CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The death toll in floods in South Africa's Eastern Cape province has risen to 86, the police minister said Saturday as rescuers continued to retrieve bodies from the floodwater.
Senzo Mchunu, the country's top law enforcement official, spoke to police rescue teams that have been searching for missing people and recovering bodies in and around the town of Mthatha since the floods hit in the predawn hours of Tuesday.
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A man with a child look at a home submerged in floodwater, in Mthatha, South Africa, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Hoseya Jubase)
A man sits on the ground as a minister addresses flood victims outside a temporary shelter at a church following floodsin Mthatha, South Africa, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Forensic workers retrieve bodies of a mother and three daughters from inside a one room house after floods swept through the area in Mthatha, South Africa, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Flood-damaged housing in Mthatha, South Africa, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
A police rescue officer searches for missing people of this week's floods in Mthatha, South Africa, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Mchunu said the floods were a tragedy but urged local residents to ignore what he called inaccurate reports spreading on social media that the disaster was caused by someone opening the sluice gates at a nearby dam, leading to water surging through communities. Mchunu said the Mthatha Dam in question did not have sluice gates.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday during a visit to Mthatha that authorities would investigate if there were any problems with the local dam that might have led to the tragedy.
A wall of water 3-4 meters (10-13 feet) high in places flowed out of the river, the head of the provincial government said, washing away victims with parts of their houses and trapping others inside their homes.
Ramaphosa partly attributed the rains and floods to climate change and said some of South Africa's coastal regions were now constantly vulnerable to weather-related disasters. More than 400 people died in flooding in and around South Africa's east coast city of Durban in 2022, which a study linked to climate change.
The floods in the Mthatha area and a neighboring district caught many people unaware despite weather services issuing warnings last week that an extreme cold front was heading for the region, bringing heavy rains and gale-force winds.
The largely rural region is one of the country's poorest and authorities said communities living in informal housing close to the river were especially vulnerable when it burst its banks. Authorities have been criticized for the rescue response but also for the state of the infrastructure in the area.
Officials believe that people are still missing and the death toll could rise further as rescue teams have been searching through floodwater and damaged homes for nearly a week. One of the bodies retrieved on Saturday was that of a boy that rescuers believed was around 13 or 14 years old.
Many children are among the dead, although authorities haven't given an exact count. Some of the victims were washed up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away from their homes by the floods.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
A man with a child look at a home submerged in floodwater, in Mthatha, South Africa, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Hoseya Jubase)
A man sits on the ground as a minister addresses flood victims outside a temporary shelter at a church following floodsin Mthatha, South Africa, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Forensic workers retrieve bodies of a mother and three daughters from inside a one room house after floods swept through the area in Mthatha, South Africa, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Flood-damaged housing in Mthatha, South Africa, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
A police rescue officer searches for missing people of this week's floods in Mthatha, South Africa, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — Federal immigration authorities said Friday they arrested about 200 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally in raids a day earlier on two California cannabis farm sites. Protesters engaged in a tense standoff with authorities during an operation at one of the farms where a farmworker was gravely injured.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that authorities executed criminal search warrants in Carpinteria and Camarillo, California, on Thursday. They arrested immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally, and there were also at least 10 immigrant children on site, the statement said.
Four U.S. citizens were arrested for “assaulting or resisting officers,” the department said. Authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of one person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents. At least one worker was hospitalized with grave injuries.
During the raid, crowds of people gathered outside Glass House Farms at the Camarillo location to demand information about their relatives and protest immigration enforcement. A chaotic scene emerged outside the farm that grows tomatoes, cucumbers and cannabis as authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators. Acrid green and white billowing smoke then forced community members to retreat.
Glass House, a licensed California cannabis grower, said in a statement that immigration agents had valid warrants. The company said workers were detained, and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” the statement said.
It is legal to grow and sell cannabis in California with proper licensing. State records show the company has multiple active licenses to cultivate cannabis.
