6 Dead in China as Rain Triggers Landslides, House Collapse

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, water flows out from a gate of the Shuikou Hydropower Station in southeastern China's Fujian Province, Monday, June 13, 2022. (Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, water flows out from a gate of the Shuikou Hydropower Station in southeastern China's Fujian Province, Monday, June 13, 2022. (Xinhua via AP)
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6 Dead in China as Rain Triggers Landslides, House Collapse

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, water flows out from a gate of the Shuikou Hydropower Station in southeastern China's Fujian Province, Monday, June 13, 2022. (Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, water flows out from a gate of the Shuikou Hydropower Station in southeastern China's Fujian Province, Monday, June 13, 2022. (Xinhua via AP)

Heavy rain in China has claimed six lives this week and forced the evacuation of some 200,000 people.

Five people died in southeastern China, according to state media reports: A house collapse took three lives in Fujian province on Tuesday, and two died Monday in a landslide caused by torrential rain in neighboring Jiangxi province.

One person died and three are missing in northern China after a vehicle fell into the water in mountain flooding from heavy rain in the Inner Mongolia region.

China regularly experiences seasonal rains and flooding during the summer, most frequently in central and southern areas.

Video on state broadcaster CCTV showed large parts of cities flooded in muddy waters. Rescue workers carried trapped people out of buildings on their backs in waist-deep water in Guangdong province, also in the southeast.

The rain ended Wednesday in Jiangxi, but more precipitation is forecast for another week in Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong and the nearby Guangxi region. The National Meteorological Center said residents should prepare for floods and landslides as the soil is already saturated in those areas.

More than 110,000 people have been relocated in Jiangxi province, along with more than 80,000 in Fujian, state media reports said.

Seventeen people died last week in rain-related disasters in Guangxi and in Hunan province in central China.



Mali Says Cutting Ties with Ukraine

People gather in front of a makeshift memorial, which was erected following head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin and group commander Dmitry Utkin's death in 2023, during a commemoration ceremony held to pay tribute to Wagner fighters, who were recently killed in Mali by northern Tuareg rebels, in central Moscow, Russia August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova
People gather in front of a makeshift memorial, which was erected following head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin and group commander Dmitry Utkin's death in 2023, during a commemoration ceremony held to pay tribute to Wagner fighters, who were recently killed in Mali by northern Tuareg rebels, in central Moscow, Russia August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova
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Mali Says Cutting Ties with Ukraine

People gather in front of a makeshift memorial, which was erected following head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin and group commander Dmitry Utkin's death in 2023, during a commemoration ceremony held to pay tribute to Wagner fighters, who were recently killed in Mali by northern Tuareg rebels, in central Moscow, Russia August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova
People gather in front of a makeshift memorial, which was erected following head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin and group commander Dmitry Utkin's death in 2023, during a commemoration ceremony held to pay tribute to Wagner fighters, who were recently killed in Mali by northern Tuareg rebels, in central Moscow, Russia August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova

Mali is immediately cutting diplomatic ties with Ukraine over comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence agency (GUR) about fighting in its north that killed Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters in late July, it said on Sunday.
Mali's northern Tuareg rebels say they killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers over days of fierce fighting in the north of the West African country in what appears to be Wagner's heaviest defeat since it stepped in two years ago to help Mali's military authorities fight insurgent groups.
GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov has not confirmed Kyiv's involvement in the fighting, but in comments published on public broadcaster Suspilne's website on Monday, July 29, he said the Malian rebels had received the "necessary" information to conduct the attack.
"The rebels received all the necessary information they needed, and not just the information, which allowed (them) to conduct a successful military operation against Russian perpetrators of war crimes. We certainly won't go into details now - you will see more of this in the future," he said.
According to Reuters, Mali said it had learned "with deep shock of the subversive remarks."
It said Yusov had "admitted Ukraine's involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups that resulted in the death of members of the Malian Defense and Security Forces."
"The actions taken by the Ukrainian authorities violate the sovereignty of Mali, go beyond the scope of foreign interference, which is already condemnable in itself, and constitute a clear aggression by Mali and support for international terrorism," the Malian government said.
It also cited comments by Ukraine's ambassador to Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast and Liberia.
Senegal's foreign minister summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Yurii Pyvovarov on Friday over a video it said the Ukrainian embassy had posted on its Facebook page in which Pyvovarov provided "unequivocal and unqualified support for the terrorist attack" in Mali.