AFP UK

Bullfighting is defended as a local tradition in many towns in southern France

French MPs are expected to vote for the first time Thursday on whether to ban bullfighting after a national debate that has pitched animal rights’ defenders against fans of the traditional blood sport.

Though public opinion is firmly in favour of outlawing the practice, the bill is expected to be rejected by a majority of lawmakers who are wary about stirring up the bullfighting heartlands in the south of the country. 

There is also a chance that the legislation, proposed by a vegan left-wing lawmaker, fails to be presented for a vote in the National Assembly at the last minute.

“We need to go towards a conciliation, an exchange,” President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, adding that he did not expect the draft law to pass. “From where I am sitting, this is not a current priority.” 

His government has urged members of the ruling centrist coalition not to support the text from the opposition France Unbowed party, even though many members are known to personally favour it. 

During a first debate on the parliament’s law commission last week, a majority voted against the proposal by MP Aymeric Caron, who denounced the “barbarism” of a tradition that was imported from Spain in the 1850s.

“Caron has antagonised people instead of trying to smooth it over,” a lawmaker from Macron’s party told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The bill proposes modifying an existing law penalising animal cruelty to remove exemptions for bullfights that can be shown to be “uninterrupted local traditions”.

These are granted in towns such as Bayonne and Mont-de-Marsan in southwest France and along the Mediterranean coast including Arles, Beziers and Nimes. 

“The traditional character of an activity has never been a moral justification for it,” Caron told the BFM news channel on Thursday. 

“There are traditions that we’ve been able to stop when this activity is no longer in line with the ethics of our society, which evolve fortunately,” he added.

Around 1,000 bulls are killed each year in France, according to the National Observatory of Bull Cultures.

– ‘Tackling death’ –

Many so-called “bull towns” depend on the shows for tourism and see the culture of bull-breeding and the spectacle of the fight as part of their way of life — idolised by artists from Ernest Hemingway to Pablo Picasso.

They organised demonstrations last Saturday, while animal rights protesters gathered in Paris — highlighting the north-south and rural-versus-Paris divide at the heart of the debate. 

“Caron, in a very moralising tone, wants to explain to us, from Paris, what is good or bad in the south,” the mayor of Mont-de-Marsan, Charles Dayot, told AFP recently.

Other defenders of “la Corrida” in France view the focus on the sport as hypocritical when factory farms and industrial slaughter houses are overlooked.

“These animals die too and we don’t talk enough about it,” said Dalia Navarro, who formed the pro-bullfighting group Les Andalouses in southern Arles.

Modern society “has more and more difficulty in accepting seeing death. But la Corrida tackles death, which is often a taboo subject,” she told AFP.

Previous judicial attempts to outlaw bullfighting have repeatedly failed, with courts routinely rejecting lawsuits lodged by animal rights activists, most recently in July 2021 in Nimes.

The scheduled vote Thursday might not take place because of the tabling of more than 500 amendments from other MPs, some of which appear designed to waste parliamentary time.

One from far-right MP Yoann Gillet suggests changing the title of the bill to “Imposing the ideology of grain-eaters on the inhabitants of southern France.”

Even if the bill were approved in the lower house on Thursday, the draft legislation would face a struggle to pass in the conservative-dominated Senate. 

The debate in France about the ethics of killing animals for entertainment is echoed in other countries with bullfighting histories, including Spain and Portugal as well as Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.

In June, a judge in Mexico City ordered an indefinite suspension of bullfighting in the capital’s historic bullring, the largest in the world.

The first bullfight took place in France in 1853 in Bayonne to honour Eugenie de Montijo, the Spanish wife of Napoleon III.

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The proposal would place all 54 species of the requiem shark and hammerhead shark families on appendix II of CITES

A summit on the international trade in endangered species will decide Thursday whether to ratify a “historic” proposal to protect sharks, a move that would drastically restrict the lucrative global shark fin trade.

The proposal would place dozens of species of the requiem shark and the hammerhead shark families on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

That appendix lists species that may not yet be threatened with extinction but may become so unless their trade is closely controlled.  

