i. think. that i mean. at least 20 people are killed in equitorial guinea during a number of explosions at a military base. over there i'm out of my head and this is al jazeera life in doha also coming up.

another escalation was in yemen's who sees and saudi arabia energy facilities in the kingdom are targeted and saudi arabia launches air strikes against sana. astraea cuts military ties with me and maher the latest nation pressuring the military to stop its violent crackdown on protesters. and millions of children across england get ready to head back to school some pandemic restrictions are lifted it's. at least 20 people have been killed in a series of explosions at a military base in equitorial guinea where than $607.00 injured the government says negligence calls the blasts in but a city al-jazeera is nicholas huck has more. after the 1st explosion in a little. a 2nd what did i mean the then

a 3rd and 4th each stronger than the other. this is where the blast took place inside the nic what dora barracks one of the country's largest military bases. people. around for their lives. others rushed the injured to hospitals still going to live on national television the reporter asked is the baby dead no she replies but her mother is most of the most we don't know what happened to this man says everything is destroyed. the barracks were home to hundreds of families in the rubble people try to pull out survivors many are feared dead including detainees trapped in the barracks prison cells. hospitals quickly became overwhelmed and called for urgent blood donations. i'm asking for your excellent season assistance from our brother countries and international organizations to

help the republican guinea in this lamentable situation we have we already have the coronavirus health emergency and adding to that this tragedy in the city of boston on national t.v. the anchor read out a statement from president obiang he says negligence in the dynamite depot located on the base caused the explosion causing it and given the scale of the destruction and in these times of lower oil prices made even worse by the cave in 1000 pandemic a call on the international community to provide all the help and assistance necessary. being has been in power for the last 42 years amassing half a $1000000000.00 in personal wealth in this oral rich country but according to the world bank 80 percent of the population live on less than 2 dollars a day his son deal with is the country's vice president in charge of the military and the barracks where the explosion took place last year french court charged him with embezzling state funds with

a court seizing his $107000000.00 paris home critics of the regime see in these explosions as yet another example of the families continue to neglect of the people of equitorial guinea. pig liz hawk al jazeera. well william lawrence is a former u.s. diplomat and regional security officer in west africa he says equitorial guinea is not prepared for a disaster of the scale. highly shocking traumatizing many hundreds injured which means there's probably significantly larger number that aren't even accounted for yet and people are frantically looking through the rubble for bodies in some ways worse than the beirut explosion at least in terms of the carnage and so this is going to have quite a devastating effect on many levels and equitorial guinea is you know this is one of the richest countries in africa with the least distribution of its oil. and most

of the you know many coup attempts and some dependence so this is going to rock the boat but in the short term they're just going to have to account for what happened and so far it looks very bad most of the resources are in the capital which is an island off the coast not in the areas where this occurred they're building new capital city on the mainland but it's not really fully equipped on the u.s. has done a lot of training over the years of military force and so for example but it's been focused on things like human rights which was a big concern of theirs i don't think there's a lot of disaster preparedness training on this scale so i suspect that a lot of what's going on today is waning and already the country's health services are hit quite hard bike over 1000 so this will be an added burden that frantic calls for blood donations gone out so and we have pictures of people lying around in hospital floors just not being treated. saudi arabia is promising to take all

necessary measures to protect itself after yemen's hooty rebels launched another attack on its energy facilities the saudi government says confirms the iran coral plant into iran was targeted by a ballistic missile earlier a drone hit rust turnour a poor it's one of the world's largest oil shipping ports saudi officials say they intercepted the drone and missile attacks and there was minimal damage but the hooty say it was a much bigger assault was a large oil will say all the artillery and drone divisions were able to conduct a wide offensive in the depths of saudi arabia with 14 drones and 8 ballistic missiles we targeted around coal in ras port and other military facilities in the mom more military sites were targeted in a series of design and the strike was precise. well the saudi coalition responded

to the attacks. by hitting haiti targets in yemen its capital sana'a a residential area was struck and there are reports of casualties let's bring in our correspondents. right here in doha he's covered the war in yemen extensively so our show you'll be able to just explain to us what is this escalation all about what's behind these recent attacks that were seen. well hala from that statement by the spokesperson of the of the of the healthy in yemen he's basically. he's saying that the armed forces of the who managed to launch attacks deeper into saudi arabia and other targeting they say they are targeting areas in. and also in i see it in the one of the one is very crucial because it has one of the most vital oil installations for saudi arabia and she's also crucial for the.

