Russian Mercenary Chief Prigozhin Listed as Passenger on Plane Which Crashed with No Survivors

24 June 2023, Russia, Rostov-on-Don: A screen grab from a video released by Prigozhin Press Service, shows Wagner paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, delivering a video speech in Rostov-on-Don. (Prigozhin Press Service/dpa)
24 June 2023, Russia, Rostov-on-Don: A screen grab from a video released by Prigozhin Press Service, shows Wagner paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, delivering a video speech in Rostov-on-Don. (Prigozhin Press Service/dpa)
TT

Russian Mercenary Chief Prigozhin Listed as Passenger on Plane Which Crashed with No Survivors

24 June 2023, Russia, Rostov-on-Don: A screen grab from a video released by Prigozhin Press Service, shows Wagner paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, delivering a video speech in Rostov-on-Don. (Prigozhin Press Service/dpa)
24 June 2023, Russia, Rostov-on-Don: A screen grab from a video released by Prigozhin Press Service, shows Wagner paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, delivering a video speech in Rostov-on-Don. (Prigozhin Press Service/dpa)

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed on Wednesday evening north of Moscow with no survivors, the Russian authorities said.

There was no confirmation that Prigozhin was physically on board and Reuters could not immediately confirm that he was on the aircraft, which crashed north of Moscow.

"An investigation has been launched into an Embraer plane crash that occurred tonight in the Tver region. According to the passenger list, the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin is among them," Rosaviatsia, Russia's aviation agency, was cited as saying by the state TASS news agency.

Russia's emergency situations ministry said in a statement that a private Embraer Legacy aircraft travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg had crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region.

It said that 10 people had been on board, including three crew members. According to preliminary information, everyone on board had been killed, it said.

Prigozhin, 62, spearheaded a mutiny against Russia's top army brass on June 23-24 which President Vladimir Putin said could have tipped Russia into civil war.

The mutiny was ended by negotiations and an apparent Kremlin deal which saw Prigozhin agree to relocate to neighboring Belarus. But he had appeared to move freely inside Russia after the deal nonetheless.

Prigozhin, who had sought to topple Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, on Monday posted a video address which he suggested was shot in Africa.



Nigeria Reports 359 Cholera Deaths in First Nine Months of Year

FILE PHOTO: A health worker at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors without Borders) Cholera Treatment Center, checks intravenous fluid for a newly arrived cholera patient Ali Bakura, 3, in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Christophe Van Der Perre/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A health worker at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors without Borders) Cholera Treatment Center, checks intravenous fluid for a newly arrived cholera patient Ali Bakura, 3, in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Christophe Van Der Perre/File Photo
TT

Nigeria Reports 359 Cholera Deaths in First Nine Months of Year

FILE PHOTO: A health worker at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors without Borders) Cholera Treatment Center, checks intravenous fluid for a newly arrived cholera patient Ali Bakura, 3, in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Christophe Van Der Perre/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A health worker at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors without Borders) Cholera Treatment Center, checks intravenous fluid for a newly arrived cholera patient Ali Bakura, 3, in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Christophe Van Der Perre/File Photo

More than 350 people have died from cholera in Nigeria in the first nine months of this year, a 239% jump from the same period last year, data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed on Monday.
Cholera, a water-borne disease, is not uncommon in Nigeria where health authorities say there is a lack of potable drinking water in rural areas and urban slums, reported Reuters.
NCDC said 359 people had died between January and September compared to 106 during the same period last year.
The number of suspected cholera cases also surged to 10,837, up from 3,387 the previous year, with most of those affected being children under five years old.
Lagos, the country's commercial capital, recorded the highest number of cases, NCDC said.
Authorities in northeastern Borno said on Friday that a cholera outbreak had hit the state, which is also dealing with flooding that has displaced nearly 2 million people.