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UN Seeks Probe into Reported Mass Killing of Afghans Migrating to Iran

Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard with a sentence reading in Persian and Hebrew, 'Israel is no longer a safe place for living' at the Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 16 October 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard with a sentence reading in Persian and Hebrew, 'Israel is no longer a safe place for living' at the Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 16 October 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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UN Seeks Probe into Reported Mass Killing of Afghans Migrating to Iran

Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard with a sentence reading in Persian and Hebrew, 'Israel is no longer a safe place for living' at the Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 16 October 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard with a sentence reading in Persian and Hebrew, 'Israel is no longer a safe place for living' at the Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 16 October 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

The United Nations' mission in Afghanistan called on Thursday for an investigation into reports that a large group of Afghan migrants had been shot and killed on the Afghanistan-Iran border.
Afghan media outlets including Tolo News, citing witnesses, said more than 200 Afghan migrants who entered Iran illegally were attacked on Iranian territory, and that dozens had been killed and injured.
Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, denied the reports of the "death of dozens of illegal nationals" in a post on X.
Tolo News quoted an "Iranian human rights organization" saying that Iranian border guards had attacked the migrants.
Afghanistan's Taliban-run administration has not confirmed the incident and said it was investigating.
The United Nations' Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a statement expressed "deep concern over disturbing reports of an incident on 14 to 15 October in Sistan province, Sarbaz district, Kala Gan border area of Iran, with allegations that a large group of Afghan migrants were opened fire on, resulting in deaths and injuries."
It did not make any reference to who might have carried out the alleged attack.
UNAMA called for a "thorough and transparent" investigation into the alleged incident, stressing that the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers are protected by international law.
Afghanistan authorities have been unable to confirm the incident because it happened "beyond Afghanistan's borders," deputy spokesman of the government Hamdullah Fitrat said in a statement.
He said a high-ranking delegation with officials from the interior, foreign and defense ministries had begun an investigation and would submit a report once the facts were clear.

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Mayotte Faces Environment, Biodiversity Crisis after Cyclone

This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Mayotte Faces Environment, Biodiversity Crisis after Cyclone

This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)

Mayotte has changed beyond recognition since a cyclone devastated the Indian Ocean territory, sparking an environment and biodiversity crisis that could last for a decade or more, scientists say.

After barreling into the archipelago at 200 kilometers per hour (125 mph), Cyclone Chido left behind scenes of desolation: Trees mowed down as far as the eye can see, sturdy tree trunks blown apart as if struck by mortars, the previous green of the foliage replaced by a sad brown.

"It's an environmental disaster," said Raima Fadul, a biologist. "There are no more trees. Those still standing have lost their tops... The cyclone flattened the vegetation."

A gigantic baobab over 300 years old collapsed onto a restaurant. Part of the mangrove is now completely bare and black. A three-meter (10-feet) earth mound looms where an acacia tree, half a century old, was uprooted by the violent storm.

One effect of the vegetation's sudden disappearance is that Mayotte's slums, formerly hidden by lush greenery, are now starkly apparent, making visible their number, and their sprawl.

- 'We never realized' -

"All we saw before were mango trees, coconut trees and a forest," said Rouchdat Mourchidi, an education counselor checking on what remains of a family plot on the island's heights. "We never realized there were metal shacks there because they were hidden in vegetation."

Trees have always played the crucial role of channeling rain and slowing down potential floods. Now that they are gone, any torrential downpour will wash soil into the lagoon below, covering the seabed in mud.

As a result, part of the lagoon's coral reef will be killed off, said Fadul, leading to the loss of some of the 300 species of fish, corals, vertebrates and mollusks present in the reef's ecosystem.

On land, wildlife is already suffering from the loss of forest cover. Small dark lemurs called makis are now being spotted increasingly in urban areas where they come in search of food, and where they will probably die.

Bats, pollinators with an important role to play in future reforestation, are also becoming rarer after losing their nesting spots in trees.

There are also grave concerns for lizards, insects and flowering plants that used to proliferate on Mayotte.

- 'In 10 years' time' -

One ray of hope is that Mayotte's tropical climate will help accelerate future tree growth, said Benoit Loussier, regional director of the National Forestry Office.

"In 10 years' time, plantations may have restored a forest cover" of eight meters (26 feet) high, he said.

But this can happen only if the population resists the obvious temptation to convert destroyed forest zones into farmland.

This illegal activity was already in evidence before the cyclone, notably due to desperately poor illegal immigrants practicing subsistence farming.

In 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated that 6.7 percent of Mayotte's woodland had been cleared between 2011 and 2016, a deforestation proportion comparable to that seen in Argentina or Indonesia.

The risk of illicit replanting is all the more acute as crops were also destroyed by Cyclone Chido.

Another looming risk is "subsistence poaching" of turtles, warned Lamya Essemlali at Sea Shepherd, a wildlife preservation NGO, as Mayotte's poorest go hungry while food aid is still slow to arrive.

Officially Mayotte has 320,000 inhabitants -- with unregistered undocumented migrants probably adding another 100,000 -- packed into a territory of 374 square kilometers (144 square miles), resulting in a population density eight times that of mainland France.

The median income in Mayotte is 260 euros ($271) a month, according to the national statistics institute Insee, six times less than in mainland France.