Baya Bakari told her father at a hospital in Yemen that she heard voices around her in the Indian Ocean, but could not see anyone.

She was found clinging to debris some two hours after the crash.

The plane, going to the Comoros Islands from Yemen’s capital Sanaa, came down in bad weather with 153 on board.

Many of the passengers were travelling to the Comoros Islands but had begun their journey in Paris or Marseille on another jet operated by Yemenia, the national airline of Yemen, before boarding flight IY626 in Sanaa.

The EU and France have both said they highlighted safety concerns over Yemenia planes and said the jet that crashed had not flown into EU airspace since 2007.

But no official cause for the crash has yet been found. Earlier on Wednesday a French government minister in the Comoros capital, Moroni, said that a detected signal thought to be from one of the plane’s “black box” flight recorders was in fact a distress beacon.

‘True miracle’

Ms Bakari, who lives in Paris with her family, was treated in hospital in Moroni for injuries, said to include a fractured collarbone and burns.

On Wednesday evening, she was reported to be flying back to Paris in a French government aircraft.

French officials earlier said that she was 12 years old, contradicting earlier reports she was 14.

Speaking from Paris, her father Kassim Bakari said she was thrown from the plane as it hit the water. He said she clearly recalled the chaos of her time in the water.

“She said: ‘Papa, we saw the plane going down in the water. I was in the dark, I couldn’t see a thing.

“‘[And] on top of that daddy, I can’t swim well and I held on to something, but don’t really know what’.

“She’s a very timid girl, I never thought she would escape like that,” he said, adding that she was “fragile” and barely able to swim.

Mr Bakari recalled how he said goodbye to his wife and daughter at the airport as they headed to the Comoros.

“I kissed them both, then my wife turned around, she looked at me and she waved, and my daughter she didn’t do anything, and that was the last time I saw my wife alive, because my daughter… I will see her again I hope, but for my wife it was the last time.”

French officials in Moroni praised the girl’s courage. International Co-operation Minister Alain Joyandet described her rescue as a “true miracle”.

“She is a courageous young girl. She really showed an absolutely incredible physical and moral strength.”

An uncle, Ali Abdou, who visited the girl in hospital in Moroni, told the BBC she did not yet know that her mother had died.

She was scheduled to be transferred back to Paris for treatment later on Wednesday, he added.

“She is conscious, speaking well, [she] is ok. She was joking, she was chatting, we laughed together.

“It’s a miracle. It was God’s will.”

‘No black box’

Earlier, a French government minister reversed earlier claims that one of the plane’s black box recorders had been found.

Mr Joyandet, the French minister in Moroni, said signals picked up by rescuers came from a distress beacon. Most aircraft have a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder.

“The Transall (military plane) that picked up an acoustic signal did not, despite what was said this morning, detect the beacons of the flight recorders, but rather what appear to be its distress beacons,” Mr Joyandet said in Moroni, the Comoros capital, AFP news agency reported.

There were 66 French nationals among the passengers. Most of the rest were Comorans, and most had flown on a different Yemenia aircraft from Paris or Marseille before boarding flight IY626 in Sanaa.

A French vessel has been sent to the site to start recovery operations, she added, and French rescue teams are involved in the search for survivors.

However, no-one from the plane has been confirmed alive apart from Baya Bakari, and rescuers say chances of finding more survivors are slim.

Angry protest

The French transport ministry said on Tuesday that the Airbus 310 plane which crashed had been banned from France because of “irregularities”.

But Yemenia responded by criticising “false information and speculation about technical problems” on the plane.

Several Comoran expatriates angry with what they see as the poor state of the company’s aircraft tried to stop passengers from checking in for another Yemenia flight leaving Paris Charles de Gaulle airport for Sanaa.

About 60 people failed to check in, reports said, but it was not clear how many did so as a result of the protest.

The crash was the second involving an Airbus aircraft in recent weeks. On 1 June an Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.

Survivor speaks of Yemenia crash

The death toll from the worst cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe’s history continues to rise and now stands at 1,608, the United Nations said today, adding that the number of cases of the acute intestinal infection caused by contaminated food or water has risen to 30,365 as of 29 December.

UN agencies are continuing their efforts to help the country to tackle the epidemic, which affects all provinces of the southern African country and comes amid a collapsing health system and worsening humanitarian situation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has in recent days set up a response team comprised of an environmental health officer, epidemiologists and data managers.

