It's not sacrifice at all

It's human sign 

When things go wrong

When the scent of her lingers
And temptation's strong

Into the boundary
Of each married man
Sweet deceit comes calling
And negativity lands

Cold cold heart
Hard done by you
Some things look better baby
Just passing through
And it's no sacrifice
Just a simple word
It's two hearts living
In two separate worlds
But it's no sacrifice
No sacrifice
It's no sacrifice at all

Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program 2021/2022 for Developing Countries Nationals (Fully Funded)

Application Deadline: May 21, 2021 

The Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP) is open to citizens of certain developing countries with relevant professional experience and a history of supporting their countries’ development efforts who are applying to a master degree program in a development-related topic.

Subject to available funding, JJWBGSP offers scholarships for 48 Participating Programs at universities in U.S., Europe, Africa, Oceania and Japan in key areas of development, including economic policy management, tax policy, and infrastructure management.

Requirements

Be a national of a World Bank member developing country on this list;
Not hold dual citizenship of any developed country;
Be in good health;
Hold a Bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree earned at least 3 years prior to the Application Deadline date;
Have 3 years or more of recent development-related work experience after earning a Bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree;

Benefits

Economy class air travel between your home country and the host university at the start of your study program and immediately following the end of the scholarship period. In addition to the two-way air travel, scholars will receive a US $500 travel allowance for each trip;
Tuition for your graduate program and the cost of basic medical insurance obtained through the university.

While on campus during the scholarship period, a monthly subsistence allowance to cover all living expenses (accommodations, food, etc., including books). The amount of the allowance varies depending on the host country.

 Click here to apply

There can be miracles When you believe Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill

Lyrics

Many nights we prayed
With no proof, anyone could hear
In our hearts a hopeful song
We barely understood
Now, we are not afraid
Although we know there's much to fear
We were moving mountains
Long before we knew we could, whoa, yes

There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill
Who knows what miracles you can achieve?
When you believe, somehow you will
You will when you believe

Oh-oh-oh
Mmm, yeah

In this time of fear
When prayer so often proves in vain
Hope seems like the summer bird
Too swiftly flown away
Yet now I'm standing here
My hearts so full, I can't explain
Seeking faith and speakin' words
I never thought I'd say

There can be miracles
When you believe (When you believe)
Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill (Mmm)
Who knows what miracles you can achieve? (You can achieve)
When you believe, somehow you will
You will when you believe

They don't always happen when you ask
And it's easy to give in to your fears
But when you're blinded by your pain
Can't see the way, get through the rain
A small but still, resilient voice
Says, help is very near, oh (Oh)

There can be miracles (Miracles)
When you believe (Boy, when you believe, yeah)
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill (Hard to kill, oh, yeah)
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve (You can achieve, oh)
When you believe somehow you will (Somehow, somehow, somehow)

Now, you will (I know, I know, know)
You will when you (When you)
Believe
You will when you (You will when you)
Believe
Just believe (Believe)
Just believe
You will when you
Believe

COVID-19: ANGOLA REGISTERS 60 RECOVERIES AND 51 NEW INFECTIONS

  

Luanda - Angola registered, in the last 24 hours, the recovery of 60 patients and 51 new infections, in the last 24 hours.

According to the health bulletin, of those recovered, 47 were registered in Luanda, 11 in Uíge, 1 in Malanje and 1 in Lunda Sul, aged between 19 and 69 years.

 

Regarding the new infections, 44 were diagnosed in the capital Luanda, 4 in Huambo, 2 in Zaire and 1 in Cabinda, whose ages vary from 2 to 80 years.

 

The general picture of the country indicates 21 965 positive cases, with 532 deaths, 20250 recovered and 1183 active.

 

Of the current diseased, 9 were in critical condition, 7 were severe, 39 were moderate, 36 were mild and 1 092 were asymptomatic.

 

There are 91 people at inpatient centres and 37 in institutional quarantine.

 

The authorities have 1496 contacts of positive cases under medical surveillance.

COVID-19: CPLP WANTS MEMBERS’ SAFE ACCESS TO VACCINES

Luanda - The Council of Ministers of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) defended, this Friday, the access to the vaccines against Covid-19 for all member states, aiming to allow the immunization of the populations of the region.