At least 12 people were injured during the raid and protest at the farm in Camarillo, said Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department. Eight were taken to Saint John's St. John’s Regional Medical Center and the Ventura County Medical Center, and four were treated at the scene and released. Dowd said he did not have information on the extent of the injuries of those hospitalized.
On Friday, about two dozen people waited outside the Camarillo farm to retrieve the cars of loved ones and speak to managers about what happened. Relatives of Jaime Alanis, who has worked picking tomatoes at the farm for 10 years, said he called his wife in Mexico during the raid to tell her immigration agents had arrived and that he was hiding with others inside the farm.
“The next thing we heard was that he was in the hospital with broken hands, ribs and a broken neck,” Juan Duran, Alanis’ brother-in-law, said in Spanish, his voice breaking.
It was not immediately clear how Alanis was injured. A doctor at Ventura County Medical Center told the family that those who brought Alanis to the hospital said he had fallen from the roof of a building.
Alanis had a broken neck, fractured skull and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, said his niece Yesenia, who didn’t want to share her last name for fear of reprisal.
“They told us he won’t make it and to say goodbye,” Yesenia said, crying.
The hospital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
After immigration agents arrived at Glass House's farm in Camarillo on Thursday morning, workers called family members to let them know authorities were there. Relatives and advocates headed to the farm some 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles to try to find out what was going on, and began protesting outside.
Federal authorities formed a line blocking the road leading through farm fields to the company's greenhouses. Protesters were seen shouting at agents wearing camouflage gear, helmets and gas masks. The billowing smoke drove protesters to retreat. It wasn’t clear why authorities threw the canisters or if they released chemicals such as tear gas.
Ventura County fire authorities responding to a 911 call of people having trouble breathing said three people were taken to nearby hospitals.
At the farm, agents arrested workers and removed them by bus. Others, including U.S. citizens, were detained at the site for hours while agents investigated.
The incident came as federal immigration agents have ramped up arrests in Southern California at car washes, farms and Home Depot parking lots, stoking widespread fear among immigrant communities.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday that the investigation into immigration and potential child labor violations at the farm is ongoing. No further details of the allegations were provided.
The agency said hundreds of demonstrators attempted to disrupt the operations, leading to the arrest of four Americans.
“We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who assaults or doxes federal law enforcement,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection were both part of the operation, the statement said.
Relatives of other workers said they got similar calls Thursday. The mother of an American worker said her son was held at the worksite for 11 hours and told her agents took workers’ cellphones to prevent them from calling family or filming and forced them to erase cellphone video of agents at the site.
The woman said her son told her agents marked the men’s hands with ink to distinguish their immigration status. She spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared reprisals from the government.
United Farm Workers said in statement that some U.S. citizens are not yet accounted for.
Maria Servin, 68, said her son has worked at the farm for 18 years and was helping to build a greenhouse. She said she spoke to her son, who is undocumented, after hearing of the raid and offered to pick him up.
“He said not to come because they were surrounded and there was even a helicopter. That was the last time I spoke to him,” Servin, a U.S. citizen, said in Spanish.
She said she went to the farm anyway but federal agents were shooting tear gas and rubber bullets and she decided it was not safe to stay. She and her daughter returned to the farm Friday and were told her son had been arrested Thursday. They still don’t know where he is being held.
“I regret 1,000 times that I didn’t help him get his documents,” Servin said.
Taxin reported from Orange County, California, and Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.
An exterior of Glass House Farms is shown, a day after an immigration raid on the facility, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Sergio Madrigal works on a farm field Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Juan Duran cries outside of Glass House Farms, where a relative was injured during a previous day immigration raid, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
People embrace outside of Glass House Farms, a day after an immigration raid on the facility, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Federal immigration agents toss tear gas at protesters during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
Federal immigration agents toss tear gas at protesters during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - Protesters standoff against federal immigration agents during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
Arturo Rangel hugs Judith Ramos whose father works at the greenhouse in the background as federal immigration agents block access during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
Rebecca Torres stands in front of a military vehicle approaching a federal immigration agents raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