supply of oil globally and this explains why the price of oil has jumped earlier to as a reaction to that attack by the whole thing is a show of force because this is 2nd most significant attack by the who are these since 2019 when the targeted with drones crucial oil facilities in the is some part of saudi arabia knocking off the output production for for 50 percent of the world put production for 4 day it was similar tactic by the who these think that 6 years is the start of the war most by saudi arabia united arab emirates in yemen the hope these remain strong powerful gaining ground and able to retaliate and also target vital areas inside saudi arabia and. more cool believe what would you say that it is are trying to achieve here where we

have to remind our viewers however this comes against the backdrop of a crucial fight which is underway as we speak in the in the province of memory it's a stronghold for the internationally recognized government of. this is where the saudis have been maintaining a military presence provided significant support for the government of handy and it's and it is rich in oil the province itself the holdings have decided to move. all the way from the words of a note to take it over 1st of all this is a show horse number 2 this saying that they're gaining ground number 3 if they can take it over it will be the ultimate humiliation for saudi arabia and for the government of our job or. if they lose me. it could be the good beginning of the end for the internationally recognized government of this explains why now we're seeing an attempt by all of the parties to maintain their presence and to provoke

the whole thing take over and i think we will see an aggressive push by the saudis in the upcoming days to prevent that from happening the battlefield could be decisive for the future of yemen ok something to keep a very close eye on. live from doha thank you. at least 8 people have been killed in a fire at a migrant detention center in yemen's capital sana'a the u.n. says 170 people were injured because it is not yet know if the tension centers run by his the rebels have control of the capital since the outbreak oh vehemence conflicts. after a 3 day 2 spreading messages of hope and religious unity in iraq pope francis is heading home to the vatican a farewell ceremony was held at baghdad airport as the pontiff departed during his visit pope francis defied security concerns with visits to regions devastated by

eisel where he met members of one of the world's most persecuted christian communities. still to come on al-jazeera why more than $150.00 rangar refugees in india and minister kashmir could be forced to go back to myanmar plus. i was silent. were you silent or were you silence. the latter. suppressed within the palace prince harry's wife meghan reveals the reasons for their splits from the british royal family. hello there we got a late blast of winter coming into the northeast if europe at the moment we've got this area of cloud here sinking down across the baltic states this cold front this

blue line that will continue to track its way further south what's. going to speak you'll read just coming in behind to temperatures in moscow minus 4 celsius there's snow on that into western russia into ukraine to sliding out of poland temperatures well as you can see subzero for many here right clouds meanwhile across the northwest of europe we have been see some showers just coming in across the north sea plenty of showers across the western side of the but it's right in that it could be on the heavy side as we go on into monday and shoes to choose to become a little more widespread they can filter their way across central parts of italy possibility of some snow over the high ground and some snow there into the outs snow clears away from moscow meanwhile but take a look at that temperature minus 9 the top temperature this stays back into the northwest well we're getting up to plus 9 in glasgow wet windy a mild who had just started to push its way in from the atlantic we got some wet and windy weather also making its way across northern parts of morocco northern

areas of algeria over the next couple of days and shop showers here with a distinct possibility of some localized flooding. they captured the hearts of sounds around the world but these footballers are unlike most obvious they fought hard gave up put themselves on the line for something more important than the beautiful game footballing legendary cancer dot introduces 5 former players who bucked the trend and stood up for what they believed did let's do it in a new season of football rebels coming soon on al-jazeera.

this is our desire a quick reminder of the top stories for you know at least 20 people have been killed in a series of explosions at a military base in equitorial guinea's largest city bata 1600 people have been injured the president says it was caused by the mishandling of dynamite's saudi arabia is promising to take all necessary measures to protect itself after yemen's whose he's launched another attack on its energy facilities on sunday so he around coral plants into her and was targeted by a ballistic missile. and after 3 days of spreading messages of hope and forgiveness in iraq what francis is heading home to the vatican is the 1st ever visit to iraq by a pontiff where he met christian communities which are targets by isong. local

media in myanmar is reporting 2 people have been killed after police fired on protesters in the northern town of maty kena shops and factories so have calls in the amar's largest city as trade unions call for a total economic shutdown and protest against the military coup after more than a month large crowds of protesters are still gathering in many cities security forces are checking cars guarding hospitals and conducting overnight raids to deter the and siku movements at least 51 percent says have been killed since the protests began well as trulia did see the international backlash against me in mars' military announcing its suspending its defense cooperation program we have reviewed our military engagement and i announced yesterday that those activities would be suspended we've also reviewed our development assistance because one of the things

