US service member, 3 contractors die in plane crash in Philippines
One U.S. service member and three defense contractors were killed Thursday when a plane contracted by the U.S. military crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said.
The aircraft was conducting a routine mission "providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies," the command said in a statement. It said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines also confirmed the crash of a light plane in Maguindanao del Sur province. It did not immediately provide other details.
The bodies of the four people were retrieved from the wreckage in Ampatuan town, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a safety officer of Maguindanao del Sur. Indo-Pacific Command said the names of the crew were being withheld pending family notifications.
Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, told The Associated Press that she received reports that residents saw smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the aircraft plummeted to the ground less than a kilometer from a cluster of farmhouses.
Nobody was reported injured on or near the crash site, which was cordoned off by troops, Beaty said.
U.S. forces have been deployed in a Philippine military camp in the country's south for decades to help provide advice and training to Filipino forces battling Muslim militants. The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
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Voice of America
06-02-2025
- Voice of America
US service member, 3 contractors die in plane crash in Philippines
One U.S. service member and three defense contractors were killed Thursday when a plane contracted by the U.S. military crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said. The aircraft was conducting a routine mission "providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies," the command said in a statement. It said the cause of the crash was under investigation. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines also confirmed the crash of a light plane in Maguindanao del Sur province. It did not immediately provide other details. The bodies of the four people were retrieved from the wreckage in Ampatuan town, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a safety officer of Maguindanao del Sur. Indo-Pacific Command said the names of the crew were being withheld pending family notifications. Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, told The Associated Press that she received reports that residents saw smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the aircraft plummeted to the ground less than a kilometer from a cluster of farmhouses. Nobody was reported injured on or near the crash site, which was cordoned off by troops, Beaty said. U.S. forces have been deployed in a Philippine military camp in the country's south for decades to help provide advice and training to Filipino forces battling Muslim militants. The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
Voice of America
05-01-2025
- Voice of America
In Gaza's crowded tent camps, women wrestle with a life stripped of privacy
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But with so many men around, she keeps it on all the time, even when sleeping — just in case an Israeli strike hits nearby in the night and she has to flee quickly, she said. Israel's 14-month-old campaign in Gaza has driven more than 90% of its 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of them are now living in squalid camps of tents packed close together over large areas. Sewage runs into the streets, and food and water are hard to obtain. Winter is setting in. Families often wear the same clothes for weeks because they left clothing and many other belongings behind as they fled. Everyone in the camps searches daily for food, clean water and firewood. Women feel constantly exposed. Gaza has always been a conservative society. Most women wear the hijab, or head scarf, in the presence of men who are not immediate family. Matters of women's health — pregnancy, menstruation and contraception — tend not to be discussed publicly. "Before we had a roof. 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Doaa Hellis, a mother of three living in a camp, said she has torn up her old clothes to use for menstrual pads. "Wherever we find fabric, we tear it up and use it." A packet of pads costs 45 shekels ($12), "and there is not even five shekels in the whole tent," she said. Anera, a rights group active in Gaza, says some women use birth control pills to halt their periods. Others have experienced disruptions in their cycles because of the stress and trauma of repeated displacement. The terrible conditions pose real risks to women's health, said Amal Seyam, the director of the Women's Affairs Center in Gaza, which provides supplies for women and surveys them about their experiences. She said some women have not changed clothes for 40 days. That and improvised cloth pads "will certainly create" skin diseases, diseases related to reproductive health and psychological conditions, she said. "Imagine what a woman in Gaza feels like, if she's unable to control conditions related to hygiene and menstrual cycles," Seyam said. 'Everything is destroyed' Hellis remembered a time not so long ago, when being a woman felt more like a joy and less like a burden. "Women are now deprived of everything, no clothes, no bathroom. Their psychology is completely destroyed," she said. Seyam said the center has tracked cases where girls have been married younger, before the age of 18, to escape the suffocating environment of their family's tents. The war will "continue to cause a humanitarian disaster in every sense of the word. And women always pay the biggest price," she said. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to the territory's Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Israel launched its assault in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 250 others. With large swaths of Gaza's cities and towns leveled, women wrestle with reduced lives in their tents. Hamami can walk the length of her small tent in a few strides. She shares it with 13 other people from her extended family. During the war, she gave birth to a son, Ahmed, who is now 8 months old. Between caring for him and her two other children, washing her family's laundry, cooking and waiting in line for water, she says there's no time to care for herself. She has a few objects that remind her of what her life once was, including a powder compact she brought with her when she fled her home in the Shati camp of Gaza City. The makeup is now caked and crumbling. She managed to keep hold of a small mirror through four different displacements over the past year. 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Voice of America
28-12-2024
- Voice of America
Somali migrant who survived boat sinking wants to try again for Europe
Idil Abdullahi Goley's journey seeking a better life in Europe started in Somalia with a $6,500 payment to local smugglers. It ended a month later with fellow migrants around her dying at sea, one of them screaming and reciting the Muslim profession of faith. The deaths of 25 migrants last month in boats off the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar brought to light yet another route that some in Africa are taking in dangerous bids for Europe. Goley was one of the 48 people rescued. She spoke to The Associated Press about the journey that thousands of Somalis embark on every year as extremist attacks and climate shocks destroy hopes and livelihoods at home. Some Somalis head for the Gulf countries via the Red Sea and Yemen. Others, like Goley, gamble on a longer sea voyage south, toward the French island territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, the poorest territory in the European Union. Somalis are among an estimated 100,000 migrants living in Mayotte, according to French authorities. The migrants are part of communities affected after Cyclone Chido leveled entire neighborhoods on December 14. The International Organization for Migration has estimated that 2 million people migrated from Somalia in 2021 in search of work, the latest data available. Children left behind Goley, 28, heard about the smugglers from friends who had traveled the route and raised the $6,500 fee from her small tea shop business in the capital, Mogadishu, and from her brother and mother. She hoped to reach Europe and pay them back. She left her three small children behind. Her journey began with a flight from Mogadishu to Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Then she and others took a bus to the port city of Mombasa, where they set off in fishing boats for Mayotte, more than 620 miles (997 kilometers) away. They hoped to request asylum there. After three days at sea, the group of about 70 migrants was transferred to smaller boats, whose engines started to fail. The smugglers said they would fix the engines and left with them on another boat, leaving the migrants drifting without water and food. They started catching fish and collecting rainwater to survive. It was nearly cyclone season, and waves were choppy. Goley said she tried to save the life of an infant whose mother was also on board but struggling. "But she died right in front of me. We couldn't hold on to her body for long and had to throw it into the sea to prevent it from decomposing, as more people perished around us," she said. During 13 days of hunger, thirst and heat, Goley's two friends also died. She held one in her lap as she passed. "The other screamed for help. I couldn't help her and she died shortly after, crying out loudly, reciting the Shahada," Goley said. "That is an image I will never forget, the suffering and helplessness we felt." She said the ordeal ended when a fishing boat appeared on the horizon and the survivors waved for help. They offered the fishermen $100 for their rescue and were taken to a sports facility in Nosy Be in northern Madagascar. The migrants were repatriated in early December by chartered plane. Back home, Goley's mother had feared the worst. Unable to eat, she had lost 20 kilograms (44 pounds). "When I returned home, my mother couldn't believe it until she heard my voice and saw me in person," Goley said. Another attempt As she and the other survivors arrived in Mogadishu, the Somali president's special envoy on refugee affairs expressed hope for their future and said the government would help. "They assured me they will never take the same risk again," Maryan Yasin said. But Goley said she plans to attempt another journey on the same route, despite having nightmares about her ordeal. The hardships in Somalia are still the same, she said — and she did pay the smugglers' fee. "Even if it leads me to prison, I believe I'd still find a better life than the one I have here," she said. Her mother, meanwhile, fears this time she will never return. Other survivors are undecided as they mourn. Ahmed Hussein Mahadalle, 26, had watched helplessly as his sister Hanan, 21, died. Nothing compares to the pain of it, he said. His other sister, Haboon Hussein Mahadalle, was grateful for her brother's safe return, though he also has plans to try again. "Hanan was courageous and vigilant. She met her fate with grace," Haboon said, in tears. "They say good people don't stay long, and my sister embodied all the qualities I can't begin to summarize."