The information was released to the press by the Angolan minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António, in the end of the 15th Extraordinary Meeting of the organization's Council of Ministers, which took place, by videoconference, from Cape Verde.

 

According to the head of Angolan diplomacy, the acquisition of vaccines by CPLP state members essential, in order to allow the immunization of citizens, the mobility of populations and productive relations.

 

"Immunizing only a few countries would be an incomplete exercise, which is why we defend access to vaccines to all countries in the community, in order to allow the mobility of populations, trade and integration of citizens," he mentioned.

 

Téte António said that mobility in the CPLP space will be one of the topics under analysis at the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the community, scheduled for this July, in Luanda.

 

On the other hand, the Foreign minister stressed that the participants in the meeting also analyzed Mozambique's candidacy for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, as well as the process of teaching Portuguese in Equatorial Guinea and the criteria for the admission of this country to a full member of the CPLP.

 

The Republic of Cape Verde organized the extraordinary meeting as acting president of the organization.

 

Created on July 17, 1996, CPLP is an international organization formed by Portuguese-speaking countries, whose objective is to deepen friendship and cooperation among its members.

 

Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste are part of the CPLP.

ANGOLAN PRESIDENT AUTHORIZES CLASSES RESUMPTION AT PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

Luanda - The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, authorized, this Friday, the resumption of classroom learning activities in pre-school education, in all education and teaching institutions in the country, from 5 April.

In a decree made public, João Lourenço adds that this is due to the reevaluation of the measures to prevent and control the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19, taking into account the evolution of the country's epidemiological situation.

 

“The measure covers public and private educational establishments in the National Education System, teaching institutions in Foreign States and International Schools operating in Angola,” reads the document to which ANGOP had access.

 

The opening of dining halls for the exclusive use of pre-school education is also authorized from the same date.

 

In the same decree, the Head of State determines exemption from quarantine on official short-term trips not exceeding 72 hours.

 

João Lourenço advises the Ministry of Health (MINSA) to define a special quarantine regime or determine its exemption in cases of state travel or for professional and business reasons, whenever the nature of the activity justifies it for reasons of urgency or interest relevant audience.

 

Pre-school classes have been under suspension since March 2020, after the first positive cases at Covid-19 were recorded in Angola.

Tornado outbreak rips across Deep South; at least 5 dead

OHATCHEE, Ala. (AP) — Tornadoes and severe storms tore through the Deep South, killing at least five people as strong winds splintered trees, wrecked homes and downed power lines.

The tornado outbreak rolled into western Georgia early Friday. One large, dangerous tornado moved through Newnan and surrounding communities in the Atlanta metro area, meteorologists said.

A day earlier, a sheriff in eastern Alabama said a tornado cut a diagonal line through his county, striking mostly rural areas.

“Five people lost their lives and for those families, it will never be the same,” Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade said at briefing Thursday evening.

Calhoun County Coroner Pat Brown on Friday identified the dead to Al.com as Joe Wayne Harris, 74, James William Geno, 72, Ebonique Harris, 28, Emily Myra Wilborn, 72, and Barbara Harris, 69.

One of the victims in the hard-hit town of Ohatchee in eastern Alabama, a small community of about 1,170 people, was Dwight Jennings’s neighbor. The 72-year-old Geno was known to his friends as J.W. and in his youth had been a rodeo bull rider. Geno could make anything out of wood, Jennings said, and he loved to catfish. The two of them had planned to go fishing this weekend, Jennings said. Jennings spent several hours searching for his friend’s dog before the animal was found alive, he said.

As many as eight tornadoes might have hit Alabama on Thursday, said John De Block, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham. Multiple twisters sprang from a “super cell” of storms that later moved into Georgia, he said.

Reports of tornado damage in the Newnan area began coming in shortly after midnight. Trees were toppled and power lines downed, knocking out service by the local utility.

Newnan police urged the public in a Facebook post to “get off the roads” while emergency officials surveyed the damage.

The bad weather stretched across the southern U.S., raising concerns of thunderstorms and flooding in parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas. In Tennessee, emergency responders hospitalized one person in Sumner County, and the Nashville Fire Department posted photos on Twitter showing large trees down, damaged homes and streets blocked by debris.

In Ohio, more than 100,000 people were without power early Friday after thunderstorms delivered 50 mph (80 kph) wind gusts to parts of the state. Forecasters reported peak gusts of 63 mph (100 kph) in Marysville.