The initiative was one of the most discussed at this year’s CITES summit in Panama, with the proposal co-sponsored by the European Union and 15 countries. The meeting began on November 14, and ends on Friday.

If Thursday’s plenary meeting gives the green light, “it would be a historic decision, since for the first time CITES would be handling a very large number of shark species, which would be approximately 90 percent of the market,” Panamanian delegate Shirley Binder told AFP.

Shark fins — which represent a market of about $500 million per year — can sell for about $1,000 a kilogram in East Asia for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy.

The vote follows a hectic debate that lasted nearly three hours, with Japan and Peru seeking to reduce the number of shark species that would be protected. 

“We hope that all of this will (now) be adopted in plenary,” said Binder.

The plenary will also vote on ratifying a proposal to protect guitarfish, a species of ray.

– Heated debate –

Several delegations, including hosts Panama, displayed stuffed toy sharks on their tables during the earlier Committee I debate.

After the heated debate, the request to protect requiem sharks went to a vote, garnering above the needed threshold and calming the waters for the subsequent hammerhead shark debate.

Delegates and directors of conservation organizations, who are observers at the summit, are confident that both proposals will be ratified. 

“We hope that nothing extraordinary happens and that these entire families of sharks are ratified for inclusion in Annex II,” Chilean delegate Ricardo Saez told AFP. 

– ‘Extinction crisis’ –

The world is currently in the middle of a major shark extinction crisis, Luke Warwick, director of shark protection for the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told AFP at the beginning of the summit. 

During the committee debate, Japan had proposed that the trade restriction be reduced to 19 species of requiem sharks and Peru called for the blue shark to be removed from the list. 

However, both suggestions were rejected.

Participants at the summit considered 52 proposals to change species protection levels.

CITES, which came into force in 1975, has set international trade rules for more than 36,000 wild species. 

Its signatories include 183 countries and the European Union. 

UK's Rosemary Coogan, right, is one of the ESA's new career astronauts, while Paralympian doctor John McFall, centre, became the first recruit with a disability

The European Space Agency announced five new career astronauts as well as history’s first astronaut recruit with a disability on Wednesday after adopting a record budget to fund its projects.

The two female and three male career astronauts “will start working immediately,” ESA director-general Josef Aschbacher told a ministerial council meeting in Paris.

From more than 22,500 applicants, the agency chose France’s Sophie Adenot, Spain’s Pablo Alvarez Fernandez, Britain’s Rosemary Coogan, Belgium’s Raphael Liegeois and Switzerland’s Marco Sieber.

“I’m European but from the UK,” Coogan told the ceremony. Though Britain has left the European Union, it remains in the ESA.

The new recruits start training next year and are not expected to blast off into space on a mission until 2026.

They will join the astronauts from the ESA’s previous 2009 astronaut class, which include Britain’s Timothy Peake and France’s Thomas Pesquet. It is from that previous class that an astronaut will be selected to go to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis mission.

“No one is retiring today,” Pesquet said, advising the new recruits to “hang on tight”.

The ESA also announced the first astronaut recruit with a physical disability, British doctor and Paralympian John McFall, who will join a separate “parastronaut feasibility programme”.

The 41-year-old’s right leg was amputated after a motorcycle accident at the age of 18. He became a sprinter, winning bronze at the 2008 Paralympics.

“It had been quite a whirlwind experience, given that as an amputee I’d never thought being an astronaut was a possibility,” he said.

The ESA also established an astronaut reserve of six women and five men who passed the selection process and can be called up in future if needed.

– New budget –

The new astronauts were named after two days of tough talks by ministers from the ESA’s 22 member states meeting in Paris to decide on the agency’s future funding. 

They settled on a budget of 16.9 billion euros ($17.5 billion) for the next three years, a 17-percent increase from the 14.5 billion euros agreed at the last ministerial council meeting in 2019. 

But it was well short of the 18.5 billion requested by Aschbacher.

“With inflation being so high, I have to say that I’m very impressed by this figure,” Aschbacher told the meeting. 

