Twenty-nine students taking their high school exams in the Central African Republic died in a stampede sparked by an exploding power transformer, the health ministry told AFP Thursday.

Just over 5,300 students were sitting the second day of the baccalaureat exams at the time of the explosion early Wednesday afternoon in Bangui, the capital of the deeply poor nation.

In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school.

The injured were transported by ambulance, on the back of pickup trucks or by motorbike taxi, AFP journalists saw.

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“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” President Faustin Archange Touadera said in a video published on his party’s Facebook page.

Touadera, who is attending a summit of the Gavi vaccine alliance in Brussels, also announced three days of national mourning.

According to a document circulating on social media and authenticated by the health ministry, 29 deaths were registered by hospitals in the city.

“The hospital was overwhelmed by people to the point of obstructing caregivers and ambulances,” a health ministry source stated.

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UN peacekeepers, police and other security were seen around the Barthelemy Boganda high school and hospitals.

Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zingas said in a statement Wednesday that “measures will be taken quickly to shed light on the circumstances of this incident”.

The minister added that a further statement would follow regarding selection of a date for the students to resume their exams programme.

The Republican Bloc for the Defence of the Constitution (BRDC), a coalition of opposition parties, condemned what it termed “the irresponsibility of the authorities in place, who have failed in their duty to ensure the safety of students and school infrastructure.”

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The CAR is among the poorest countries in the world and, since independence from France in 1960, has endured a succession of coups, authoritarian rulers and civil wars.

The latest civil war started more than a decade ago. The government has secured the main cities and violence has subsided in recent years.

But fighting occasionally erupts in remote regions between rebels and the national army, which is backed by Wagner mercenaries and Rwandan troops.

Municipal, legislative, and presidential elections are scheduled for August and December of this year but UN experts are calling for urgent institutional reform of the electoral authority before the polls and for “transparent internal governance,” as tensions between the government and the opposition intensify.

AFP

Vietnam’s National Assembly has officially approved amendments to the Law on Nationality, simplifying the process for overseas Vietnamese and eligible foreign nationals to acquire or restore Vietnamese citizenship.

The revised legislation aims to attract high-level talent and enhance national human resource development, according to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), a partner of TV BRICS.

Vietnam’s Minister of Justice, Nguyen Hai Ninh, stated that applicants may be exempted from certain requirements such as language proficiency, duration of residency, and proof of financial self-sufficiency.

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Under the amended law, foreign nationals and stateless individuals who have lived in Vietnam for at least five years and can demonstrate financial stability may qualify for citizenship.

Additional exemptions may apply to those with close family ties to Vietnamese citizens, such as a spouse, parent, child, or grandparent, or individuals whose citizenship is considered beneficial to national interests.

All applicants must still respect the Constitution, adhere to Vietnamese laws, and demonstrate cultural understanding and basic language skills to support integration.

The changes align with Vietnam’s broader strategy to attract foreign investors, experts, and scientists, reinforcing the country’s socio-economic growth

A remote island chain in southern Japan has been rattled by more than 470 earthquakes since Saturday, the national weather agency said on Thursday, calling for residents to stay alert.

No major damage has been reported from the series of quakes with a strength of at least one — slightly perceptible to people seated quietly indoors — on Japan’s seven-point seismic intensity scale.

As of Thursday morning, 474 such earthquakes had been observed around the Tokara island chain, south of Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

“Seismic activity has increased. As this region has experienced extended periods of earthquake activity in the past, please be vigilant against earthquakes that cause strong shaking,” it said in a statement.

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The largest tremors recorded since Saturday were two magnitude-5.1 quakes, one on Sunday and one on Tuesday.

They had a seismic intensity of four on the Japanese scale — described as an earthquake in which “most people are startled”, dishes rattle and “hanging objects such as lamps swing significantly”.

A similar period of seismic activity in the Tokara area was seen in September 2023, when 346 earthquakes were recorded within 15 days, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Seven of the 12 remote Tokara Islands are inhabited, with around 700 residents in total.

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The islands, some of which have active volcanoes, are reached by a ferry that runs twice weekly in good weather.

“An earthquake of up to magnitude-6 strength could take place, so please be vigilant,” Hisayoshi Yokose, a marine volcanology specialist and associate professor at Kumamoto University, told NHK.

Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, experiences around 1,500 jolts every year and accounts for around 18 percent of the world’s earthquakes.

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The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to their location and the depth below the Earth’s surface at which they strike.

On New Year’s Day 2024, more than 400 people died after a massive earthquake hit the Noto Peninsula in central Japan, including “quake-linked” deaths as well as those killed directly in the disaster.

The January 1 quake and its aftershocks toppled buildings, caused fires and knocked out infrastructure at a time when families were celebrating the new year.

AFP