6 Established 1961 International Thursday, February 25, 2021 At least 75 inmates dead in Ecuador prison gang riots Distraught family members ask for death list

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador: At least 75 inmates died ‘Like a market’ Tuesday and several were injured in riots blamed on The prosecuting authority said several inmates were gang rivalry at three jails in Ecuador’s overcrowded left injured in fighting between “criminal gangs,” includ- prison system, authorities said. ing two at Guayaquil in serious condition. Several police As security forces battled to regain control, dis- were also injured, said Moncayo, but no deaths have traught family members waited desperately for news been reported among security personnel. Police com- outside the prison in Ecuador’s western port city of mander Patricio Carrillo described the situation as “crit- Guayaquil, where officials said 21 died. ical,” while Interior Minister Patricio Pazmino created a Another 33 died at the prison in Cuenca in the south centralized command post to respond to what he said and eight in Latacunga in the center of the South was “concerted action by criminal organizations to gen- American country, according to Edmundo Moncayo, erate violence in penitentiary centers.” director of the government’s SNAI prisons management The prison authority described fierce fighting body. “We want the death list given to us,” said Daniela between organized gangs that go by names such as Los Soria, 29, one of about 40 women outside the Guayaquil Pipos, Los Lobos and Tigrones. They rely on drug traf- prison, many of them in tears. “We know that the prob- ficking and operate their criminal enterprises from lems are not over because everyone there has a phone prison. Moncayo told reporters that on Monday, guards and my husband doesn’t call me,” she told AFP. seized two firearms that were to be used to kill the Earlier, she received a WhatsApp voice message leader of a group imprisoned in Guayaquil. from her husband, Ricardo, which she played back for “Inside, it is like a market. There is everything: drugs, AFP. “They are going to kill me, get me out of here!” he arms, even puppies. Everything is sold,” said Soria, the could be heard exclaiming, the last she heard from him. wife of prisoner Ricardo. In order to reduce prisoner Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno, on Twitter, attrib- numbers amid the coronavirus epidemic, the govern- uted the riots to “criminal organizations” engaged in ment commuted the sentences of people convicted of GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador: Relatives of the prisoners at the Zone 8 Deprivation of Liberty Center are seen as they “simultaneous acts of violence in several prisons.” The minor offences, reducing overcrowding from 42 percent wait for news, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. At least 50 inmates died in riots at three prisons in Ecuador on Tuesday, authorities, he said, “are acting to retake control.” to 30 percent. This still leaves Ecuador’s prison system, police said. — AFP The military was deployed to help police quell the with a capacity to house 29,000 inmates in 60-odd uprising. The public defender’s office, an entity akin to facilities, with a prisoner population of 38,000. There an ombudsman set up to defend human rights, called the are 1,500 guards to oversee them. inmate disputes left 51 dead, according to police figures. dead and seven injured. Tuesday’s riots coincided with violence “an unprecedented massacre” and expressed A 90-day state of emergency in the country’s jails was a march of hundreds of indigenous people on Quito to its “concern over the lack of security in the country, Dearth of guards ordered by Moreno last year to try to bring gang activi- demand a vote recount after a first round of presiden- which is reflected in the increase in crime and violence The SNAI has said a dearth of personnel “hinders ty under control and reduce the violence. tial elections this month saw their candidate left out in inside these prison facilities.” immediate response” to prisoner revolts. Last year, But just in December, prison unrest left 11 prisoners the cold. — AFP

Boko Haram kills News in brief 16 including 9 Navalny not ‘prisoner of conscience’ MOSCOW: Amnesty International said yesterday children in Nigeria that it no longer recognizes jailed Russian opposi- tion leader Alexei Navalny as a prisoner of con- science because of past “advocacy of hatred” com- KANO: Boko Haram jihadists attacked the Nigerian ments but vowed to still push for his release. city of Maiduguri in the volatile northeast, killing 16 Navalny’s arrest at a Moscow airport in January people, including nine children who were playing foot- sparked widespread condemnation from rights ball in a field, local militia said yesterday. In videos cir- groups in Russia and abroad as well as from culating on social media, hundreds of people could be Western leaders who are expected to impose sanc- seen rushing to help wounded victims, with one resident tions on Moscow in response. But Amnesty said it speeding off in a car with injured people inside. Officials took the decision to rescind his status of prisoner said previously 10 people were killed and 47 were of conscience “in relation to comments he made in injured in Tuesday’s attack on the densely-populated the