Aschbacher said the increased funds were necessary for Europe not to “miss the train” in the face of competition in space from the United States and China.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire hailed a “great success” that was “beyond expectations”.

Negotiations about each country’s contribution continued until the last moment before the announcement.

The biggest contributors were Germany with 3.5 billion euros, France on 3.25 billion euros and Italy at 3.1 billion euros.

However the total committed remains far below NASA’s budget of $24 billion for 2022 alone.

Earth observation programmes, which monitor climate change back on Earth, had a six percent funding increase to almost 2.7 billion euros.

Robotic and human exploration’s budget jumped 36 percent to 2.7 billion, while telecommunications rose 19 percent to 1.9 billion euros.

– Rocket boost –

The budget for rocket launcher systems was increased by a third to 2.8 billion euros. 

Launchers, which were a subject of delicate negotiations, are crucial for Europe to be able send missions into space without outside help.

The ESA has struggled to get off the ground since Russia withdrew its Soyuz rockets earlier this year in response to European sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The job has been made more difficult by delays to its flagship Ariane 6 rocket, which was supposed to have its maiden flight in 2020 but will now blast off at the end of next year.

The ESA has even had to resort to using the Falcon 9 rockets of its rival SpaceX to launch two upcoming scientific missions.

The negotiations were given a boost on Tuesday when France, Germany and Italy announced their support for Ariane 6, the smaller Vega-C launcher and European-made micro and mini launch systems.

The ExoMars mission, which has been left without a ride after Russia withdrew its rockets, will go ahead with US help, Aschbacher said.

The career astronauts will start training next year, with a first mission into orbit not expected until 2026

The European Space Agency announced five new career astronauts as well as history’s first astronaut recruit with a disability on Wednesday after adopting a record budget to fund its projects.

The two female and three male career astronauts “will start working immediately,” ESA director-general Josef Aschbacher told a ministerial council meeting in Paris.

From more than 22,500 applicants, the agency chose France’s Sophie Adenot, Spain’s Pablo Alvarez Fernandez, Britain’s Rosemary Coogan, Belgium’s Raphael Liegeois and Switzerland’s Marco Sieber.

They start training next year, with a first mission into orbit not expected until 2026.

They will join the astronauts from the ESA’s previous 2009 astronaut class, including Britain’s Timothy Peake and France’s Thomas Pesquet, one of whom will go to the Moon as part of the Artemis mission.

“No one is retiring today,” Pesquet told AFP, advising the new recruits to “hang on tight”.

The ESA also announced the first astronaut recruit with a physical disability, Britain’s John McFall, who will join a separate “parastronaut” programme.

McFall’s right leg was amputated after a motorcycle accident at the age of 18. He went on to represent the UK as a Paralympic sprinter and works as a trauma and orthopaedic specialist in the south of England, the ESA said in a statement.

– New budget –

The new astronauts were named after two days of tough talks by ministers from the ESA’s 22 member states meeting in Paris to decide on the agency’s future funding. 

They settled on a budget of 16.9 billion euros ($17.5 billion) for the next three years, a 17-percent increase from the 14.5 billion euros agreed at the last ministerial council meeting in 2019. But it is well short of the 18.5 billion requested by Aschbacher.

“With inflation being so high, I have to say that I’m very impressed by this figure,” Aschbacher told the meeting. 

Aschbacher said the increased funds were necessary for Europe not to “miss the train” in the face of competition in space from the United States and China.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire hailed a “great success” that was “beyond expectations”.

Negotiations about each country’s contribution continued until the last moment before the announcement.

Germany contributed 3.5 billion euros, France 3.25 billion and Italy 3.1 billion.

The total committed remains far below US space agency NASA’s budget of $24 billion for this year alone.

Earth observation programmes, which monitor climate change back on Earth, had a six percent funding increase to almost 2.7 billion euros.

Robotic and human exploration’s budget jumped 36 percent to 2.7 billion, while telecommunications rose 19 percent to 1.9 billion euros.

