- As Top UN official says: 10,000 civilians killed in Yemen conflict
At least five people have died and 15 others have been injured after a shooting outside a club on the last night of the BPM electronic music festival in Mexico.
The shooting occurred in the early hours of the morning outside the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa del Carmen, said Rodolfo Del Angel, police director in Quintana Roo state.
Del Angel told the Milenio TV station that the shooting was the result of “a disagreement between people inside” the nightclub, and that security guards had come under fire when they tried to contain the dispute.
State officials gave the death toll and said two Canadians, one Italian and one Colombian person – all BPM employees – were among the dead. They did not confirm reports in local media that attributed the attack to a drug dealing dispute.
In a statement BPM said members of its security team were killed and that the incident involved a lone gunman.
The Blue Parrot was hosting a closing party for the 10-day music festival, which is popular with foreign tourists, when the shooting happened. Glasgow-based DJ Jackmaster tweeted about the incident as the first reports emerged:
A BPM statement published on Facebook said: “We are overcome with grief over this senseless act of violence and we are cooperating fully with local law enforcement and government officials as they continue their investigation.”
The UK Foreign Office said embassy staff in Mexico were urgently looking into the situation. It said any Britons caught up in the incident should follow the advice of local authorities. The Foreign Office issued advice including a telephone number for anyone worried about friends or family members in Mexico.
Valerie Lee, Mixmag’s US digital editor, who was at Blue Parrot when the shooting happened, described what she saw. “We were there for maybe 20 minutes when we heard four to five shots,” she told the Guardian. “Everyone was kind of processing it for a second then people starting running away from the main entrance towards the back.
“There is a large cement wall so we kind of crouched underneath waiting to see what was happening. People started saying it was just fireworks. But shortly after other people came running through the area and said they had seen someone with a gun.”
In the meantime, the United Nations’ humanitarian aid official in Yemen said Monday that the civilian death toll in the nearly two-year conflict has reached 10,000, with 40,000 others wounded.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Jamie McGoldrick told reporters the figure is based on lists of victims gathered by health facilities and the actual number might be higher. This announcement marks the first time a U.N. official has confirmed such a high death toll in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation. Earlier, the U.N. reported 4,200 civilians were killed in the war.
“This once more underscores the need to resolve the situation in Yemen without any further delay,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York. “There’s been a huge humanitarian cost.”
The Yemen conflict pits Shiite Houthi rebels and allied forces against a Saudi-led coalition. The coalition began an air campaign in March 2015 to restore the internationally recognized government that fled the country after Houthis seized the capital.
McGoldrick’s remarks come as U.N. Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrives in the southern city of Aden, which the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has turned into a temporary capital, officials said.
According to Yemeni officials, Ahmed will present an amended peace deal to Hadi, who rejected the last initiative. That proposal was supported by the U.S. because it largely recognized the rebels and sidelined Hadi. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Haq, the U.N. spokesman, confirmed that Ahmed is scheduled to meet Hadi on Monday “and he will try to present him with the latest peace proposals.”
“This is something he’s been developing in dialogue with the various parties and that dialogue will continue,” he said, adding that he couldn’t provide any details.”
Peace efforts have stalled because of disagreements over a timeline. Hadi is pressing for an implementation to a U.N. Security Council resolution that stipulates the Houthis’ withdrawal from all cities and the handover of weapons. The Houthis are pressing for a political deal in which they would get a share of power for giving up land and arms.
Guardian with additional report from MSN
