AFP, published on Friday, June 30, 2023 at 23:19.

At least 48 people were killed in a traffic accident in western Kenya on Friday evening at a busy intersection, the local police said.

“At this point we can confirm that 48 people are dead and we estimate that one or two others are still stuck in the truck,” Police Commander Geoffrey Mayek told AFP after the collision on the highway between the cities of Kericho and Nakuru.

He reported that at least 30 injured people were taken to nearby hospitals.

“We estimate that a truck en route to Kericho lost control and hit Matatus (local minibuses, ed.) at a bus stop, drove over the Matatus and injured passengers and pedestrians who were at that bus stop.” , said the policeman.

Collins Kipkoech, chief physician at Kericho County Hospital, said he received 45 bodies while other victims were admitted at other facilities. “And the rescue continues,” he added.

Several local television stations showed images of crashed vehicles.

“The truck drove at full speed and honked its horn,” said a witness to the accident, Maureen Jepkoech. “He tried to dodge several vehicles before finding himself in the middle of the market.”

“I’ve heard people say the vehicle lost its brakes. But I don’t know if that was the case,” she added.

“The accident happened instantly,” said another witness, Joel Rotich. “Many did not have time to flee.”

“There was a lot of confusion: people were screaming and running around,” he said.

Traffic accidents are common in Africa. A bus-truck collision killed 20 people in Senegal in January, a week after another accident killed more than 40 people.

The uprising over Nahel’s death does not abate. In France, the protest ignites thousands of fires and loots shopping centers and supermarkets in the suburbs, but since yesterday also the shops in the city centers. It is directed against all symbols of the state, from prisons to barracks, from city halls to police stations. Almost a thousand were arrested on the third night, 250 were injured by the law enforcement officers, while the first attacks had already begun on the fourth night in the afternoon and with the news of the first fatality in the protests: a 20-year-old who died falling from the roof of a supermarket in Rouen in the north. Macron did not declare a state of emergency, as many had expected, but reached out to the families of the minors involved in the violence, asking them to leave the very young at home. Even social media, where black blocs coordinate, have been called to account. However, fearing the worst, the government has now also ordered the use of armored vehicles, canceled concerts, public events, neighborhood and school festivals, and shortened bus and tram trips to 9 p.m.

French police officers lined up in riot gear

In Paris, an unauthorized demonstration was broken up after a few hours of relative silence in the Place de la Concorde. Similar situation in Lyon, however, where the disorganized demonstration was given the order to disperse for more than an hour and there have been several clashes between protesters and the police since then. Damage and looting in central Marseille, where 42 arrests have been made so far.

In Marseille, an armory was looted and a person arrested with a shotgun. Bfmtv TV reports on this amid crashes in the city in the south of France. The number of those arrested rose to 63. Between 9 and 9 p.m. the armory in rue d’Aubagne was searched and some hunting weapons were stolen, but no ammunition. The armory was secured with an antistatic protection.

In the evening, luxury shops were looted in Lyon

France, Macron to parents of young protesters: “Leave them at home”

The pictures of the devastation are impressive, what is left of the buildings, shops, schools, cars after the fires and the attacks of the most violent groups makes many banlieues look like a landscape of rubble. The anger at the death of 17-year-old Nahel at the hands of a police officer who shot him at close range and without any motivation for self-defense seems to know no bounds. The boy’s funeral is scheduled for tomorrow in Nanterre: the city hopes that it will not end with yesterday’s extremely violent incidents at the end of the “white march” promoted by the victim’s mother. But in the meantime the situation seems to have gotten out of control: from the Républicains to the extreme right, a curfew and a state of emergency are being demanded.

“The time of violence must end”: This is the appeal published on Twitter by Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappé and Les Bleus to try to stop the violence that has been unleashed across France following the killing of young Nahel by a cops broke out.

France: After the death of Nahel, violence also grips central Paris

From abroad, countries such as Italy, Norway and Great Britain warn their citizens about the situation in Paris, while Berlin is “concerned”. It’s raining cancellations in hotels and restaurants. Since yesterday the protest, which was limited to the suburbs for the first two days, has spread to the city centres, the images of the attack on the Les Halles shopping center in the heart of Paris are impressive, the Nike store was vandalized and burgled. Then the black spot of the black block moved to rue de Rivoli and smashed shop windows for two days to deal with the summer sales. President Emmanuel Macron was so concerned that he canceled the planned press conference at the end of the European summit – an unusual event for him – and returned in time for the meeting of the government’s crisis team. Many expected drastic public order decisions, saying they had been announced “without taboos”, but for the moment only appeals had come: to parents because – he warned – “a third of those arrested are young and very young”; and social networks, TikTok and Snapchat, which are accused of hosting tips about violent events. In the evening, the government received platform representatives to remind them of their responsibilities.

France’s police force has also come under the scrutiny of the United Nations, which has called on it to address “profound problems of racism and discrimination among its law enforcement agencies”. An invitation was returned from the Quai d’Orsay to the sender, who judged it to be “completely unfounded”. There is no significant news regarding the investigation. The third person, who was in the car with Nahel and has not yet been located by authorities, spoke to Le Parisien instead and indicated that he fled, fearing that the police officers would shoot him too. He added that Nahel was hit and that’s probably why he accidentally left the brake pedal. But he will have an opportunity to speak to investigators when he is with the police in the next few days, he said. The weekend turned out to be a decisive moment in this delicate phase: Even on the fourth and fifth night, between Saturday and Sunday, there were no signs of an improvement in the situation. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne confirmed: “All hypotheses for restoring public order are on the table.”

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