– Rocket boost –

The budget for rocket launcher systems was increased by a third to 2.8 billion euros. Launchers, a subject of delicate negotiations, are crucial for Europe to be able send missions into space without outside help.

The ESA has struggled to get off the ground since Russia withdrew its Soyuz rockets earlier this year in response to European sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The job has been made more difficult by delays to its flagship Ariane 6 rocket, which was supposed to have its maiden flight in 2020 but will now blast off at the end of next year.

The ESA has even had to resort to using the Falcon 9 rockets of its rival SpaceX to launch two upcoming scientific missions.

The negotiations were given a boost on Tuesday when France, Germany and Italy announced their support for Ariane 6, the smaller Vega-C launcher and European-made micro and mini launch systems.

The ExoMars mission, which has been delayed by Russia pulling its rockets, will go ahead with US help, Aschbacher said.

More than 58,000 people have been displaced by the quake in Indonesia, and 151 remain missing

Survivors of an Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 271 people, many of them children, appealed for food and water Wednesday as heavy rain and aftershocks hampered rescue efforts among the rubble of devastated villages.

The calls for help came as authorities warned that debris from landslides caused by the strong quake near the town of Cianjur in West Java needed to be cleared as rains forecast for the coming weeks threatened a second disaster.

Two days after the quake flattened their homes, residents were still trying to retrieve priceless belongings including family photos, religious books and marriage certificates.

“Although some supplies have arrived, it is not enough. We got rice, instant noodles, mineral water but it’s not enough,” Mustafa, a 23-year-old resident of Gasol village, told AFP. 

Mustafa had just dug through the rubble of an elderly neighbour’s house at her request, appearing from the destroyed facade carrying a pile of clothes before returning to collect rice, a gas stove, canisters and frying pans.

In Talaga village, some residents put signs on the windows of damaged houses and the front of tents that read “We need help!” 

In the streets, at least three people held up cardboard boxes, asking for donations. Evacuees crammed under flimsy tents, unable to move inside from the rain in case buildings collapse from an aftershock.

A shallow 3.9-magnitude aftershock sent panicked evacuees running from shelters on Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene. Authorities had recorded 171 aftershocks as of Wednesday evening.

More than 61,000 people have been displaced by the quake, around 2,000 are injured and 40 missing, the national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said Wednesday. 

Around a third of those found dead so far are believed to be children, BNPB chief Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told a press conference, without providing an exact figure.

The government has dispatched tents and other supplies to Cianjur for the displaced, and the military deployed 12,000 personnel on Wednesday, officials said.

Heavy rain was hampering those efforts in about a dozen villages where more than 22,000 houses had been destroyed.

“For the refugees… their basic life necessities must be guaranteed — water, food, that’s non-negotiable,” Suharyanto said.

– Hamlet buried –

Two villages remain isolated, said Henri Alfiandi, head of Indonesia’s search and rescue authority Basarnas, in a video posted to social media. 

He said he had received reports of villagers trapped without food and water, and some forced to sleep alongside dead bodies.

“The people there can’t even ask for help,” he said, adding that three helicopters were being sent to drop aid.

Another hamlet in Cugenang district, the worst-hit by the quake, was buried by a landslide, Muhammad Wachyudin, an official from the Cianjur disaster mitigation agency, told AFP.

Rescuers believed some bodies were buried in Kampung Pos but they have not been able to reach them.

Indonesia is vulnerable to landslides and flash floods in the rainy season, which has already begun and peaks in December in West Java. 

The country’s meteorology agency warned that Cianjur is prone to another catastrophe.

“We have to be vigilant over a potential second disaster, such as a landslide,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency told a press conference Tuesday.

Karnawati said rivers could be blocked by landslides or rubble and spark a flash flood in Cianjur.

“We urgently need to clear materials and rubble that block river flows in the upper hills,” she said.

– ‘Praise God!’ –

On Tuesday, Cianjur’s residents began mourning loved ones, laying them to rest in accordance with their Islamic faith after authorities released them from morgues.