that i do not want to do and that is strategy does not want to do is to penalize the people of myanmar the people of myanmar who are amongst the poorest people in as eon and who have been dealing with significant challenges for a long period of time let's get more now from scott haidar he joins us from bangkok in neighboring thailand scott let's just start with the situation in myanmar right now a general strike is ongoing and hearing reports that another to protest has been killed what's the latest. latest we know hala is yes the 2 protesters were killed in catchin state that's right in the northern part of me and mar 2 were killed there now they have been protests up in that part of the country since the very beginning after the february 1st 2 so protests have been carried out and the local media and social media posts are

saying that 2 protesters were killed up there on monday now today as you mentioned hala there is a general and ongoing strike right across myanmar this is was called by 9 labor unions across the country this is something that has kind of been going on going anyway particular civil servants they haven't been going to work and then certain unions have been kind of coming and going with with strikes throughout the last month or so but today general strike they're saying and it's going to be ongoing and this is their way the protesters way this civil disobedience movements way to push it to leverage the joint to try to break with some of the demands that these protesters have it's something that they've tried in the past it really hasn't done much as we've been seeing with that the violent crackdown that continues but i guess the idea is that they can with economic means put more pressure on the agenda and i'd also pressure coming from the international community has significant would you see this move by

a stream is what does it reveal about the action the international community is willing and able to take. well it's definitely you know for the protest movement it's probably a welcomed announcement any more international. bodies nations jumping on board with the idea that they need to stop doing business with myanmar giunta that is progress for them for the protest movements you know we've seen the u.n. security council meet twice nothing has really constructively come out of that the u.n. general assembly has met wants to and again nothing that is really budged the closer to stepping off the street stepping back their posture so it did joins a chorus that is good news but when it comes to exactly what that means on the ground with money there wasn't a massive military flow of military aid from australia to myanmar that's more symbolic but that aid money they said is still going to go to the people they want

to and that is the people who need it. keeping across all the details for us from bangkok scott thank you. police in n.z. administered kashmir say at least 168 refugees have been sent to a holding center for possible deportation as after hundreds were taken to a stadium in general on saturday officials want to find out if they have valid documents to live there and their summated 5000 muslim rango are in indian administered kashmir they are part of the more than 1000000 refugees who fled the end mark since its military crackdown began 2017000 member yes out yesterday when i was at work the police had come and taken my wife away and she hasn't returned my children have been crying all night we are leaving we have no choice i have a little again i have the phone numbers of some of the people taken so i called them but now their mobile phones are going to take in

a way we're not able to speak with them and their children have been left behind o'callaghan when my son and daughter in law went to buy something only my daughter in law came back he was taken away. china has rejected claims its treatment of ethnic minorities in scenes amounts to genocides the government is facing mounting criticism about its detention of more than a 1000000 muslim weekers in what it calls re-education camps foreign minister one years says the complaints are baseless and politically motivated. young digital day to claim that there is genocide unchanging could not be more absurd it is just a rumor a fabric aided with ulterior motives and it's a complete lie. some western politicians choose to believe in the lies made by a few instead of listening to the voices of $25000000.00 changing residents of various ethnic groups they would rather cooperate with the clumsy performances of a few anti china forces rather than face up to the basic facts of development and

progress and enjoying this can only prove that they don't care about the truth but a keen on political manipulation. police in senegal say opposition leader is mansong who will be released after his court appearance later on monday opposition party and civil society groups of called for 3 days of mass demonstrations against some calls arrest they say charges of rape against him are politically motivated doris's say some calls custody has been lifted but he remains in a police station overnights. both sides serve claim victory in ivory coast's parliamentary election the spine's polls showing a win for the governing party early results show a 58 percent majority for the r h d p party but the main opposition says the results are riddled with irregularities when would strengthen president other son water as position you want 3rd term in the vendor in an election marred by an rest that killed at least 85 people

the formal extradition hearing against a controversial preacher is set to begin in malawi on monday sheppard machinery and his wife mary are accused of money laundering faffed and frauds in south africa the millionaire and self-proclaimed prophets runs churches in multiple african countries and regularly drew thighs of followers to his events they fled south africa in the vendor saying their lives were in danger and they wouldn't scats a fair trial. the u.s. secretary of state has written to afghanistan's president outlining the by menstruation strategy to end the conflict and there are several proposals one of which involves a lives in war for turkey washington plans to 6 or full troop withdrawal by may which had been announced by the previous trumpet ministration years or diplomatic efforts to change things. some of the american troops now serving in

afghanistan weren't even born when the u.s. 1st went to war there in 2001 the united states currently has 2500 troops serving in the country under a deal negotiated in doha between the trumpet ministration and the taliban they're all supposed to leave by the 1st of may last week zalmay holyfield's that the u.s. special envoy appointed by president trump but retained by president biden was in kabul for meetings with officials including with the afghan president ashraf ghani the u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken has now written to president garny outlining a new fast track diplomatic process he says we will loss the government of turkey to host a senior level meeting of both sides in the coming weeks to finalize a peace agreement we are considering the full withdrawal of our forces by may the

