2 die as Cyclone Remal ravages parts of Bengal, heavy rain to continue
Kolkata (PTI): At least two persons died in West Bengal and its coastal areas suffered extensive damage to infrastructure and property, as Cyclone Remal tore through the state and neighbouring Bangladesh with winds speeds reaching 135 km per hour, officials said Monday.
A man died of his injuries when a wall collapsed due to the relentless downpour on Sunday evening at the Bibir Bagan area of Entally in Central Kolkata, a state disaster management official said.
An eldery woman in the Mousuni Island near Namkhana adjacent to the Sunderbans delta also succumbed to injuries on Monday morning, following a tree collapse on her hut that resulted in the roof caving in, the official said.
After tearing through the coasts of Bangladesh and West Bengal, Cyclone Remal left a trail of destruction with pictures of devastation becoming evident across the state’s coastal areas, with extensive damage to infrastructure and property, soon after daybreak on Monday.
Roofs of thatched huts were blown away, uprooted trees blocked roads in Kolkata as well as in the coastal districts, and electricity poles were knocked down causing significant power disruption in various parts of the state, including in the city’s outskirts, the officials said.
While several pockets of Kolkata remained waterlogged on the morning of the first working day of the week, suburban train services from the Sealdah terminal station remained partially suspended for at least three hours, adding to commuters’ woes, before operations limped back to normal.
Flight services at the Kolkata airport resumed on Monday morning after remaining suspended for 21 hours in view of Cyclone Remal. Airport sources, however, said it will take some more time for the situation to become normal.
The cyclone ravaged adjacent coasts of the state and Bangladesh between Sagar Island and Khepupara, near the southwest of Mongla in the neighbouring country, after its landfall process began at 8.30 pm on Sunday and lasted for a good four hours.
In a later update, the Met office said ‘Remal’ weakened into a cyclonic storm at 5:30 am on Monday, about 70 km northeast of Canning and 30 km west-southwest of Mongla. The system is likely to gradually weaken further.
Efforts to restore normalcy are underway, with emergency services working to clear debris and restore power in the affected areas.
However, the relentless heavy rain is hampering these operations in most of the affected areas, the officials said.
The state government has initiated relief operations, providing food, drinking water and medical assistance to the people affected.
The authorities have urged residents to remain indoors and take necessary precaution till the heavy rain persists.
Kolkata recorded a rainfall of 146 mm in the period between 8.30 am on Sunday and 5.30 am on Monday, the weatherman said.
The metropolis logged a maximum wind speed of 74 kmph, while Dum Dum in the northern outskirts of the city recorded maximum wind speed of 91 kmph, the weather office said.
Several areas of Kolkata remained waterlogged, compounding the misery of the affected residents. Streets in significant pockets of Ballygunge, Park Circus, Dhakuria and Alipore in South Kolkata, Behala in the West and College Street, Thanthania Kali Bari, CR Avenue and Sinthi in the North remained inundated till late in the day.
Reports indicated that trees were uprooted in several areas, including Southern Avenue, Lake Place, Chetla, D L Khan Road, Dufferin Road, Ballygunge Road, New Alipore, Behala, Jadavpur, Golpark, Hatibagan, Jagat Mukherjee Park, College Street, and the adjoining Salt Lake area.
Around 68 trees were uprooted in Kolkata, with an additional 75 trees downed in the nearby Salt Lake and Rajarhat areas.
The cyclone caused rainfall with strong winds in areas such as Digha, Kakdwip and Jaynagar, which intensified on Monday morning.
Other places in south Bengal which received heavy rainfall during the period are Haldia (110 mm), Tamluk (70 mm) and Nimpith (70 mm), the Met office said.
The storm and accompanying heavy rain flooded homes and farmlands. In some regions, salt water from the adjoining Bay of Bengal breached embankments and gushed into farmlands, damaging crops.
The West Bengal government evacuated more than one lakh people from vulnerable areas ahead of the cyclone's landfall.
