Heavy rain has soaked many regions in northern China since Thursday, causing traffic disruptions and stranding residents. Rescuers are struggling to evacuate people from at-risk neighborhoods and clear mud and broken-down cars from the roads.
In Shaanxi Province, flooding in Zhidan County swept more than cars into the narrow streets. The piled-up cars caused the water to rise even higher, flooding several neighborhoods. Rescuers evacuated stranded residents before dragging the vehicles away.
In Xinjiang, sudden rains caused landslides along the scenic mountainous section of the Duku Highway, snarling traffic. Rescuers pulled a dozen cars out of the mud and resumed traffic early Friday.
Several cities in Hebei Province are experiencing flooding due to heavy rain. In some neighborhoods, water gushed into houses and many cars broke down in the waterlogging of the streets. Rescuers have moved and sheltered stranded people, while drainage of the streets is still underway.
In Inner Mongolia, rescuers have been busy untrapping on cars and passengers mired in flood waters on city streets since Thursday in Wuhai City.
Heavy rain soaks northern Chinese cities, triggers emergency rescue
A high-level mediation team from the African Union (AU) Commission has been dispatched to Juba, capital of South Sudan, to try to ease the rising tensions between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, and help resolve the current political crisis in the country.
Riek Machar and several senior officials have been detained since clashes erupted in January between the South Sudan People's Defense Forces and the opposition fighters.
Machar was accused of instigating violence in Nasir in the northern part of the country.
The mediation team says it plans to engage Machar, but that meeting is yet to take place.
The AU is urging South Sudanese political leaders to resolve the current disagreement through dialogue.
Machar heads the largest opposition group that has an armed wing in the country, known as SPLM/A-IO.
South Sudan's government says it's still investigating Machar for being allegedly involved in clashes between government troops and armed civilians affiliated to SPLM/A-IO in Nasir.
"The mandate of the RTGoNU (the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity) is simple; that we stop war, we form a revitalized government of national unity so that we return security, sustainable peace in the country," said Martin Elia Lomuro, South Sudan's Minister of Cabinet Affairs.
Meanwhile, Machar's party members are calling on president Kiir to order the release of their leader.
The group argues that the arrest of Machar means the 2018 peace deal which ended five years of violence in the country has partially collapsed.
The government reaffirms its commitment to the implementation of the 2018 peace deal.
It says Mr. Machar is in conflict with the law and that the implementation of the peace deal should not be used as cover to commit crime. However, until now, South Sudanese law enforcement agencies have not charged Machar with any offense in a court of law.
South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, signed a peace deal in 2018 that ended a civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar. Nearly 400,000 people died in the civil war.
Relations between Kiir and Machar, who have dominated South Sudan's politics for decades, remain strained. The clashes and latest political tensions between the two leaders have unsettled many citizens and the international community.
AU dispatches Panel of Wise to address ongoing instability in South Sudan