Some school districts from Alabama to Ohio canceled or delayed class Friday due to damage and power outages.

Authorities said one tornado carved up the ground for more than an hour Thursday, traveling roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) across Alabama. Vast areas of Shelby County near Birmingham — the state’s largest city — were badly damaged.

In the city of Pelham, James Dunaway said he initially ignored the tornado warning when it came over his phone. But then he heard the twister approaching, left the upstairs bedroom where he had been watching television and entered a hallway — just before the storm blew off the roof and sides of his house. His bedroom was left fully exposed.

“I’m very lucky to be alive,” Dunaway, 75, told Al.com.

Firefighters outside a flattened home in the Eagle Point subdivision, also in Shelby County, said the family that lived there made it out alive. Nearby homes were roofless or missing their second stories.

Farther west in the city of Centreville, south of Tuscaloosa, Cindy Smitherman and her family and neighbors huddled in their underground storm pit as a twister passed over their home.

A tree fell on the shelter door, trapping the eight inside for about 20 minutes until someone came with a chain saw to help free them, said Smitherman, 62. The twister downed trees, overturned cars and destroyed a workshop on the property.

“I’m just glad we’re alive,” she said.

Centreville Mayor Mike Oakley told ABC 33/40 news that a local airport was hit. “We have airplanes torn apart like toys. We’ve got homes along here that are totally destroyed, trees down, power lines down. It’s pretty devastating.”

First lady Jill Biden postponed a trip to Birmingham and Jasper, Alabama, that she had planned for Friday because of the severe weather, her office said.

“Thinking of everyone in Alabama and all of those impacted by the severe weather across the South tonight. My prayers are with the grieving families. Please stay safe,” Biden tweeted late Thursday.

Earlier, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued an emergency declaration for 46 counties, and officials opened shelters in and around Birmingham.

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Hands touch: Italy’s nursing homes emerge from COVID tunnel

ALZANO LOMBARDO, Italy (AP) — Their last hug was through plastic.

Palmiro “Mario” Tami knew this was the day he was getting his second coronavirus vaccine shot. But with the northern Italian region of Lombardy again under lockdown, he did not know it would be accompanied by a visit from his wife of 58 years. Nor that he would be able, at last, to touch her hand.

“Franca? Is that you?” Tami, 82, exclaimed as he peered through the window of the nursing home rec room at a figure wrapped in a hospital gown, coiffed hair covered by green surgical netting and face obscured by a surgical mask. Still, through the glass, her bright blue eyes shone through.

His wife, Franca Persico, held a red rose she had brought for him. Tami reached inside his canvas pouch for a tiny statuette of a girl for her. “I won it at Bingo,” Tami said with delight.

The Martino Zanchi Foundation Nursing Home has been closed to visitors for most of the month, as Italy’s pandemic epicenter of Lombardy plunged again into a near-total lockdown. Tami and his wife last saw each other in person on Feb. 24, Tami’s birthday. They were able to embrace through a hug tunnel, an inflatable plastic structure that permitted residents to safely hug loved ones. Even that muffled touch had been denied since August.

The final jab for the first one-third of the nursing home’s 94 residents this week marked the beginning of the end of a year-long struggle to protect its fragile wards.

Nursing homes like the Martino Zanchi Foundation suffered the brunt of Italy’s first wave, claiming at least one-third of Italy’s official virus victims. Many more were not tested or counted as they died.

Nursing home director Maria Giulia Madaschi estimates that three-quarters of the 21 people who died in her care in March and April 2020 had COVID-19, which ravaged the valley next to Bergamo, spreading from Alzano Lombardo’s hospital nearby. But the system was too taxed to test nursing home residents and those deaths never figured into Italy’s death toll.

Italy has prioritized vaccines to the devastated nursing homes, and officials have declared a decline in cases among residents “an initial success” in a vaccination campaign otherwise marred by supply delays and disorganization. Half of Italy’s over-80s at large still have not been vaccinated, despite initial promises to have them fully vaccinated by the end of March.

On Monday, 27 of the nursing home’s residents received their second shot. Another round of vaccinations were made in the week, and the final group will be protected in early April. Madaschi hopes this is a sign that they are emerging from the dark COVID-19 tunnel.