past.” — AFP In this file photo, Hillary Clinton kicks off her book tour of her memoire of the 2016 presidential campaign titled city of three million people when jihadists fired rocket- “What Happened” with a signing at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square in New York. — AFP propelled grenades. “The death toll has risen to 16,” Babakura Kolo, the leader of a self-defense militia, said. In many parts of Two Mali soldiers killed in ambush a dream come true,” Clinton said in a statement. “I’ve Nigeria, communities have resorted to relying on armed vigilantes or militias, who work alongside the army, for Hillary, Penny relished every one of her books and their characters as BAMAKO: Two soldiers were killed and seven defense. In one of the neighborhoods attacked, Gwange, well as her friendship. Now we’re joining our experi- others injured, Mali’s military said Tuesday, in an nine boys were killed when one of the explosives landed ences to explore the complex world of high stakes ambush in a central region regularly hit by jihadist to publish in a field where they were playing football, Kolo said. diplomacy and treachery. All is not as it first appears.” attacks. Around 0200 pm local time (0200 GMT), “Initially four died but five more died from the seri- For her part, Penny said that writing with Clinton the troops were ambushed en route between Konna ous injuries they sustained from the explosion.” Another political thriller was “an incredible experience, to get inside the State and Sevare by an armed terrorist group, according militiaman, Umar Ari, gave the same death toll and said Department. Inside the White House. Inside the mind of to the army statement, confirming what security it could still rise as many were injured. Eyewitness the Secretary of State as high stake crises explode.” sources and a local official had previously told AFP. NEW YORK: Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of Sama’ila Ibrahim said the jihadists crossed the ditch for- “Before we started, we talked about her time as “Ground and air reinforcements immediately state who ran against Donald Trump for president in tification around Maiduguri, sending residents scram- Secretary of State. What was her worst nightmare? rushed to the scene of the ambush,” added the 2016, is to publish a suspense thriller with Canadian bling for safety with sporadic shooting. STATE OF TERROR is the answer,” she said. statement. One of the security sources said the tar- author Louise Penny in October, publishers Simon & Ibrahim said the militants came through Boboshe vil- By venturing into fiction, the former first lady is fol- get was an army resupply mission. — AFP Schuster and St. Martin’s Press said Tuesday. lowing in the footsteps of her husband, former presi- lage, a known Boko Haram enclave. Attacks by the “State of Terror” will be on bookshelves on October dent Bill Clinton, who in June came out with a political group on the regional capital are usually foiled in fierce 12, the publishers said, and will tell the story of a novice novel, “The President’s Daughter,” written with best- gun battles with Nigerian troops, but they have fired secretary of state serving in the administration of her selling thriller writer James Patterson. explosives on residential areas in the past, injuring sev- Venezuela may expel EU envoy political rival as a “series of terrorist attacks throws the They had co-authored another book in 2018 called eral people. People in Maiduguri have been struggling global order into disarray.” with a power blackout, after jihadists blew up supply “The President is Missing” about a terrorist cyberat- CARACAS: Venezuela’s National Assembly called Although the book’s blurb makes no explicit mention lines, causing water shortages and disrupting business- tack on the White House. It sold more than three million Tuesday for the government to expel the European of Trump, whose “America First” policy reined in the es and daily life. “The destruction, done using an impro- copies and is being adapted for television. Penny is a Union’s ambassador to Caracas, in response to new United States’s global leadership role, the book is set vised explosive device, has left populated Maiduguri in bestselling author whose Inspector Armand Gamache EU sanctions against 19 Venezuelan officials. The “after four years of American leadership that shrank darkness for in nearly one month now,” the local gover- books have been translated into 31 languages. — AFP Assembly, which is controlled by President Nicolas from the world stage.” “Writing a thriller with Louise is nor’s office said in statement. — AFP Maduro’s party, approved a “rejection agreement” of the sanctions and plans to “urge” the head of state to “declare persona non grata the head of the In Somalia, a female diplomatic delegation” from the EU, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, in order to proceed with her taxi driver defies “expulsion.” The text, unanimously approved by the deputies, also calls for a revision of the agreement convention on the EU’s presence in Caracas. — AFP

