AFP UK

Natural disasters sparked by climate change have forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes in Burundi in recent years, British charity Save the Children said in a new report released on Monday.

It said climate shocks — not conflict — were now the main cause of internal displacement in the landlocked East African country, which has a largely rural population.

“Over 84 percent of all internally displaced people in Burundi… have been displaced due to natural disasters rather than conflict, mostly due to the rise of Lake Tanganyika, Africa’s second-largest lake,” the charity said.

Children have been particularly hard-hit, it said, adding: “An estimated 7,200 of the displaced people — or 7 percent of the total number — are babies under the age of one.”

Older children are unable to attend school, with many surviving on just one meal a day, the charity said.

Arielle, a teenager whose home was swallowed up in the middle of the night by the lake’s rising waters, told Save the Children she struggled to eke out a living, earning $1.20 (one euro) a day for carrying and stacking bricks. 

“I eat most days, but some days I miss meals altogether,” the 17-year-old said.

– ‘A gross injustice’ –

Displaced farmers told the organisation that flooding disasters had intensified in recent years.

“The situation with flooding has become worse than it used to be. This time, the flood came over everything and never went back,” said Marie, a mother-of-three.

“I fear the children are going to die from hunger.”

Maggie Korde, the charity’s country director for Rwanda and Burundi, warned: “The world seems to have forgotten Burundi, and yet it’s bearing the brunt of global climate change, with children the most affected.

“We are seeing families that previously had solid homes, all children in school, and two working parents, reduced to living in tents with no employment, no food, and kids having to work for a dollar a day to support their family,” she said.

“This is a gross injustice for a community that has already experienced so much hardship.”

The report comes two years after relentless rains affected close to two million people in East Africa, and left at least 265 dead, according to an AFP tally.

The extreme weather was blamed on the sharp difference in sea surface temperature between the western and eastern areas of the Indian Ocean, with warmer waters resulting in higher evaporation and moist air flowing inwards over the continent as rain.

The waters around East Africa have been about two degrees Celsius warmer than those of the eastern Indian Ocean near Australia — an imbalance well beyond the norm.

A leaked UN climate science report, seen exclusively by AFP in June, predicts flooding will in future displace 2.7 million people in Africa annually and could contribute to 85 million being forced from their homes by 2050. 

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands Sunday, spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity and forcing the evacuation of around 5,000 local people, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” at around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) the local government said on its Twitter account.

The evacuation was obligatory in a dozen areas placed on a maximum alert and temporary shelters were opened.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” a local government statement added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”. No casualties had so far been reported, he added.

The lava reached several homes and made a number of roads impassable.

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of the island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

– PM flies in –

The lava flows were moving at about 700 metres (yards) an hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 Centigrade, according to the Canaries Islands Institute of Volcanology.

“Everything leads us to believe that there won’t be any new points of eruption,” said Torres.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived at the scene late Sunday.

“Given the situation (on) La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said earlier.

“All services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

As of 1830 GMT, flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, airport operator Aena said.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised, with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing a recent upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan volcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

On Tuesday, the authorities raised the alert level from green to yellow, in certain areas around the volcano. The second of four alert levels, the change meant civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking the evacuation of around 1,300 people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account.

The evacuation was obligatory in a dozen areas placed on a maximum alert and temporary shelters were opened.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the local government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”, adding that no casualties had so far been reported.

A total of between 5,000 and 10,000 people would be evacuated overall.

The lava reached several homes and made a number of roads impassable.

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of the island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived at the scene late Sunday.

“Given the situation La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said earlier.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

As of 1830 GMT flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, airport operator Aena said.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off of northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account, adding that the evacuation of more than 1,000 people had started in the areas closest to the volcano.

The evacuation was obligatory in a dozen areas placed on a maximum alert and temporary shelters had been opened.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the local government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”, adding that no casualties had so far been reported.

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of the island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced he would head to the scene later Sunday “to follow developments”.

“Given the situation La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

As of 1830 GMT flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, airport operator Aena said.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off of northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds said on Sunday.