“A little light, I can see,” she said.

Tami, a retired nurse in orthopedic surgery, received his jab happily. The doctor who administered it, knowing Tami’s pride in his former profession, teased that she had once been his apprentice.

Tami had arrived at the nursing home in August during a lull in the pandemic. Tami had suffered mobility and cognitive declines due to heart issues, and then his wife underwent surgery for cancer shortly before Italy’s 2020 spring lockdown. Doctors advised she could no longer give him the care he needed at home.

The irregularity of visits and the changing restrictions due to COVID-19 were a cause of stress — and a strong enough reason for Madaschi to make an exception to the no-visitor rule.

Madaschi picked Persico, 77, up at the apartment the couple had shared, which was filled with family photographs, including that of a first great-grandchild, and cut crystal glasses and vases. Persico, dressed elegantly in a knit top with a shimmer of gold lurex, confessed she had been ready since 7 a.m.

“I wasn’t even this nervous on my wedding day,” she said. “Maybe because I was younger.”

The couple’s reunion started hesitantly, separated at first by glass. But the nursing home staff had prepared a private table in the rec room for lunch. The couple sat at either end, as Persico explained that she still hadn’t been vaccinated, reminding her husband that she was a cancer patient who needed to take extra care.

“I am crazy in love with you,” Tami said across the long table. “Can I touch your hand?”

Madaschi pushed Tami outdoors into the sunlight, where the couple, at last, clasped hands. “We can kiss each other again?” he asked from behind his mask.

Of course, his bride of 58 years answered. When she, too, has had the vaccine.

………………………………………………………………

Canadian High Commission launches projects to support Ghanaian women

Ms. Kati Csaba, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, has called for more opportunities for women to enable them contribute effectively to the economic growth of the country.

She said Ghana could not achieve inclusive economic growth and the Sustainable Development Goals if it failed to fully engage women as economic actors and provided equal participation platform for them.

“Inclusive economic growth in Ghana cannot be achieved without the full and equal participation of women as economic actors,” she said, adding that “Ghanaian women need more opportunities to succeed, and greater control over resources and decision-making. When women are able to develop their full economic potential-whether as business leaders, entrepreneurs, or producers, economies thrive and the benefits of growth reach more people.”

The High Commissioner made the call when she launched four economic empowerment projects in Accra, to support women and girls in Ghana.

The four projects are the Women Innovative for Sustainable Enterprise (WISE), Women’s Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation (WEACT), Innovative for Non-Traditional Education and Skills Training (INVEST) and the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE-NORTH).

The initiatives will provide skills training for women and girls while focusing on increasing productivity, profitability and innovation of women-owned businesses in the informal sector.

The projects will directly benefit 31,000 Ghanaian women, from specific urban, peri-urban, and rural areas in eight regions of Ghana.

The Regions are Upper West, Upper East, Savanna, Northern, Western, Western North, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions.

The projects will be implemented by Alinea International, Oxfam Québec, Plan International Canada, and the World University Service of Canada, each working in close collaboration with government partners and civil society organizations in Ghana.

The High Commissioner said the Canadian Government had earmarked GHS138 million (CAD 30 million) for the projects and would be implemented between four to five years.

Ms Csaba said the projects would contribute to improving the understanding of the numerous challenges women faced and helped them to overcome the barriers.

“These projects will give us an opportunity to explore new approaches for women’s economic inclusion,” she said, adding that it formed part of the two countries’ contribution towards addressing issues of gender inequality and promoting women’s economic empowerment.

Speaking on behalf of Oxfam Ghana and Plan International Ghana, implementing organizations for the WISE and WEACT projects, Mr. Tijani Ahmed Hamza, OXFAM Ghana Country Director, commended the Canadian High Commission for the initiatives.

He said the WISE and WEACT projects would provide skills to address barriers women faced and enhance their economic empowerment, wellbeing and inclusive growth.

“The WISE project will directly benefit 12,641 women between ages 19-55 from 150 communities with about 4,000 expected to receive direct training, including 3,230 in agri-business and 810 in green skills,” he said.

On the WEACT project, Mr Hamza explained that a total budget of $CAD 5,950,000 had been allocated for the project, which would benefit 5,400 women and girls directly and 3,510 men and boys (aged 18 – 60), as well as impact the lives of over 790,000 women, men, girls and boys indirectly in the Northern, Savanna, Upper East, Upper West, Western, Western North regions.

