed Indo-Myanmar border (IMB) and entered New Lajang of Chandel District on Sunday due to the ongoing clashes at Khampat, Myanmar.
Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi said: “In connection with similar issues in the past, the state government had clearly informed Assam Rifles, being border guarding force, to take strict action to prevent entry of Myanmar national into Manipur without valid visa/travel. The state government views the fresh illegal entry of 718 refugees very seriously with utmost sensitivity as the same may have international ramifications, more particularly in view of the ongoing law and order issues.”
The state government has also advised Assam Rifles to push back those 718 illegal Myanmar nationals immediately. The Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of Chandel District have also been advised to oversee the implementation of the deportation process.
41 Meitei people have reached Assam from Mizoram after an ex-militants’ group asked the community to leave the state following the viral video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur, officials said on Sunday.
Cachar’s Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta said these people reached Silchar from neighbouring Mizoram on Saturday night and they have been kept at the building of the Lakhipur Development Block in Binnakandi area.
“These are all well-to-do families and they came in their own vehicles. Some are college professors, while some work as senior government officials. They said that there have been no attacks in Mizoram as of now,” he told PTI.
They said that the Mizoram government was providing all security to them, but they themselves did not want to take any risk and came to Assam for their own safety, he added.
“They are saying that they will stay here till the situation normalises,” the SP said, adding that Assam Police is providing security to them.
Thousands of people from Meitei, Kuki and Hmar communities fled Manipur, and have been living in Assam since ethnic violence erupted in that state on May 3. The Mizoram government on Saturday reassured the Meitei community living in the state of safety and told them not to pay heed to rumours.
So far, 27 bodies have been recovered while 57 are untraceable, officials said, adding that no body was found from the debris on Sunday.
The National Disaster Response Force has finally called of its search-and-rescue operation in Wednesday’s landslide in Irshalwadi in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, state minister Uday Samant said on Sunday.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel and other volunteers climb up a mountain to reach the site of a landslide at a village in Raigad.(REUTERS)
Addressing a press conference, Samant, who is guardian minister of Raigad, said the decision was taken in consultation with the district administration and other concerned authorities as well as local residents.
So far, 27 bodies have been recovered while 57 are untraceable, officials said, adding that no body was found from the debris on Sunday.
These include 12 men, 10 women and four children, while one corpse has not been identified as yet, they added.
At least 17 of 48 houses in the remote tribal village, which is at least an hour away from a motorable road, were fully or partially buried in the landslide that took place around 10:30pm on July 19.
