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News & Announcements

Death Toll Pakistan Train Crash Rises To 56

The death toll in a train crash in southern Pakistan rose to 56 on Tuesday, a railway spokeswoman said, the latest accident to highlight a broken railway system that dates back to the 19th century.

The toll rose to 56 after bodies were retrieved overnight from mangled coaches strewn across the tracks, Pakistan Railways spokeswoman Nazia Jabeen told Reuters.

Another 23 injured passengers are still under treatment, she said, adding the rest of them were sent to their destinations.

Rescue operations have been completed, said statements from the railway and Pakistani military, which worked at the site along with police and other rescuers.

One side of the two rail tracks have been cleared and work was in progress to clear the other one to help restore traffic.

Several carriages of a train derailed and fell across the adjacent track in the Ghotki district on Monday. Within minutes, a second train, coming from the other direction, smashed into them.

“The driver tried to apply emergency brakes but the locomotive hit the infringing coaches,” Pakistan Railways said in an initial report.

“We saw a terrifying scene here,” a resident Sher Mohammad told Reuters TV. “We brought water, picked up children. Passengers who were coming out of the train were mostly in agony,” he said.

The trains were carrying a total of 1,388 passengers.

Accidents on the decaying rail system are common.

In 2005, in the same district, about 130 people were killed when a crowded passenger train rammed into another at a station and a third train struck the wreckage.

Successive governments have for years been trying to secure funds to upgrade the system, including a planned new rail track called ML-1 as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative of energy and infrastructure projects.

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News & Announcements

The US Imposes Visa Restrictions Over Cameroon Govt/Separatists Crisis

The United States has Imposes a Visa ban on those it viewed as undermining peace efforts in Cameroon following the escalated crisis between government forces and separatist groups in the English-speaking area.

Cameroon’s two western Anglophone regions have been gripped by fighting since 2017 as the rebels try to break away from the predominantly Francophone government. More than 3,500 people have died and 700,000 have been displaced in the violence.

Announcing the visa sanctions, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was deeply concerned by the continued insecurity and called for both sides to negotiate for peace.

“This decision reflects our commitment to advance a dialogue to peacefully resolve the Anglophone crisis and support respect for human rights,” he said in a statement.

He did not say which individuals might be affected by the visa restrictions.

Reuters reports that rights groups accuse both sides of committing atrocities. While the government typically dismisses these accusations, it has, in a few cases, subsequently arrested soldiers and accused them of being involved in killings and torture.

In 2019, the Trump administration ended Cameroon’s preferential trade benefits citing extrajudicial killings, torture, and other human rights violations being committed by Cameroonian security forces.

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