1st as we consider other options even with the continuation of financial assistance from the united states after an american military withdrawal i am concerned the security situation could worsen and that the taliban could make rapid territorial gains i'm making this clear to you so you understand the urgency of my tone by not taking them a the 1st date off the table the u.s. is clearly trying to kick start a very fast diplomatic process it says it will come up with its own proposals on a ceasefire and a negotiated political settlement which it will. circulate to the taliban and to the afghan government it's also asking the u.s. and convene a meeting of foreign ministers and boys from russia china india pakistan iran and the us james. or at the united nations so korea has agreed to pay more for u.s. forces stationed in the country the u.s.

state department says the governments will give a negotiated increase but gave no further details talks about the cost of 28000 american troops on the peninsula have been a sore point for the 2 allies previous negotiations broke down after former president donald trump demanded a 400 percent increase. health workers in vietnam have received their 1st jobs as the country begins its vaccination drive more than 100000 astra zeneca doses have been distributed to major cities there vietnam expects another 1300000 to arrive through the kovacs global sharing scheme in april it's being praised for its robust response to the disease they've seen a little more than 2500 infections and only 35 deaths. as president says expects its name his new cabinet soon after earlier asking all

ministers to resign over the eater's faces growing pressure from protesters about the government's handling of the pandemic including a slow vaccine votes it's been seen brecker numbers of cases more than 8000 in the past week. in england it's nearly 7000000 school students are heading back to class on monday many parents and teachers are relieved after more than 2 months of disruption plants things are still going to be a long way from normal or brennan reports from the school and the time of walking. preparing for. it's been a long hard winter in the u.k. is education system but the banners are going up and the students are going back a horse will see the junior school friends and classmates who've been separated since the start of january are ready to be reunited again and i feel a bit strange seeing all my school friends and i mean i haven't seen him in like 6 we and i must've been pretty excited to see him again and i'm going to get back for

no more seen school in the be. more fly because we have will have more people in the classroom and it's going to be. it's going to be more exciting many parents are just as excited this is what we're waiting for honestly i'm with kids all the time my husband he's working on our day so everything he's on my child there so i'm really glad they coming back to school is a good for the future because it's not but i place the school you know and for education so is amazing here i think roger's tired her emotionally exhausted and we're on our last little not at all the battery of kind of of energy so looking forward to getting back to normal so if i have to make a lot of changes to go this is want i had to say here has been finalizing her real . and then plan so every cost 3 house new equipment senate to make sure the

children are safe and secure they've been classes run throughout lockdown for the children of key workers such as health care staff but more than 80 percent of the school's pupils have been absent since january the 5th these empty classrooms are going to suddenly fill again for what promises to be an overwhelming return children need to be happy and settled and for some children especially this last bit of luck it's been really tough they've been stuck inside they haven't happened or contact with white or friends and family so i think it's going to be quite difficult for those children to come back and reintegrate into school but we've got lots of things in place for them. in scotland or wales children won't all return to full time schooling until after easter another month from now but in england nearly $7000000.00 pupils are returning on mass the u.k. government has opted for a big bang return to school bringing all the children back on the same date subject

to the school's ability to conduct tests but teaching unions have expressed concerns well the problem is there resisted calls for children to go back after the febrile half term and the extra 2 weeks of closure has allowed the u.k.'s 7 day average to drop from 12000 new cases a day to just 6 and a half 1000 a day but amid all the excitement of friends reunited at the school gates the government's scientific advisors face a nervous wait to see what impact the school's reopening will have on that crucial infection data paul brennan al-jazeera will kick. international women's day is being marks around the world with celebrations owners protests and strikes this was the scene in manila in the philippines a short time ago women there are marching to the presidential palace to promotes their rights. meghan markle says the british royal family was concerned about how dark her son's skin color would be that you can duchess of sussex were

interviewed by oprah winfrey for a 2 hour television special the interview comes after harry and meghan decided to step back as senior members of the british royal family last year all around the same time so we have in tandem the conversation we won't be given security is not going to given a title and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born a process of starting to head of the trial of a dismissed white police officer charged with killing george floyd thousands of marched in the u.s. city of minneapolis demanding justice for the unarmed black man's death which sparked protests around the world the jury for the trial is set to be selected on monday floyd's died in may after an officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.