The agency has also presented the terms of reference for the Cholera Command and Control Centre it set up to the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare.

The terms of reference propose that the support team be co-chaired by the Ministry and WHO. Its main tasks are surveillance, case management, water and sanitation, infection control, social mobilization and logistics.

Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) airlifted more cholera response supplies, including intravenous fluids, oral rehydration salts, gloves and nasogastric tubes. Supplies trucked from South Africa included drugs and midwifery and obstetric kits.

The cholera epidemic is just the latest crisis to hit Zimbabwe, which has been faced with a worsening humanitarian situation owing to years of failed harvests, bad governance and hyperinflation, as well as months of political tensions after disputed presidential elections in March involving the incumbent Robert Mugabe and the opposition figure Morgan Tsvangirai.

Although a power-sharing deal on the formation of a new government was reached in September with the help of regional leaders, outstanding issues remain, jeopardizing the deal’s implementation.

Zimbabwe cholera death toll now more than 1,600 – UN reports

Twelve of those admitted had been treated and discharged by last evening, leaving behind four with serious injuries. The stampede was apparently caused by some panic in the overcrowded hall.

The children, aged between seven and 18 years, died in the incident in the disco hall, where they had gone to make merry in festivities marking the end of Ramadan, the month-long fast for Muslims.

President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday ordered a thorough investigation into the incident, as he dispatched Labour and employment minister Juma Kapuya to coordinate the burials of the dead children on behalf of the Government.

President Kikwete, expressing his utter shock and sympathy, sent his condolences to the families of the dead through Tabora Regional Commissioner Abeid Mwinyimusa.

He said stern action would be taken against those, who through negligence, may have caused the deaths of the young people. Mr Mwinyimusa announced that two employees of the club had been picked up for questioning.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the children may have died of suffocation in the hall, which appears to have admitted double its capacity. Initial reports indicate that there were nearly 400 people in the hall.

Yesterday, as it dawned on the country that the incident could be one of the worst during Eid el Fitr celebrations, the Government formed a team to investigate the causes and circumstances so that appropriate action can be taken against the culprits.

Tabora town was engulfed in scenes of anguish, wailing and disbelief, as families began to collect their dead ones from Kitete hospital for burial.

Some parents, who were not aware that their children had sneaked to Bubbles disco club, awoke to a rude shock, on learning of and confirming that their own were among the dead.

RC Mwinyimusa released the names of the dead as Veronica Maningu, 7, Beatrice Makelele, 14, Jacob Gerald, 12, Salima Hamis, 12, Khadija Waziri, 13, Rehema Fulgence, 11, Mrisho Suleiman, 9, and Abdallah Rehani, 14.

Others were Agatha Maningu, 12, Paulina Emmanuel, 11, Ramla Yenga, 15, Mohamed Kapaya, 15, Habiba Shaaban, 14, Donald Kasela, 12, Mwanahamis Waziri, 11, Philipo Haule, 10, Ashura Jamal, 12, and Yasin Rashid, 11.

Prof Kapuya, who led a team of fellow senior government officials, including Speaker of the National Assembly Samuel Sitta, to the scene, said there was evidence of human error in the tragedy.

“The incident has shocked the country and robbed the nation of its future leaders,” said Prof Kapuya.

Mr Mwinyimusa said seven people have been appointed to the committee, which will include a government lawyer, the regional head of intelligence, police, building contractors, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), regional cultural officer and one representative of the families.

The Government also announced the release of more than Sh20 million as compensation for the bereaved families.

Prof Kapuya said the President had approved payment from the central government of Sh500, 000 every dead child, while the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which owns the building in which the club is located, will also donate a similar amount. Tabora regional authorities will top up the donation with Sh50,000 for each dead victim.

The opposition party Chama cha Demokrasia (Chadema) youth wing sent a message of condolence, but said police should explain why underage children were allowed into the disco hall, contrary to law.

“Police must make sure that all the laws, including that barring children from going to clubs, are enforced,” read a statement issued in Dar es Salaam and signed by Mr John Mnyika.

Legal action must be taken against all those who will be found guilty, said Mr Mnyika, the general secretary of the Chadema youth wing.

Tabora residents, who spoke to The citizen, said they had filed complaints against the club with the local authorities but no action had been taken.

