UN chief leads condemnation for New Orleans truck attack
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned Wednesday’s truck attack that killed at least 15 people in the city of New Orleans.
US citizen and army veteran, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, intentionally drove a pick-up truck into a crowd of people celebrating the new year in the city’s French quarter shortly after 3am local time, according to authorities.
The 42-year-old suspect was killed in a police shootout that injured two officers.
His potential allegiance to ISIL extremists is under investigation after a flag belonging to the terrorist organization and improvised explosives were found in the rented vehicle and in other locations nearby, according to the FBI.
“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack in New Orleans, where a driver struck a crowd gathered to celebrate the New Year, reportedly killing at least 15 people and injuring over 30 others,” said his Associate Spokesperson, Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez.
“He extends his condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives and to the Government and people of Louisiana and the United States,” the statement continued. Which also wished a swift recovery to those persons injured.
The US authorities are also investigating possible links between the outrage and a deadly vehicle explosion in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning.
Reports indicated that a Tesla Cybertruck exploded near the entrance of Trump International Hotel on New Year’s Day. Police said that the driver was killed and seven others were injured when a combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel was detonated.
Israeli strike on ‘humanitarian zone’ kills three brothers in Gaza tent
To Gaza, where the designated “humanitarian zone” of Al Mawasi and other locations came under renewed attack on Thursday from the Israeli military, according to the enclave’s authorities.
Multiple air strikes across Gaza reportedly left dozens dead, including 12 in Al Mawasi, which is on the coast near the southern town of Khan Younis.
The victims included three brothers aged seven, 11 and 13; they were killed in their tent during the overnight strike, along with two women, medics said.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying it had been targeting Hamas deputy police chief Hussam Shahwan, who it accused of terrorism and “developing intelligence assessments in coordination with Hamas’s military wing”, to attack Israeli forces.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, condemned the Al-Mawasi killings as “yet another attack” on the tented encampment.
In a fresh call for a ceasefire, Mr. Lazzarini said that “there is no humanitarian zone, let alone a ‘safe zone’ in Gaza, where “no one has been safe since the war started in October 2023”.
In an alert, UNRWA warned that heavy rains and severe storms have added to Gazans’ daily misery, leaving tents flooded in Deir al-Balah. “Thousands (are) in urgent need of safety and humanitarian aid”, the UN agency said in a statement online.
Venezuela in human rights spotlight ahead of Presidential inauguration
Just days ahead of the inauguration of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, top independent rights investigators have urged the country’s authorities to allow peaceful protests to go ahead “without fear of reprisal”.
The appeal from the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which reports to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, follows the violent repression of demonstrators after last July’s Presidential elections that returned Mr. Maduro to power.
“We remind security forces responsible for maintaining public order that they should adhere to the strictest international standards on the use of force,” said Marta Valiñas, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission.
Echoing her statement, fellow human rights expert Francisco Cox warned that Venezuela’s “repressive apparatus remains fully operational”.
Mr. Cox said that in the five months to last December, the authorities had detained at least 56 political opposition activists, 10 journalists and one human rights defender.
“Those who order arbitrary detentions and the imposition of torture or other ill-treatment, as well as those who carry them out, bear individual criminal responsibility,” he said.
According to the Venezuela Public Prosecutor’s Office, around 1,300 of the more than 2,500 individuals detained during the post-electoral security round-up were released – although the Fact-Finding Mission noted that these figures could not be corroborated.
The Mission’s experts said that according to the non-governmental organization Foro Penal, “1,849 people remain in detention for political reasons, facing multiple irregularities and restrictions affecting their rights to food, health, and access to essential legal guarantees in ongoing legal processes”.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved.
Source of original article: United Nations (news.un.org). Photo credit: UN. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion of Global Diaspora News (www.globaldiasporanews.com).
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