The North and South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts reported widespread damage. News footage from the coastal resort town of Digha showed tidal waves crashing into a seawall, with surging waters sweeping fishing boats inland and inundating mud-and-thatch houses and farmlands.
The weatherman has forecast more rain in Kolkata and the southern districts including Nadia and Murshidabad, with one or two spells of intense downpour, along with gusty surface winds till Tuesday morning.
State Power Minister Aroop Biswas said the disruptions and damage to the power supply infrastructure caused by Cyclone Remal will be addressed soon.
He noted that there had been one or two incidents of power outages in the CESC area, due to fallen trees.
A total of 14 National Disaster Response Force teams were deployed for relief and restoration work across districts in south Bengal, including Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly.
Relief materials, including dry food and tarpaulins, have been dispatched to the coastal areas and quick response teams comprising trained civil defence volunteers and equipped vehicles are in place, the officials said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Malian defence minister killed in attack that saw jihadis and rebels seize towns, military bases
Dakar (AP): Malian Minister of Defence Gen. Sadio Camara was killed in an attack as jihadi and rebel forces seized towns and military bases across the country, according to a military officer and two other sources on Sunday.
There was no immediate comment from the Malian government.
“Unfortunately, the Ministry of Defence, Gen. Sadio Camara, has been killed during the attack which targeted his house yesterday,” said a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media.
Two other people, a civil society leader and a security member, confirmed the information.
Separatist fighters on Saturday joined Islamic militants in launching one of the biggest coordinated attacks on the Malian army in the capital and several other cities that left at least 16 wounded.
The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali, while al-Qaida and Islamic State group-aligned militants have been fighting the government for over a decade.
Malian troops and Russian mercenaries withdrew from the northern city of Kidal after the attacks, the rebels said Sunday.
A spokesperson for the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, a separatist group, said the Russian Africa Corps troops and the Malian military withdrew from the city after an agreement was reached for their peaceful exit.
“Kidal is declared free,” said FLA spokesperson Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadan.
The Malian army did not respond to requests for comment but in an earlier statement said they were “tracking down terrorist armed groups in Kidal.”
The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali. Kidal had long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being taken by Malian government forces and Russian mercenaries in 2023. Its capture marked a significant symbolic victory for the junta and its Russian allies.
It was the first time the separatists worked alongside the al-Qaida-linked militant group JNIM, which also claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks on Bamako's international airport and four other cities, including Kidal, in central and northern Mali.
“This operation is being carried out in partnership with the JNIM, which is also committed to defending the people against the military regime in Bamako,” Ramadan said.
Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank, said that the coordination between the two groups, as well as the explicit call for the Russian military to leave, is new.
“The coordination, conducting attacks all over the country at the same time, real coordination on the military level but also on the political level because both claims of both groups they acknowledged that they worked together, this is a first,” said Nasr.
Mali government spokesperson Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said on state television late Saturday that 16 people were wounded, including civilians and military personnel, and that several militants were killed. He did not provide a death toll.
The governor of Bamako's district, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, announced a three-day overnight curfew, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The Economic Community of West African States has condemned the attacks and called on “all states, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and mobilize in a coordinated effort to combat this scourge.”
The separatists called on Russia to “reconsider its support for the military junta in Bamako, whose actions have contributed to the suffering of the civilian population.”
Following military coups, the juntas in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso turned from Western allies to Russia for help in combating Islamic militants. But the security situation has worsened in recent times, with a record number of attacks by militants. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.
In 2024, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed an attack on Bamako's airport and a military training camp in the capital, killing scores of people.
Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said that while the attacks were a major blow to the credibility of Mali's Russian partners, JNIM is unlikely to take control of Bamako in the near term due to opposition from the local population.
“The attacks are a major blow to Russia as the mercenaries had no intelligence about the attacks and were unable to protect major cities. They have unnecessarily worsened the conflict by not distinguishing between civilians and combatants,” Laessing said.