Ms Linda Agyei, Director, Vocational for Females Programme, who spoke on behalf of the Alinea and World University Service of Canada, implementing partners for the WEE-NORTH and INVEST projects, said the INVEST initiative, a five-year programme, would build sustainable pathways to enhance the economic and inclusive growth of 5,000 urban poor young women in Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi.

The WEE-NORTH Project on the other hand, she said, would promote industrial trades training for women and girls in the northern part of the country, adding that it was expected to benefit over 2,065 young women and 400 women business owners.

GNA

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China targets UK politicians for sanctions over Xinjiang ‘lies’

Foreign ministry says nine individuals and four groups subject to immediate sanctions and threatens further action.

China’s foreign ministry on Friday announced sanctions against individuals and organisations in the United Kingdom for “maliciously” spreading “lies and disinformation” on the situation in the far western region of Xinjiang where the United Nations says the Chinese government is committing rights abuses against the Uighurs and other minority Muslim groups.

The sanctions target nine people and four entities, banning the affected people and their family members from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, Chinese citizens and institutions from dealing with them.

“China is firmly determined to safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests, and warns the UK side not [to] go further down the wrong path,” the ministry said in a statement. “Otherwise, China will resolutely make reactions.”

Those sanctioned include Tom Tugendhat, an MP for the governing Conservative party who chairs Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, and prominent human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy, who is an opposition Labour peer in the upper house. The sanctions have immediate effect.

Geoffrey Nice, who prosecuted the former Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic and is chairing the Uyghur Tribunal – an independent tribunal set up to investigate whether the alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang constitute genocide – was also among the nine.

Nice is also a patron of Hong Kong Watch, a Hong Kong group advocating for the rights and freedoms of the Chinese territory. The group said the sanctions marked the end of the so-called “golden era” of UK-China relations.

“A regime that sanctions UK parliamentarians, barristers, academics and activists for the ‘crime’ of voicing out concern over human rights abuse cannot seriously be considered a partner to the UK or a supporter of the international rules-based order,” Hong Kong Watch said in a statement, noting that another of its patrons, David Alton, was also among the individuals sanctioned.

The Uyghur Tribunal, which is due to hold its first hearing in May, was one of the four groups targeted by China alongside the China Research Group, Conservative Party Human Rights Commission (CPHRC), and Essex Court Chambers.

In a tweet, the CPHRC said it was “honoured to have been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party regime, in recognition of its tireless work documenting the horrific human rights crisis in China.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday gave strong backing to those sanctioned by China.

“The MPs and other British citizens sanctioned by China today are performing a vital role shining a light on the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uighur Muslims,” Johnson tweeted.

“Freedom to speak out in opposition to abuse is fundamental and I stand firmly with them.”

Earlier this week, the UK joined the US, Canada and the EU in imposing asset freezes and travel bans against Chinese government officials, as well as a Xinjiang security body, for “gross human rights violations” against the Uighurs and other minorities.

“Beijing is trying to send the message that they will not stand idly by with measures that they consider unfair from others,” said Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, who is in the Chinese capital. “This is very much a symbolic move.”

The United Nations has said approximately one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking residents of the northwestern region have been held in a network of camps that China has described as vocational skills training centres necessary to counter extremism.

Rights groups said the Uighurs have also been subjected to other abuses including mass surveillance, sterilisation and restrictions on religion.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

………………………………………………………………

Black farmers speak out against racism in agriculture

For the first time in US history, members of the House agriculture committee heard from Black farmers on the impact of systemic discrimination by the department of agriculture (USDA).

Thursday’s hearing came on the heels of $5bn being allocated to socially disadvantaged farmers of color earlier this month as part of the coronavirus relief and economic stimulus package. The funding – $4bn for debt forgiveness, $1bn for other forms of support – is meant to account for generations of mistreatment of farmers of color by the USDA.

“This festering wound on the soul of agriculture must be healed,” said congressman David Scott of Georgia, who was born on a farm in South Carolina owned by his grandparents and now serves as the first ever Black person to chair the committee.