Some searched the wreckage for belongings. For one couple, there was a glimmer of hope.

Mimin, 52, and her husband Rosyid, 67, scrabbled through their destroyed home looking for one item only — a treasured two-gram gold ring. 

They pulled clothes from the concrete, patting and shaking them, until the gleaming piece of jewellery that represented their savings popped out.

“Praise God! I found the ring!” Mimin yelled.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

Monday’s tremor was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 quake and resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the island of Sulawesi.

More than 58,000 people have been displaced by the quake in Indonesia, and 151 remain missing

Survivors of an Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 268 people appealed for food and water Wednesday, as heavy rain and aftershocks hampered rescue efforts among the rubble of devastated villages.

The calls for help came as authorities warned that debris from landslides caused by the strong quake near the town of Cianjur in West Java needed to be cleared as rains forecast for the coming weeks threatened a second disaster.

Two days after the quake flattened their homes, residents were still trying to retrieve priceless belongings including family photos, religious books and marriage certificates.

“Although some supplies have arrived, it is not enough. We got rice, instant noodles, mineral water but it’s not enough,” Mustafa, a 23-year-old resident of Gasol village, told AFP. 

Mustafa had just dug through the rubble of an elderly neighbour’s house at her request, appearing from the destroyed facade carrying a pile of clothes before returning to collect rice, a gas stove, canisters and frying pans.

In Talaga village, some residents put signs on the windows of damaged houses and the front of tents that read “We need help!” 

In the streets, at least three people held up cardboard boxes, asking for donations.

A shallow 3.9-magnitude aftershock sent panicked evacuees running from shelters on Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

More than 58,000 people have been displaced by the quake, around 1,000 are injured and 151 missing, with more than half of the dead still to be identified, the national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said Tuesday.

The government has dispatched tents and other supplies to Cianjur for the displaced, and the military deployed 12,000 personnel on Wednesday, officials said.

Heavy rain was hampering those efforts in about a dozen villages where more than 22,000 houses had been destroyed.

“For the refugees… their basic life necessities must be guaranteed, water, food, that’s non-negotiable,” BNPB chief Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told a press conference Wednesday.

Two villages remain isolated, said Henri Alfiandi, head of Indonesia’s search and rescue authority Basarnas, in a video posted to social media. 

He said he had reports of trapped villagers without food and water, and some forced to sleep alongside dead bodies. 

“The people there can’t even ask for help,” he said, adding three helicopters were being sent to drop aid.

– ‘Lacking food and medicine’ –

But another resident appealed to Jakarta to send more supplies. 

“My child has a fever and she can’t eat. There are many children and old people here. Children need milk, diapers, food and medicine,” said 30-year-old Yunisa Yuliani.

Dede Masliyah, a 45-year-old evacuee living in a makeshift tent, said the survivors had yet to receive aid and were battered by rains overnight.

“We are lacking food and medicines. We desperately need a proper tent because there are many children and small babies here,” she said.

Indonesia is vulnerable to landslides and flash floods in the rainy season, which has already begun and peaks in December in West Java. 

The country’s meteorology agency warned the town is prone to another catastrophe just days after homes were destroyed and loved ones buried by rubble.

“We have to be vigilant over a potential second disaster, such as a landslide,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency told a press conference Tuesday.

Karnawati said rivers could be blocked by landslides or rubble and spark a flash flood in Cianjur.

“We urgently need to clear materials and rubbles that block river flows in the upper hills,” she said.

– Deadliest quake since 2018 –

On Tuesday, Cianjur’s residents began mourning loved ones, laying them to rest in accordance with their Islamic faith after authorities released them from morgues.

But for one couple, there was a glimmer of hope.

Mimin, 52, and her husband Rosyid, 67, scrabbled through their destroyed home looking for one item only — a treasured two-gram gold ring. 

They pulled clothes from the concrete, patting and shaking them, until the gleaming piece of jewellery that represented their savings popped out.

“Praise God! I found the ring!” Mimin yelled.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

Monday’s tremor was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 quake and resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the island of Sulawesi.