MOGADISHU: At 19 years old, Asha Mohamed is divorced and drives a taxi in Somalia, defying conven- Texas power board members resign tions to support her family in one of the world’s most conservative and dangerous countries. For the past WASHINGTON: Four board members of Texas’ year, the young woman has crisscrossed the capital power grid operator announced their resignation Mogadishu in her white taxi, with a faux fur throw This photo taken and handout Tuesday by the Italian Foreign Ministry shows Carabinieri police officers carrying Tuesday after millions of state residents were left covering her dashboard. the flag-draped coffins of slain Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio and Italian Carabinieri police officer Vittorio without power during days of unprecedentedly Her career choice was driven by passion, but also Iacovacci, upon the arrival late Tuesday. — AFP frigid temperatures. The board chair of the Electric necessity, after she divorced her husband-whom she Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Sally Talberg, married at age 16 — and was left to take care of her vice chairman Peter Cramton, finance and audit time, clear and exhaustive answers,” Di Maio said. An two children and her mother. Taxi driving in committee chair Terry Bulger and human resources Mogadishu is not only typically reserved for men, but Italy seeks UN Italian military plane carrying Attanasio and and governance committee chief Raymond Hepper, is also dangerous in a city where Al-Shabaab Islamists Iacovacci’s flag-draped coffins was met at Rome’s all of whom live out of state, resigned effective yes- regularly set off car bombs at intersections and securi- probe into DRC Ciampino airport by Prime Minister Mario Draghi. terday. “We have noted recent concerns about out- ty checkpoints. In a recent blast on February 13, three Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and defence minister of-state board leadership at ERCOT. — AFP people were killed and eight wounded. But car-loving Lorenzo Guerini joined him to meet Attanasio’s widow Mohamed, who enjoys playing racing video games on envoy’s killing and three daughters, who flew home with the bodies. her phone, was not put off. “In my childhood, it was my On Monday, the DRC’s interior ministry blamed the passion to be a driver one day, but I was not thinking killings on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of FB tools to fight child exploitation ROME: Italy said yesterday it has asked the United that I will work as a taxi driver,” she said. She said she Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan Hutu rebel group. But the Nations to launch an investigation into the killing of its had been given the opportunity by a relatively new FDLR rejected the allegation and instead blamed the SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook on Tuesday said it ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company called Rikaab taxi. “The number of women Rwandan and DRC militaries. is stepping up its fight against child abuse with new envoy, Luca Attanasio, 43, died on Monday after a working as taxi drivers were small for security reasons, Di Maio said the party was relying on UN protocol tools for spotting such content and tighter rules World Food Programme (WFP) convoy was ambushed but... the number of women taxi drivers is gradually during the trip from the capital Kinshasa to Goma, about what crosses the line. “Using our apps to in a dangerous part of the eastern DRC near the bor- growing,” said Ilham Abdullahi Ali, the female finance some 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) east, but that harm children is abhorrent and unacceptable,” der with Rwanda. Attanasio’s Italian bodyguard and a chief at Rikaab Taxi. Attanasio had “full power” to decide how and where to global head of safety Antigone Davis said in a blog Congolese driver were also killed. “We have formally However, only three of the company’s 2,000 taxis in move within DRC. “The mission took place at the invi- post. “We are developing targeted solutions, asked WFP (World Food Programme) and the UN to Mogadishu are driven by women. Mohamed earns up tation of the United Nations. So even the car journey including new tools and policies to reduce the shar- open an investigation to clarify what happened, the to $40 a day, allowing her to take care of her family, took place within the organizational framework set up ing of this type of content.” The social media giant reasons behind the security arrangements used and and hopes that by defying tradition, she can contribute by the World Food Programme,” Di Maio. updated its guidelines to make it clear it will who was responsible for these decisions,” Italian to changing the minds of her countrymen about the The WFP is a branch of the UN which focuses on remove Facebook or Instagram accounts dedicated Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told parliament. role of women. Clients are often taken off guard when hunger and food security, and which was awarded the to sharing images of children posted along with Di Maio’s comments came the morning after the they climb into the white taxi and see Mohamed, wear- 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. Di Maio said a team of Italian captions, hashtags or comments containing innuen- bodies of the two Italians were returned by military ing light make-up and a colourful hijab, behind the police had already been dispatched to the DRC for an do or inappropriate signs of affection. — AFP steering wheel.—AFP plane to Rome. “We expect, in the briefest possible initial investigation and others would follow. —AFP