Black farmers offered familiar testimonies of racism in the industry and from the USDA. Sedrick Rowe, an organic peanut farmer in Georgia, spoke of crop buyers telling him they are done buying peanuts for the day when he shows up. PJ Haynie of the National Black Growers Council told of Black farmers getting by on non-irrigated land while their white neighbors used USDA assistance to irrigate theirs.

Once making up about 14% of US farmers, Black farmers make up less than 2% today. Many were forced out by racist lending practices by the agriculture department that led to vast losses of land, income, profits and generation wealth.

That wealth cannot be regained. Black farmers will never get the land they lost back. But the USDA seems to be trying to foster a renewed trust in the department.

In addition to Scott’s landmark appointment in December, the USDA, perhaps as an acknowledgment of Tom Vilsack’s second term as agriculture secretary being met with disappointment by many Black farmers and leaders, named Dewayne Goldmon, former executive director of the National Black Growers Council, as the USDA’s first-ever senior adviser for racial equity. And, if confirmed, Jewel Bronaugh will be the first Black woman to serve as deputy secretary for the department.

Still, Black farmers remain skeptical. “That’s all very much good intention. But the foundation of the USDA is crooked,” said Michael Carter, a Virginia farmer, of the seemingly reactive diversity efforts. “You can’t put a new roof on and expect the foundation to be straight again.”

Scott asked Vilsack on Thursday how much of his time will be devoted to getting the $5bn in stimulus funds in the hands of Black farmers. Vilsack responded that he has no doubt his staff understands this is at the top of his list in terms of priorities.

“This is a meeting I’ve been advocating for for 30 years,” said John Boyd Jr . “On behalf of every Black share cropper and Black farmer we thank you for finally hearing our cries.”

John Boyd Jr., center, president and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, speaks at a press conference on 26 August 2020. Photograph: Christian Gooden/AP

But as president and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, Boyd said his phones were ringing off the hook with farmers asking when they will get the relief. By the end of the four and a half hour hearing, that rollout was still not clear. Boyd, who has advocated on behalf of Black farmers and brought issues of inequality to the forefront for decades, urged swift movement to implement this debt relief.

“This should’ve been doing in the first place,” he said over the phone. Reminded of his own advocacy towards Thursday’s hearing, he remained resolute. “You don’t think about it. You got so many hurdles, so many fights.

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Trains collide in southern Egypt, killing at least 32 g at least 32

CAIRO (AP) — Two trains collided on Friday in southern Egypt, apparently after someone activated the emergency brakes, killing at least 32 people and leaving 108 injured, Egyptian authorities said.

Two passenger cars flipped on their side from the force of the collision, the latest in a series of deadly accidents along Egypt’s troubled rail system, plagued by poor maintenance and management.

Video from the scene taken shortly after the collision showed derailed cars turned into twisted piles of metal, with some passengers trapped inside. Some victims seemed unconscious and others could be seen bleeding. Bystanders carried bodies and laid them out on the ground near the site.

Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene in the southern province of Sohag, Egypt’s health ministry said. The wounded were transferred to four nearby hospitals. Their injuries included bone fractures, cut wounds and abrasions, the statement said.

The ministry said a plane carrying medical supplies and physicians covering different specializations flew from Cairo to Sohag, some 440 kilometers (270 miles) to the south.

Egypt’s Railway Authorities said the accident happened when someone activated the emergency brakes of a passenger train that was headed to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. The train stopped abruptly and was struck from behind by another train, the statement said. The collision caused two cars from the first train to flip over.

Egypt’s railway system has a history of badly maintained equipment and poor management. Official figures show that 1,793 train accidents took place in 2017 across the country.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he was monitoring the situation and that those responsible would receive “a deterrent punishment.”

“The pain that tears our hearts today cannot but make us more determined to end this type of disasters,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly’s office said he and five of his cabinet members would travel to the scene.

In 2018, a passenger train derailed near the southern city of Aswan, injuring at least six people and prompting authorities to fire the chief of the country’s railways.

The same year, el-Sissi said the government lacks about 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $14.1 billion, to overhaul the run-down rail system. El-Sissi spoke a day after a passenger train collided with a cargo train, killing at least 12 people, including a child.

A year earlier, two passenger trains collided just outside the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing 43 people. In 2016, at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

Egypt’s deadliest train crash took place in 2002, when over 300 people were killed when fire erupted in speeding train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt.

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