The European Space Agency will name its new group of astronauts, one of whom could be headed to to the ISS

The European Space Agency will vote on Wednesday on whether to spend billions more euros to keep up with rising competition in space, as well as unveiling its much-anticipated new crop of astronauts.

The ESA’s 22 member states, whose ministers charged with space duties have been meeting in Paris since Tuesday, will decide on meeting the agency’s request for a record 18.7 billion euros for new programmes over the next three years.

The figure is more than 25 percent higher than the 14.5 billion euros agreed at the ESA’s last ministerial council in 2019.

ESA director-general Josef Aschbacher told AFP that Europe risks “falling out of the race” in space if it does not expand the budget. 

Europe faces an increasingly crowded market in space, with competition coming not just from the long-dominant United States but also from rising powers such as China and private companies like billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

However the request for countries to open their purse strings comes as Europe struggles against high inflation and an energy crisis.

France called for a united Europe in space on Tuesday.

“At the end of these discussions, there must be a single Europe, a single European space policy and unfailing unity in the face of Chinese ambitions and American ambitions,” France’s economy minister Bruno Le Maire said at the meeting.

“If we want to be independent, we have to put money on the table.”

At the opening of the council, Aschbacher stressed that nations would reap a huge economic benefit from their investments.

Each country can choose how much it contributes to the budget, which includes three billion euros for monitoring climate change, 3.3 billion to the Ariane 6 rocket launcher system and three billion to robotic exploration missions, among others projects.

– Rocket launcher boost –

Some of the most difficult negotiations have been about rocket launchers, which are crucial for Europe to be able launch missions into space without outside help.

The ESA has struggled to get off the ground since Russia withdrew its Soyuz rockets earlier this year in response to European sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The job has been made more difficult by delays to the next-generation Ariane 6, which was supposed to have its maiden flight in 2020 but will now blast off at the end of next year.

The ESA has even had to resort to using the Falcon 9 rockets of its rival SpaceX to launch two upcoming scientific missions.

The subject of launchers is regularly a source of “friction” between European countries, said Philippe Baptiste, head of France’s National Centre for Space Studies.

But the talks were given a boost on Tuesday when the ESA’s biggest contributors France, Germany and Italy announced their support for Ariane 6 as well as the small Vega-C launcher.

The agreement indicated that the countries recognised their “interdependence” in space and paved the way for the launchers to be paid for, said ESA’s director of space transportation Daniel Neuenschwander.

Expected to be less controversial are projects that help monitor the impact of climate change back on Earth.

A poll released by the ESA last week showed that nine of 10 European citizens “want to see space used even more to monitor and mitigate climate change,” Aschbacher said.

But trickier could be the ESA’s 750-million-euro contribution to the European Union’s satellite constellation project Iris, which is planned to provide secure communication throughout the bloc from 2027.

The project is mostly funded by the EU, which has different member states than the ESA — most notably the UK. 

– New astronauts –

Once the budget is adopted, the ESA plans to unveil its latest crop of astronauts — the agency’s first new recruits since 2009. 

Between four and six people have been chosen out of more than 22,500 applicants after a long selection process.

One of the new recruits could eventually head to the International Space Station.

Training for the new recruits will begin in April 2023 at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, the facility’s head Frank De Winne said.

Additionally, the ESA is also expected to announce one or more astronauts with a physical disability — a first in the history of space travel. 

More than 250 people applied for the role after the ESA conducted a “parastronaut feasibility study”.

An Indonesian family bids goodbye to a father of four killed in a powerful quake

When Husein’s body arrived to be lowered into the ground, his grief-stricken relatives broke down, some in wails so loud they echoed through the undulating hills of West Java’s Cianjur.

The 48-year-old construction worker and father of four, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was building a house with three others when a strong earthquake shook the town’s foundations on Monday.

It caused buildings to collapse on residents, landslides to bury locals and forced families to reckon with the trauma of losing those closest to them. One of Husein’s co-workers also died.

