Grieving families, survivors question oversight after school roof collapse in northwest Pakistan

Families are mourning their children and demanding answers over building safety after a private school collapsed in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, as survivors said the structure had shown signs of weakness for days.

At least 34 students and one teacher were killed and more than 50 others injured when the roof of the Al-Khair Education Center caved in on Thursday in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities said.

Among the victims were two brothers, 8-year-old Muhammad and 10-year-old Abubakar, who set off for school that morning as they did any other day. They never came home. Their father, Zakir Ullah, is now left with only memories of his two young sons.

"My sons were wonderful children. They were bright, obedient, and loved to study and play. They had so many dreams, so much to live for. But Allah took them away from us," Ullah said.

He remembers the ordinary mornings his family once shared, moments that now carry a heartbreaking weight.

"Sometimes they didn't want to go to school. But their mother would get them dressed, prepare their breakfast, and make sure they went. She did everything for them," Ullah said.

Then came the news no parent ever wants to hear: his daughter, who was also at the school, came running home.

"She told us the school had collapsed. We rushed there and found both my sons buried under the rubble. We could do nothing but watch. The children were trapped beneath the debris," Ullah said.

Inside the damaged school, the remains of the classrooms paint a disturbing picture of the conditions in which the children had been studying. For those who survived, fear lingers.

Sobia, a student who survived the collapse, said she and her classmates had lived with the danger long before the roof came down.

"The walls and roof used to shake every day. I'm scared to go back to school. My teacher died, and many of my friends were injured," Sobia said.

For Ullah, the loss is irreversible, no action can bring Muhammad and Abubakar home, but he hopes their deaths will serve as a warning so that no other father endures the same grief. Authorities must inspect school buildings regularly, he said, urging the government to act so that other children's lives could be saved.

Grieving families, survivors question oversight after school roof collapse in northwest Pakistan

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for faster and stronger global action to protect biodiversity, warning that efforts to halt nature loss remain far behind international targets.

Speaking at a leaders' summit in Yerevan, Armenia's capital, Guterres urged countries to show "more action, more speed, and more will" ahead of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), scheduled for Oct 19-30.

"Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability," he said, urging countries to assess their progress in protecting nature.

More than 1 million species face extinction, threatened by climate change, invasive species, overexploitation of natural resources and pollution, he warned.

Guterres said the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, had laid out a path to "make peace with nature," but progress remained uneven and far too slow.

Nearly 90 percent of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have set national biodiversity targets, while more than half have developed implementation plans. Since 2022, an additional 1.3 million square km of land and 6 million square km of ocean have come under formal protection, he said.

However, even if current national commitments are fulfilled, only 26 percent of land and 12 percent of marine areas would be protected by 2030, falling short of the global target of 30 percent for both. Funding also remains a major obstacle. Citing a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Guterres said biodiversity financing stood at less than half the annual target of 200 billion U.S. dollars set under the framework.

He said that "biodiversity is not a separate challenge, stressing its links to climate change, conflict, food insecurity and disease.

Guterres urged governments, financial institutions and businesses to accelerate implementation of the framework, calling for sustainable agriculture, circular economies, stronger environmental monitoring and stricter enforcement of existing laws.

UN chief urges faster action to protect biodiversity ahead of global summit