“After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins’ eyes,” said the foundation’s David Roberts, a clinical veterinarian.

“This is a very rare occurence. We do not expect it to happen often, its a fluke.

“There were also dead bees on the scene,” he told AFP by telephone.

The protected birds, found on Friday, were from a colony at Simonstown, a small town near Cape Town.

The area is a national park and the Cape honey bees are part of the ecosystem.

“The penguins… must not die just like that as they are already in danger of extinction. They are a protected species,” said Roberts.

The South African National Parks said the birds were taken to the foundation for post-mortems and samples sent for disease and toxicology testing.

“There were no external physical injuries found on any of the birds,” a parks statement said.

The post-mortems showed all the penguins had multiple bee stings.

African penguins, which inhabit the coast and islands of southern Africa, are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list, meaning they face a high risk of extinction.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account, adding that evacuations have started in the areas closest to the volcano.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced he would head to the scene later Sunday “to follow developments”.

“Given the situation La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off of northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island and has erupted twice in the 20th century, first in 1949 then again in 1971.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account, adding that evacuations have started in the areas closest to the volcano.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that he would head to the scene.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Interior Ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano which last erupted 50 years ago after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

actpe/mg/bp/yad

Iran reopened museums in Tehran and other cities Sunday after a more than year-long closure because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Museums in Tehran and other large cities that are no longer red-coded, meaning the risk of contracting the virus was very high, reopened on Sunday,” the director of Iran’s museums, Mohammad-Reza Kargar, told AFP.

“Tourists and visitors are welcome to return while observing (sanitary) measures.”

A country with a millennia-long history, Iran has an abundance of 746 museums, including 170 in the capital.

“We are absolutely delighted, and we think the people are too because they were fed up with staying home, and visiting museums improves their mood,” Kargar said in his tourism and heritage ministry office.

“We have safety protocols in place of course, and the number of visitors will be dependent on the space at our sites so the public stays safe and healthy.”

Kargar said only students, researchers and staff were allowed into museums during the past 14 months.

Iran’s museums attracted more than 21 million visitors in the year before the outbreak of Covid-19 that forced museums to close in May 2020.

On Sunday, the National Museum of Iran with its magnificent collection of treasures dating back to the Bronze and Iron ages was still deserted.

“We have to wait for the news to spread and schools to reopen for people to come back,” explained Firouzeh Sepidnameh, head of the museum’s pre-Islamic collections.

Iran, the worst-hit country in the Middle East, has confirmed more than 5.4 million cases of coronavirus, including 117,000 deaths, according to figures issued Sunday by the health ministry.

Out of a population of 83 million, 29 million Iranians have received a first dose of vaccination and almost 14 million have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Four SpaceX tourists returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending three days in space, successfully concluding the first orbital mission in history with no professional astronauts on board.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, whose heat shield allowed it to withstand descent, was slowed down by four large parachutes before splashing into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida at 7:06 pm (2306 GMT), according to a video feed by the company.

“That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started,” billionaire captain Jared Isaacman, who financed the trip with a goal of making space a bit more accessible, said shortly after landing.

A SpaceX boat immediately retrieved the capsule, before its hatch was opened and the space tourists, smiling broadly and waving their arms in the air, exited one by one.

They were next headed for the Kennedy Space Center, where their mission had begun on Wednesday.

The stated goal of the mission, called Inspiration4, was to encourage the democratization of space by proving that the cosmos are accessible to crews that have neither been handpicked nor in training for years.

“Congratulations @Inspiration4x !!!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted after the landing.

The four space novices — Isaacman and three other Americans — spent three days orbiting Earth, traveling farther than the International Space Station (ISS), at an orbit of about 575 kilometers (357 miles) high, and circling the globe more than 15 times each day.

Isaacman, who paid SpaceX tens of millions of dollars, offered the other three seats to strangers: Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran.

However, the exact price that the 38-year-old founder of Shift4 Payments and seasoned pilot shelled out for the mission has not been revealed. 

The Inspiration4 crew bonded over the course of six months’ training, compared with years for professional astronauts.