“This is a disaster,” said Husein’s 30-year-old niece Yunisa Yuliani at his funeral in the village of Gasol near Cianjur, one of the hardest hit by the quake that has killed 268 people.

“It’s so hard to even look at his children, they are so young. They keep asking about their father. How do I explain it to them?”

Staring at his body, which had been carried for the duration of a five-minute walk from the construction site, his sister who lived next door to him became inconsolable. 

Several of his nieces hugged each other tightly. A tearful man was so heartbroken he had to be held up by two of his friends.

“I just lost a brother 10 days ago. He died of appendicitis and now I lost another brother,” said Husein’s 43-year-old sister Siti Rohmah.

– ‘Uncle! Uncle!’ –

Husein left behind a three-year-old daughter who does not fully understand that she has lost her father.

His eldest son, in his 20s, watched the digging of his grave quietly as his seven-year-old son cried in a relative’s arms and neighbours began a cleaning ritual for his body.

His wife could not be at the funeral as she was working in Saudi Arabia.

It was a scene replicated across the Cianjur area as families retrieved their loved ones from morgues to bury them in hastily arranged ceremonies in accordance with their Islamic beliefs.

“I still held on to hope that he was the last person who was still missing. I pray God will accept his good deeds and give him an easy journey,” said Rohmah.

His body was laid on a tarpaulin spread out on a dirt road, wrapped in a white cloth and covered by a traditional orange Indonesian batik shawl. A dozen men stood and prayed over him.

As Husein was lowered into a makeshift grave, men chanted a prayer while others looked at the ground solemnly.

His body was covered with a stack of bamboo and large banana leaves before bystanders covered the grave with soil.

Neighbours then began to recite Islamic verses for the departed.

“I just hope my uncle died in peace,” said Yuliani.

Before Husein’s body was collected for burial, it was placed in a red and white tent where it could be cleaned, and where the family could get one last look at his face.

His family’s wails broke an eery silence that had descended on the town in the quake’s aftermath.

“Uncle! Uncle!” is all that could be heard from the enclosed marquee.

More than 58,000 people have been displaced by the quake in Indonesia, and 151 remain missing

Survivors of an Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 268 people appealed for food and water Wednesday, as rescuers picked through devastated villages with hopes of finding anyone alive fading.

The calls for help came as authorities warned that debris from landslides caused by the strong quake near the town of Cianjur in West Java needed to be cleared ahead of heavy rains forecast in the coming weeks, threatening a second disaster.

Two days after the quake flattened their homes, residents were still trying to retrieve priceless belongings including family photos, religious books and marriage certificates.

“Although some supplies have arrived, it is not enough. We got rice, instant noodles, mineral water but it’s not enough,” Mustafa, a 23-year-old resident of Gasol village, told AFP. 

Mustafa had just dug through the rubble of an elderly neighbour’s house at her request, appearing from the destroyed facade carrying a pile of clothes before returning to collect rice, a gas stove, canisters and frying pans.

“We have no clothes and we have not changed for days, so I am digging through the rubble to find some clothes.”

More than 58,000 people have been displaced by the quake, around 1,000 are injured and 151 missing, with more than half of the dead still to be identified, the national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said Tuesday.

The government has dispatched tents and other supplies to Cianjur for the displaced, and the military sent 12,000 personnel on Wednesday to help rescue and aid efforts, officials said.

“For the refugees… their basic life necessities must be guaranteed, water, food, that’s non-negotiable,” BNPB chief Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told a press conference Wednesday.

But another resident appealed to Jakarta to send more stocks because of shortages. 

“My child has a fever and she can’t eat. There are many children and old people here. Children need milk, diapers, food and medicine,” said 30-year-old Yunisa Yuliani.

– ‘Lacking food and medicine’ –

Dede Masliyah, a 45-year-old evacuee living in a makeshift tent, said the survivors had yet to receive any aid and were battered by heavy rains overnight.

“We are lacking food and medicines. We desperately need a proper tent because there are many children and small babies here,” she said.

“The tent leaked when it rains. There are more than 60 people staying here. We have not been reached by the aid distribution.”

