Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday met with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, with both sides agreeing to expand cooperation in sectors such as mining, agriculture and infrastructure.
The Eritrean president is in Beijing to attend the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled to take place from Wednesday to Friday.
Li said China is ready to work with Eritrea to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, bolster cooperation in areas like mining and agriculture within the framework of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and push for sustained and solid progress in the strategic partnership between the two countries.
China firmly supports Africa to play an important pole in the world's political, economic and cultural development, the premier said, adding that it stands ready to implement the outcomes of this year's FOCAC summit with Eritrea and other African countries to build high-level China-Eritrea and China-Africa communities with a shared future.
Afwerki said Eritrea is willing to take the opportunity of strengthening the strategic partnership with China to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in areas including infrastructure construction, mining and agriculture, to elevate Eritrea-China and Africa-China relations to higher levels, and to tackle global challenges and oppose hegemonism jointly.
Chinese premier meets Eritrean president on bolstering cooperation
Armed police officers and soldiers, in coordination with multiple professional rescue forces, are conducting in-depth search and rescue operations for missing people in the core disaster zone in Mingkeng Village of east China's Jiangxi Province.
At around 07:00 on Tuesday, the rescue headquarters integrated 12 professional teams, including the armed police, public security, and the fire department, to launch a search-and-rescue operation for missing persons in the hardest-hit area of the Shixia group of Mingkeng Village.
As of 18:00 on Tuesday, the mudslide that occurred in the early hours of Saturday has killed 12 people, including one newly identified missing person found in subsequent searches. At present, one person remains unaccounted for, and rescue forces are intensifying their search and rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, the Ji'an Detachment of the Jiangxi Armed Police Force deployed officers and soldiers to extend rescue efforts to surrounding disaster-affected townships.
On Tuesday morning, rescuers split into multiple teams and rushed to several villages in Zuo'an Township and Tanghu Township of Suichuan County to urgently evacuate the trapped residents.
Trapped in mountainous areas, villagers faced destroyed access roads and mountain paths that became slippery and impassable after days of heavy rainfall; most stranded residents were elderly people with limited mobility. The armed police officers and soldiers conducted door-to-door checks and carried the trapped residents on their backs, successfully evacuating all of them to safe zones.
"All village roads are completely impassable. The local residents here are all left-behind elderly people and children, and it is extremely difficult to complete the evacuation relying solely on the strength of the town government officials. This time, we are deeply indebted to the armed police officers and soldiers for their assistance in evacuating all these elderly residents," said Wang Yuli, deputy mayor of Tanghu Township in Suichuan County.
"The mountain slopes are covered in thick mud, making the ground extremely slippery. In some sections, stretchers cannot pass through at all, so rescuers have to carry the stranded people on their backs. As long as the people are safe, it is worthwhile to endure all the hardship and exhaustion," said Jiang Jiang, a soldier of the Ji'an Detachment of the Jiangxi Armed Police Force.
Rescuers intensify search efforts in mudslide-hit village in east China's Jiangxi
