South Africa's Cape Town is Hit by More Storms, with 4,500 People Displaced by Floods and Damage

Representation photo: A drone view shows rain clouds approaching a damaged residence in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Surfside Beach, Texas, US, July 9, 2024. REUTERS/Adrees Latif TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Asharq Al Awsat

11:32-11 July 2024 AD ـ 05 Muharram 1446 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

11:32-11 July 2024 AD ـ 05 Muharram 1446 AH

South Africa's Cape Town is Hit by More Storms, with 4,500 People Displaced by Floods and Damage

The South African city of Cape Town and surrounding areas were hit by more storms Thursday that ripped roofs off houses and caused widespread flooding, forcing at least 4,500 people out of their homes and damaging at least 15,000 structures, authorities said. The devastating weather began a week ago.
Multiple cold fronts have battered the region on the southwest tip of Africa since late last week, bringing record rainfall in some parts and gale-force winds. City authorities said the bad weather was expected to continue until the weekend and possibly into next week, The Associated Press said.
The Wynberg neighborhood of Cape Town was littered with damage Thursday morning after the latest front hit overnight. The strong winds blew off roofs, destroyed parts of houses and other buildings, and brought down electricity poles.
The City of Cape Town said its Disaster Operations Center worked through the night to respond to calls for help from residents.
At least 4,500 people were displaced and 15,000 structures damaged in and around Cape Town and the wider Western Cape province before the latest storm Wednesday night and those figures were expected to rise.
JP Smith, the Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security, said the city and non-governmental organizations had already provided more than 36,000 meals and distributed 6,000 blankets to affected people in the last two days.
Many people left homeless were in the impoverished informal settlements on the outskirts of Cape Town, where metal and wooden shacks are especially vulnerable to strong wind and flooding.
Schools were closed in Cape Town and other nearby areas, including the renowned wine-growing region of Stellenbosch, where snow lined the streets earlier in the week in a highly unusual occurrence as a result of the extreme cold fronts coming in from the Atlantic Ocean.
Three major rivers in the province had burst their banks, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said.
The provincial disaster management services had ordered evacuations of some people in the agricultural area of Citrusdal and parts of the wine-growing region around Stellenbosch, which is around 30 miles (48 kilometers) inland from Cape Town, because of flooding.
Authorities were considering the controlled release of water from some dams as a “precautionary measure” to prevent them from overflowing and causing more damage, the provincial government said.
Cape Town and other parts of the southwest coast of South Africa are often affected by cold fronts in the winter months in the middle of the year which bring heavy rain and strong winds. But it's unusual for multiple fronts to hit in a short space of time.

South Korea and EU Condemn North Korea’s Reported Troop Dispatch to Russia

In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, left, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)

09:21-4 November 2024 AD ـ 03 Jumada Al-Ula 1446 AH

South Korea and EU Condemn North Korea’s Reported Troop Dispatch to Russia

Top South Korean and European Union officials on Monday strongly condemned North Korea’s reported troop dispatch to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine and agreed to work together to try to block deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

North Korea’s alleged troop deployment threatens to expand the almost 3-year-long war and is causing security jitters in South Korea, where many worry Russia might reward the North by giving it sophisticated weapons technology or offering a defense commitment in the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

In a meeting in Seoul, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun and the EU’s visiting foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed “serious concerns” about North Korea’s reported troop dispatch and “strongly condemned” it, according to a statement from the South Korean Defense Ministry.

The two agreed to work together with the international community to try to obstruct Russian-North Korean security cooperation, the statement said.

The US government said Thursday that about 8,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia near Ukraine’s border and preparing to join Russia’s fight against Ukraine in the coming days. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday urged allies to stop just “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield.

According to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments, North Korea was estimated to have moved about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia. If they start fighting against Ukraine forces, it would mark North Korea’s first participation in a large-scale conflict since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used the Russia-Ukraine war as a way to expand defense and economic cooperation with Russia in the face of an intensifying US-led pressure campaign against his advancing nuclear program. The US, South Korea and others accuse North Korea of having already exported artillery shells, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia.

In the past two years, Kim has also ramped up tests of nuclear-capable missile systems, as Russia and China have repeatedly blocked US-led attempts to toughen international sanctions on North Korea over its testing activities in defiance of UN bans. North Korea has also pushed to sever relations and abandon its long-standing goal of reconciliation with South Korea.

In a background briefing with local media Monday, South Korea’s military said North Korea has built anti-tank, trench-like structures at two sites near the Koreas' heavily armed border, where it blew up northern parts of unused cross-border road and rail routes last month in a display of anger toward South Korea. One of the sites is on the western portion of the border and the other on the eastern section.

Details of the briefing were shared with The Associated Press.

The structure at the eastern part of the border was assessed to be 160 meters (524 feet) long while the one at the western part of the border was about 120 meters (393 feet) long, according to the South Korean military briefing.

In a war situation, the North could easily fill up the trenches with piles of dirt nearby to create routes to invade the South, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Recent commercial satellite images suggest that the work on the trenches began shortly after North Korea staged choreographed demolitions of a road near the western North Korean border city of Kaesong and a combined road and rail section near the Koreas’ eastern border on Oct. 15.

Last week, North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to attack the US mainland for the first time in almost a year.

South Africa's Cape Town is Hit by More Storms, with 4,500 People Displaced by Floods and Damage

South Africa's Cape Town is Hit by More Storms, with 4,500 People Displaced by Floods and Damage

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South Korea and EU Condemn North Korea’s Reported Troop Dispatch to Russia

South Korea and EU Condemn North Korea’s Reported Troop Dispatch to Russia

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