Turkey-Syria, Nicaragua, Eritrea.

Today's three stories you should know.

Feb 09, 2023

Turkey-Syria

The death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquake has now passed a horrible 20,000 people and time is running out for those trapped under the rubble as rescuers scramble to reach the last survivors. "The groaning has ceased," one Syrian journalist heartbreakingly said. Six UN trucks have finally entered northwest Syria, which had received no aid until now. It’s hard to overstate the misery heaped upon misery in Syria over the last decade as the world has largely looked away. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today described the quake as “the disaster of the century.”

Nicaragua

This is an unusual one. Nicaragua has freed 222 opposition figures and deported them straight to the US with the cooperation of Washington. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had accused the prisoners of plotting to overthrow him during street protests in 2018, but rights groups say he wanted to get many of them out of the way ahead of elections in 2021. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Nicaraguan government had suggested the plan and that the deportees would be allowed to stay in the country for an initial two years. They are to be stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship.

Eritrea

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has dismissed allegations that his troops committed atrocities during the war in northern Ethiopia. Isaias has barely commented on the conflict, which began in November 2020, since Eritrea intervened to fight alongside Ethiopian government forces. Multiple convincing reports from media organizations and rights groups suggested that Eritrean soldiers were carrying out some of the worst abuses of the war, including massacres and rapes. "Everybody talking about human rights violations here and there - rape, looting - this is a fantasy," he said.