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Expedition Organizers Say 2 Climbers Have Died on Mount Everest

(FILES) This photograph taken on April 26, 2018 shows a general view of Everest base camp, some 140 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on April 26, 2018 shows a general view of Everest base camp, some 140 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)
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Expedition Organizers Say 2 Climbers Have Died on Mount Everest

(FILES) This photograph taken on April 26, 2018 shows a general view of Everest base camp, some 140 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on April 26, 2018 shows a general view of Everest base camp, some 140 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)

An Indian and a Filipino climber have died while climbing Mount Everest as hundreds of climbers are attempting to scale the world’s highest peak, expedition organizers said Friday.

The Indian climber, identified as Subrata Ghosh, died on Thursday just below the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit of the peak while he was returning from the top.

The other climber, identified as Philipp Santiago, 45, from the Philippines, died Wednesday while he was headed to the summit. He had reached Camp 4, which is the highest camp on the mountain, and was preparing for the final bid to reach the summit, The Associated Press reported.

Bodha Raj Bhandari of the Nepal-based Snowy Horizon Trek and Expedition, which equipped and organized the expedition, said the bodies were still on the mountain and it was yet to be decided if and when they would be brought down.

Retrieving bodies is both expensive and difficult as it takes many people to drag them down the icy slopes of the mountain.

The spring climbing season began in March and ends at the end of May.

May is the best month to climb the peak and climbers get only a few opportunities when the weather conditions improve, allowing just time for them to try attempt scale the peak.

Everest was first climbed in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. More than 300 people have died on Everest since then.

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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.