During the flight, the members’ vital signs, including heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen levels and cognitive abilities, were monitored to study the effects of space on complete novices.

But they also enjoyed the view through a brand new observation dome fitted onto the capsule, spoke with actor Tom Cruise from the vessel, ate pizza and listened to music.

– ‘Second space age’ –

“Welcome to the second space age,” mission director Todd Ericson said at a press conference after the landing.

With its completion, “space travel becomes much more accessible to average men and women.”

There was only one minor issue during the flight, with the capsule’s toilet system, but a solution was quickly found, Ericson said, without giving further details.

“Best ride of my life!” Proctor tweeted after disembarking from the capsule.

The mission served as a huge fundraiser for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, a leading facility in Tennessee. Arceneaux received treatment there as a child, and now works there.

The crew took with them various objects — including a ukulele, which Sembroski briefly played live from the vessel on Friday — that will now be auctioned off with proceeds going to the hospital.

The landing marked the third time that Musk’s company has taken humans to space and back, after the return of two NASA missions, one in August 2020 and another in May of this year. Both were bringing astronauts back from a stay at the ISS.

Unlike NASA astronauts, the members of the Inspiration4 mission did not go to the ISS but remained in orbit around the Earth.

The space adventure comes after a summer marked by the battle of the billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to reach the final frontier. However their separate suborbital flights only offered a few minutes in zero gravity.

SpaceX is already planning further space tourism flights. In fact, “the amount of people who are approaching us through our sales and marketing portals have actually increased significantly,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of human spaceflight programs.

The next trip is scheduled for January 2022, with three businessmen on board.

Four SpaceX tourists returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending three days in space, successfully concluding the first orbital mission in history with no professional astronauts on board.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, whose heat shield allowed it to withstand descent, was slowed down by four large parachutes before splashing into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida at 7:06 pm (2306 GMT), according to a video feed by the company.

“That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started,” billionaire captain Jared Isaacman, who financed the trip with a goal of making space a bit more accessible, said shortly after landing.

A SpaceX boat immediately retrieved the capsule, before its hatch was opened and the space tourists, smiling broadly and waving their arms in the air, exited one by one. 

They were next headed for the Kennedy Space Center, where their mission had begun on Wednesday.

The stated goal of the mission, called Inspiration4, was to encourage the democratization of space by proving that the cosmos are accessible to crews that have neither been handpicked nor in training for years.

“Congratulations @Inspiration4x !!!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted after the landing.

The four space novices – Isaacman and three other Americans — spent three days orbiting Earth, traveling farther than the International Space Station (ISS), at an orbit of about 575 kilometers (357 miles) high, and circling the globe more than 15 times each day.

Isaacman, who paid SpaceX tens of millions of dollars, offered the other three seats to strangers: Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran.

However the exact price that the 38-year-old founder of Shift4 Payments and seasoned pilot shelled out for the mission has not been revealed. 

The Inspiration4 crew bonded over the course of six months’ training, compared with years for professional astronauts.

During the flight, the members’ vital signs, including heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen levels and cognitive abilities, were monitored to study the effects of space on complete novices.

But they also enjoyed the view through a brand new observation dome fitted onto the capsule, spoke with actor Tom Cruise from the vessel, ate pizza and listened to music.

– Fundraising –

The mission served as a huge fundraiser for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, a leading facility in Tennessee. Arceneaux received treatment there as a child, and now works there.

The crew took with them various objects — including a ukulele which Sembroski briefly played live from the vessel on Friday — which will now be auctioned off with proceeds going to the hospital.

The landing marked the third time that Elon Musk’s company has taken humans to space and back, after the return of two NASA missions, one in August 2020 and another in May of this year. Both were bringing astronauts back from a stay at the ISS.

Unlike NASA astronauts, the members of the Inspiration4 mission did not go to the ISS but remained in orbit around the Earth.

The space adventure comes after a summer marked by the battle of the billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to reach the final frontier. However their separate suborbital flights only offered a few minutes in zero gravity.

SpaceX is already planning further space tourism flights — the next is scheduled for January 2022 with three businessmen on board.