Indonesia is vulnerable to landslides and flash floods in the rainy season, which has already begun and peaks in December in West Java. Heavy thunderstorms are forecast for Cianjur in the weeks ahead and rains began overnight into Wednesday.

The country’s meteorology agency warned the town is prone to another catastrophe just days after homes were destroyed and loved ones buried by rubble.

“We have to be vigilant over a potential second disaster, such as a landslide,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency told a press conference Tuesday.

“The urgent step is to control heaps of fallen material,” she said.

– Deadliest quake since 2018 –

On Tuesday, Cianjur’s residents began mourning loved ones, laying them to rest in accordance with their Islamic faith after authorities released them from morgues.

And there are fears of even more deadly scenes as the heavy rains approach.

Karnawati said rivers could be blocked by landslides or rubble and spark a flash flood in Cianjur.

“We urgently need to clear materials and rubbles that block river flows in the upper hills,” she said.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

Monday’s tremor was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 earthquake and resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the large island of Sulawesi.

As rescuers trawled the rubble and residents reckoned with the trauma of losing those closest to them, there was a glimmer of hope for one couple.

Mimin, 52, and her husband Rosyid, 67, scrabbled through their destroyed home looking for one item only — a treasured two-gram gold ring. 

They pulled clothes from the concrete mess, patting them and shaking them down, until the gleaming piece of jewellery that represented their savings popped out.

“Praise God! I found the ring!” Mimin yelled.

Residents left homeless by the quake are trying to retrieve priceless belongings

Survivors of an Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 268 people appealed for food and water Wednesday, as rescuers picked through devastated villages with hopes of finding anyone alive fading.

The calls for help came as authorities warned that debris from landslides caused by the strong quake near the town of Cianjur in West Java needed to be cleared ahead of heavy rains forecast in the coming weeks, threatening a second disaster.

Two days after the quake flattened their homes, residents were still trying to retrieve priceless belongings including family photos, religious books and marriage certificates.

“Although some supplies have arrived, it is not enough. We got rice, instant noodles, mineral water but it’s not enough,” Mustafa, a 23-year-old resident of Gasol village, told AFP. 

He had just dug through the rubble of an elderly neighbour’s house at her request, appearing from the destroyed facade carrying a pile of clothes before returning to collect rice, a gas stove, canisters and frying pans.

“We have no clothes and we have not changed for days, so I am digging through the rubble to find some clothes.”

The government has dispatched tents and other supplies to Cianjur for the displaced but another resident appealed to Jakarta to send more stocks because of shortages. 

“My child has a fever and she can’t eat. There are many children and elderly people here. Children need milk, diapers, food and medicine,” said 30-year-old Yunisa Yuliani.

Indonesia is vulnerable to landslides and flash floods in the rainy season, which has already begun and peaks in December in West Java. Heavy thunderstorms are forecast for Cianjur in the weeks ahead.

The country’s meteorology agency warned the town is prone to another catastrophe just days after homes were destroyed and loved ones buried by rubble.

“We have to be vigilant over a potential second disaster, such as a landslide,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency told a press conference Tuesday.

“The urgent step is to control heaps of fallen material,” she said.

The agency’s count of the tremor’s aftershocks has increased to 145, with magnitudes ranging from 1.2 to 4.2, Karnawati said.

– Deadliest quake since 2018 –

On Tuesday, Cianjur’s residents began mourning loved ones, laying them to rest in accordance with their Islamic faith after authorities released them from morgues.

And there are fears of even more deadly scenes as the heavy rains approach.

In February, an earthquake in West Pasaman on Sumatra killed several people and left the area’s soil unstable and prone to rains that would cause landslides weeks later.

Karnawati said rivers blocked by landslides or rubble sparked a flash flood in West Pasaman and warned the same could happen in Cianjur.

“We urgently need to clear materials and rubbles that block river flows in the upper hills,” she said.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

Monday’s tremor was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 earthquake and resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the large island of Sulawesi.

A 6.2-magnitude quake that shook Sulawesi island in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.