Mr Okonyo Galasi, who lost two children, said parents had written a letter to the local cultural officer complaining that the club posed a danger to the residents.

“First the club is along the Tabora highway and is often packed though its ventilation is not good,” said Mr Galasi.

National Assembly Speaker Sitta sent his condolences, as did his wife, Mrs Magreth Sitta, who is the minister of Community Development Children and Gender.

Others included the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s office TAMISEMI, Ms Selina Kombani, the Deputy Minister of Defence and Tanzania People�s Defence Force (TPDF), Mr Emmanuel Nchimbi, MPs from Tabora region and the CCM Secretary-General, Mr Yusufu Makamba.

TheCitizen Newspaper

Algeria’s Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the floods are the worst for a century and warned of higher casualties in Ghardaia, some 600 kilometres (375 miles) south of Algiers in the M’Zab Valley, a UN World Heritage site.

“Based on the overflight that we made, the toll unfortunately could be greater,” Zerhouni told reporters after meeting local authorities in the region, which links the High Plateau area with the Sahara.

Rain had been falling since Monday in the region.

The government previously said 13 people had been killed in the floods, which have damaged some 600 homes, many of them in oasis areas.

A local resident reached by telephone by AFP suggested the toll could indeed be higher in the Algerian region following the first rainfall in four years.

“The population even talks of about a hundred victims and up to one thousand houses flooded,” he said, while adding that the rainfall, which began Monday and continued Tuesday, had become “a deluge” by Wednesday.

The resident also said seasonal rivers had filled up and spilled into a larger one, which then flooded, sweeping away everything in its path.

“The authorities spoke of a flow of 900 cubic metres (32,000 cubic feet) per second,” he added.

Several areas in Algeria were lashed by heavy rain over two days including Djelfa — midway between Ghardaia and Algiers — where two people died.

Meanwhile a journalist for radio station Chaine 3 described the floods as an “incomparable catastrophe.”

“It is like nothing I have seen before. There was up to eight metres (26 feet) of water in the town’s narrow back streets and residents of Ghardaia palm grove have had to seek refuge on the houses’ terraces or anywhere high up,” he said.

The flooding has also cut off roads and rendered telephone connections erratic.

“The bakeries are shut, there is neither gas nor electricity, the shops are flooded and their stocks are probably unusable,” Zerhouni said, adding the government’s priority was to aid the affected population.

Ministers met Thursday in Algiers to assess the damage and the population’s needs, a government source said.

The army helped deliver by air some of the first aid deliveries, which include more than 400 tonnes basic food supplies, 200,000 blankets, a thousand tents, three mobile bakeries, 50 generators and water purification equipment.

It also began imposing security checks in the affected areas to prevent looting, the local governor said.

Algeria is no stranger to bad weather, particularly in the north. Flooding in the Algiers region in 2001 killed more than 800 people and caused considerable damage.

Flooding in Algerian oasis kills 30, damages hundreds of homes – Yahoo! News

The Mozambique government says that 49 people have died in central Mozambique and the toll may rise further. The fires claimed more than 40 lives in South Africa and Swaziland.

Mozambique government spokesman Lucas Chomera says that the fires, which started amid high temperatures last week and have been fanned by strong winds, have destroyed four schools and left 3,000 people homeless.

Vast swathes of farmland have been destroyed, and livestock killed.

The Mozambique government’s relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute, stepped up efforts Wednesday to distribute tents to those who lost their homes.

Search and rescue crews were not immediately able to land their helicopter in the area and determine whether anyone survived the crash in the east of the country, said Christope Illemassene, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the capital city of Kinshasa.

But Air Serv International, the relief group that operated the plane, said an aerial survey has indicated that all the occupants on the Beechcraft 1900 plane died.

The plane was on a routine flight from Kinsasha to the eastern city of Goma on Monday, with three stops, Illemassene said.

Air-traffic controllers lost contact with the plane when it approached Bukavu, the last of its three intermediate stops. The weather in the area was stormy at the time, Illemassene said.

Search and rescue crews spotted the plane’s debris Tuesday, about 9.4 miles (15 km) northwest of the Bukavu airport, Illemassene said.

“We’re anxiously waiting for results from the search and rescue operation,” he said. “We’re really hoping the peacekeepers are able to land near the site and confirm whether there are any survivors.”

Air Serv International, based in the U.S. state of Virginia, is one of several groups that provides transport services to relief organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.