• Small towns remain cut off; residents clearing paths for aid delivery.
• Shelters opened for displaced, helicopters delivering food, water.
• Torrential rains triggered landslides, washed away cities.

Rescuers scrambled Monday to reach people cut off by devastating floods that have claimed 64 lives in central and eastern Mexico, with another 65 reported missing.

Torrential rains battered several Mexican states over several days last week, turning streets into rivers, triggering landslides and sweeping away roads and bridges.

Dozens of small communities remained inaccessible by road Monday, days after the deluge, and residents worked tirelessly to clear paths for the delivery of food and other supplies.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that around 10,000 troops have been deployed with boats, planes and helicopters as part of rescue efforts and to deliver critical food and water for those trapped.

Shelters have been opened for those displaced from their homes, and helicopters were flying to and fro to bring essentials to people cut off from the rest of the world.

“Many flights are needed…to deliver enough food and water,” the president told reporters Monday.

According to Laura Velázquez, the head of Mexico’s civil defence authority, the states of Veracruz, Hidalgo and Puebla were hardest hit by flooding brought on by days of heavy rains.

In Hidalgo alone, 43 people were reported missing.

She updated the death toll that had stood at 47 just 12 hours earlier, indicative of the fast-unfolding scale of the disaster.

Mexico has been hit by particularly heavy rains this year, including a record for the capital, Mexico City.

‘Difficult’ to predict

In the municipality of Tenango de Doria in Hidalgo state, AFP witnessed residents walking kilometres in search of food and water, with flooded roads inaccessible for most vehicles.

Some carried bundles of belongings with them in the hopes of finding a shelter for displaced people.

“We walked two-and-a-half hours through the mud…Everything is completely undone; we have no supplies, no food, nothing,” Marco Mendoza, a 35-year-old farmer, told AFP of his unsuccessful search for food in stores in Tenango de Doria, the main urban centre for miles.

Stores in the centre had no electricity, and residents massed in the central plaza to inquire about road openings and the arrival of aid.

Francisco Hernandez, a 63-year-old farmer from the neighbouring town of El Texme, said a river that burst its banks left his community “trapped.”

Heavy rains often occur during Mexico’s wet season from May to October, but last week’s downpours were made more dangerous by the combination of a tropical system from the Gulf of Mexico and a cold front from the north, according to meteorologists.

Dwellers of coastal cities and towns in the state of Veracruz, crisscrossed by many rivers, were instructed last Friday to evacuate due to rising waters.

In several high-lying inhabited areas, however, the persistent rains washed away mountain sides that spilled downhill as landslides.

Sheinbaum on Monday batted away questions about possible failures in early warning and preparedness.

“It would have been difficult to have information in advance about this situation, unlike what happens with hurricanes,” she said, citing a combination of unpredictable meteorological factors.

Skies cleared in many parts on Sunday, allowing work with heavy clearance machinery to get underway.

• India, Canadian FMs agree to deepen cooperation.
• Both sides seek to repair trust after two years of tensions.
• Emphasise partnership to counter global economic vulnerabilities. 

India and Canada agreed on Monday on a new roadmap for their relations after talks between their foreign ministers in New Delhi, as both countries seek to mend ties strained over the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist.

The two countries, both of which are looking to diversify trade away from the United States due to tariff announcements, agreed to collaborate on areas like critical minerals, trade and agricultural value chains, a joint statement said.

“Reviving this partnership will not only create opportunities for enhanced economic cooperation but also help mitigate vulnerabilities arising from shifting global alliances,” it said.

Almost two years of strained relations

The statement came after Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday.

“Both of our governments agree on the importance of elevating the relationship,” Anand said in her opening remarks at the meeting with Jaishankar.

Relations between New Delhi and Ottawa were strained for almost two years after then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi in 2023 of involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India denied Canada’s allegations of involvement in the murder and, in turn, accused Ottawa of fostering separatist groups on its soil.

In June this year, Trudeau’s successor Mark Carney hosted Modi at the G7 summit in Kananaskis in the Canadian province of Alberta.

India is Canada’s top source of temporary foreign workers and international students, as well as an important market for pulses such as lentils and yellow peas.

Canada is home to an influential Sikh community. Indian leaders say there are some fringe groups there that are still sympathetic to the cause of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan to be carved out of Hindu-majority India.

Overwhelmed with emotion, Palestinians poured into the streets of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to welcome home freed prisoners under a US-brokered ceasefire deal — a day marked by tears, cheers, and the bittersweet weight of loss and hope.

The prisoners were released after the Hamas militant group freed the last 20 living hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war in Gaza.

Under the deal, Israel is set to release 250 Palestinians convicted of murder and other serious crimes as well as 1,700 Palestinians detained in Gaza since the war began, 22 Palestinian minors, and the bodies of 360 militants.

Several thousand people gathered inside and around the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, awaiting the arrival of freed prisoners, with some waving Palestinian flags and others holding pictures of their relatives.

Fighting back tears, one woman who asked to be identified as Um Ahmed said she said that despite her joy at the release, she still had “mixed feelings” about the day.

Freed prisoners arrived in buses, some of them posing from the windows, flashing V-for-Victory signs. They will undergo medical checks at the facility.

Earlier, about a dozen masked and black-clad gunmen, members of Hamas’ armed wing, arrived at the hospital where a stage and chairs had been laid out to welcome returning Palestinian prisoners.

Loudspeakers blared songs celebrating the Palestinian national cause.

Hamas said 154 prisoners were also deported to Egypt.

During previous releases, mass gatherings had flooded entire streets in Ramallah, with people waving Palestinian flags as well as those of political factions including Hamas.

‘Live my life’

Dressed in the grey tracksuits of Israeli prisons, many prisoners also wore a black-and-white kuffiyeh around their necks — the traditional scarf that has become synonymous with the Palestinian cause.

Some of the newly released prisoners happily let themselves be carried away on relatives’ shoulders.

“Prisoners live on hope… Coming home, to our land, is worth all the gold in the world,” said one freed detainee, Samer al-Halabiyeh.

“God willing, peace will prevail, and the war on Gaza will stop,” Halabiyeh added.

“Now I just want to live my life.”

Journalists rushed to talk to the prisoners, but many declined to engage, sometimes explaining that before their release, they were advised not to speak.

In the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis, a crowd gathered near Nasser Hospital, in the hope of catching sight of the prisoners taken during the war with Israel.

In the afternoon, thousands cheered to welcome their loved ones as they caught glimpse of the buses carrying them home.