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How 50 Per Cent Of World Population Is Exposed To Tsunamis By 2030 – Guterres

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How 50 Per Cent Of World Population Is Exposed To Tsunamis By 2030 - Guterres

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has raised the alarm that by the year 2030, an estimated 50 per cent of the world’s population will live in coastal areas which are exposed to flooding, storms and tsunamis.

In a message marking the 2021 World Tsunami Awareness Day, Guterres called on all countries, international bodies and civil society to increase understanding of the deadly threat and share innovative approaches to reduce risks.

“We can build on progress achieved, ranging from better outreach to tsunami-exposed communities around the world, to the inclusion of a tsunami programme in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”, Guterres said

The UN chief cautioned, however, that the risk “remains immense.”

“Rising sea levels caused by the climate emergency will further exacerbate the destructive power of tsunamis.

“We must limit warming to 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial averages and invest at scale in the resilience of coastal communities.”

The UN chief noted that rapid urbanisation and growing tourism in regions prone to tsunamis were also putting even more people in harm’s way.

“That is why the UN has chosen enhancing international cooperation for developing countries, as the theme of this year’s World Tsunami Awareness Day,“ he said.

READ ALSO: Stop Harming The Environment Or Dig Your Own Graves – UN

According to Guterres, science, international cooperation, preparedness and early action must be at the centre of all efforts to keep people and communities safer.

“Boosting support to developing countries and improving detection and early warning is critical. In the face of increasing complex global crises, we need to be better prepared”, he argued.

In 2021, World Tsunami Awareness Day is promoting the “Sendai Seven Campaign,” specifically the target that looks to enhance international cooperation to developing countries.

The secretary-general concludes his message with an appeal to deliver on the Sendai Framework and together build resilience against all disasters.

According to him, tsunamis are rare events but can be extremely deadly.

In the past 100 years, 58 of them have claimed more than 260,000 lives, or an average of 4,600 per disaster – more than any other natural hazard.

The highest number of deaths occurred in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 that caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities across 14 countries and in which Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand were the hardest hit.

Just three weeks after the disaster, the international community came together in Kobe, Japan and adopted the 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action, the first comprehensive global agreement on disaster risk reduction.

They also created the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, which uses seismographic and sea-level monitoring stations to send alerts to national tsunami information centres.

After the Hyogo Framework for Action expired in 2014, the world adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 to 2030, outlining seven clear targets and four priorities to prevent and reduce disaster risks.

(NAN)

 

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French Schools Send Home Schoolgirls For Wearing Muslim Dress Abayas

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French President Emmanuel Macron

French schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abayas – an over-garment from the shoulders to the feet worn by Muslim women – on the first day of the school year, a government minister said on Tuesday.

Defying a ban on the Muslim dress, nearly 300 girls showed up on Monday morning wearing an abaya, education secretary Gabriel Attal told the BFM broadcaster.

The Daily Mail quoted Attal as saying that most agreed to change out of the dress, but 67 refused and were sent home.

The government announced last month it was banning the abaya in schools, saying it broke the rules on secularism in education that have already seen Muslim headscarves banned on the grounds they constitute a display of religious affiliation.

The move gladdened the political Right but the hard-Left argued it represented an affront to civil liberties.

French schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abayas – an over-garment from the shoulders to the feet worn by Muslim women – on the first day of the school year, a government minister said on Tuesday.

Announcing the ban last month, Attal said at the time: ‘When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them. I have decided that the abaya can no longer be worn in schools.’

Attal said the girls refused entry were given a letter addressed to their families saying that ‘secularism is not a constraint, it is a liberty’.

If they showed up at school again wearing the dress there would be a ‘new dialogue’, the minister said.

On Monday evening, president Emmanuel Macron defended the controversial measure, saying there was a ‘minority’ in France who ‘hijack a religion and challenge the republic and secularism’, leading to the ‘worst consequences’ such as the murder three years ago of teacher Samuel Paty for showing Mohammed caricatures during a civics education class.

‘We cannot act as if the terrorist attack, the murder of Samuel Paty, had not happened,’ he said in an interview with Youtube channel HugoDecrypte.

An association representing Muslims has filed a motion with the State Council, France’s highest court for complaints against state authorities, for an injunction against the ban on the abaya and the qamis, its equivalent dress for men.

The Action for the Rights of Muslims (ADM) motion is to be examined later on Tuesday.

Abdallah Zekri, vice-president of the French Council for Muslim Worship, said last month the abaya ‘has never been a religious symbol’ and should not be banned.

He said the ban was yet another example of politicians using dress favoured by women and girls to attack some five million Muslims living in France.

‘I think the minister could have asked the opinion of religious leaders,’ said Zerkri.

‘For me, the abaya is not a religious dress, it is a form of fashion.

‘If you go to some stores, you find abayas. It’s a long and loose dress at the same time. It has nothing to do with religion.’

A law introduced in March 2004 banned ‘the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation’ in schools.

This includes large Christian crosses, Jewish kippas and Islamic headscarves.

Unlike headscarves, abayas occupied a grey area and had faced no outright ban until now.

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Gabon’s BREAKING:Military Leader Sworn In As President

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Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema

Gabon ‘s new military leader was sworn in as the head of state Monday less than a week after ousting the president whose family had ruled the Central African nation for more than five decades.

Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, took the oath in the presidential palace in front of a packed, boisterous room of government officials, military and local leaders in Gabon’s capital, Libreville. Oligui is a cousin of the ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, served as a bodyguard to his late father and is head of the republican guard, an elite military unit.

Speaking to applause and standing ovations Monday, Oligui said the military had seized power without bloodshed and promised to return power to the people by organizing free, transparent and credible elections.

“With the new government, made up of experienced people, we’re going to give everyone a chance to hope,” he said.

.AP

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BREAKING: Gabonese Military Officers Sack President

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President Ali Bongo

Senior Gabonese military officers appeared on national television to announce they have taken power.

The group of 12 officers made the announcement shortly after Gabon’s election body reported early on Wednesday morning that President Ali Bongo had won a third term in office.

After observing “irresponsible, unpredictable governance resulting in a continuing deterioration in social cohesion that risks leading the country into chaos… we have decided to defend peace by putting an end to the current regime”, one of the soldiers said, speaking on the Gabon 24 TV channel.

There was no immediate comment from the Gabon government, the Reuters news agency reported.

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