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The National
21 hours ago
- The National
British family searches for answers over killing of World Central Kitchen aid worker in Gaza
There is little to connect the Cornish towns of Penryn and Falmouth with the horrors of Gaza – apart from the killing of an aid worker from the close-knit community. Outside the centre of Penryn, next to a rugby pitch, is a boxing gym that opened last summer and is dedicated to the memory of Jim Henderson. We've been asking the same questions for months and months Matt Henderson He was killed by Israeli missiles that hit a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza. On the side of the Henderson Academy is a mural dedicated to Jim, a former Royal Marine who was 33 when he died. It shows him in the boxing ring; boxing was his passion. He is also shown on the rugby pitch, wearing the shirt of the local club, Penryn RFC. The mural was painted to mark the first anniversary of his death in April this year, and is intended as a space for reflection for his family and friends in West Cornwall, in the south-west of the UK. 'Jim was a popular guy, he had a lot of friends. He was away a lot, but he always made sure he would meet people, even if it was briefly,' said his brother, Matt Henderson. Funds poured in quickly from locals who knew Jim to build the academy, which became the training space for the Falmouth and Penryn Amateur Boxing Club. The club that keeps Jim's legacy alive provides some comfort for his brother. 'It was really important for me,' Matt told The National. 'Our story is that out of something tragic, something terrible, we can find positives.' When The National visited the club, artist Joe Greenway was adding some final touches to the mural. But these tributes are overshadowed by the unanswered questions around Jim's death. Matt feels his brother was let down by the institutions meant to protect him and seek justice. Jim was one of seven aid workers killed by Israel in air strikes on April 1 last year, while working for World Central Kitchen. Drone operators fired three strikes at cars carrying aid to northern Gaza. Israel's investigation said the attack on the convoy had been a 'grave mistake' and a case of mistaken identity. Two officers were sacked, and the brigade and division commanders reprimanded. The Israeli ministry described how the survivors of the first strike ran to the second car, which was then attacked. Those who survived that strike ran to the third car, which was then also hit by a missile, killing all remaining workers in the convoy. But calls for a more complete investigation have gone unanswered. The families feel the UK government is not doing enough to pressure Israel for updates, and that it has not been fully transparent about its knowledge of the facts. 'More than a year down the line now, and we've been asking the same questions for months and months,' Matt said. 'We've spoken to people on the ground in Gaza, and they give you different stories. They give you different names. Not everything's been shared with us,' he said. 'There's more [information] out there. It's just not been given, it's not been shared. My question is, why?' he said. Unanswered questions The Henderson family met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer this month, alongside the families of two other Britons killed in the attack, James Kirby and John Chapman. 'If anyone can influence or change decisions or mindset, it would be the leader of the country,' Matt said. He said his family felt the visit was 'positive' and that Mr Starmer 'took on what the families were asking or talking about'. 'He seemed like he was going to make some effort to help get more answers and solutions for us,' he said. Mr Starmer has changed his tone on Gaza recently, calling the humanitarian crisis there 'intolerable'. The UK government also sanctioned two Israeli cabinet ministers this month, and recently suspended new trade talks with Israel, in a sign that support for the war was running thin. Matt believes the Kirby and Chapman families are 'on the same page' as him, feeling stuck in limbo and as though they are deliberately being kept in the dark. But his hope rests on the coroner's inquest at Avon Coroner's Court near Bristol. 'The coroner is moving in the right direction and is asking the right sort of questions that we would like to be asked,' he said, adding that the family could not influence the coroner's direction. Last year, it was revealed that the Royal Air Force had video footage of Gaza from the day of the strike, but the Ministry of Defence has refused to publish it for security reasons. It is not known whether the footage captures the moments leading up to the attack on the convoy, but Mr Henderson said shrouding the information in secrecy had only made matters worse for the family. 'We were expecting things like the footage that the RAF potentially have, or had, would be released to the public or [they would have] allowed the family to look at,' he said. 'There seems to be some information that's not been allowed to come out to us, or not allowed to come out to the public. It feels a little bit like the government are sat on it, and they're not letting all the information to be public, or at least maybe to families.' 'We're talking about big thing – people's lives [lost] in that incident' 'What reason do the British government have to not share their information? If it's an accident, why do the Israeli government not share their information? If you make a mistake, you can show you've made a mistake,' he said. 'I have no peace at the moment from that. I can't accept that that's just an accident without showing me it's an accident,' Matt said. While he praised the World Central Kitchen's aid work, he said there were certain things about the events surrounding Jim's death that need to be better explained by them. 'They need to be honest,' he said. 'There is certainly a feeling that maybe they're not doing [the things] they should be doing or they weren't doing what could have helped or could have affected what happened then,' he said. Andrew George, the MP for a neighbouring constituency in West Cornwall, said Jim's killing had caused 'secondary grief' in the area that kept the war in Gaza in 'people's minds'. 'The tragedy extends to our back door,' Mr George said in April, after returning from a trip to the occupied West Bank. '[Jim] was well known and liked in our community in a way that resonated across West Cornwall. It caused a secondary grief.' 'It certainly is in people's minds. My constituents consistently view it as the epicentre of wider world conflict,' he said. He accused the British government of being 'excessively lily-livered' over pressing Israel for an investigation. Keeping Jim's legacy alive Matt used to run a local football club, but stepped away from it to manage the Henderson Academy. The key challenge now is to ensure its success in the long term. 'When things like this have a lot of money thrown at it, it's brilliant for a minute but you've got to be sustainable. You've got to keep the momentum going. You've got to keep trying to raise money. You've got to keep pushing it,' he said. The gym trains boxers from age 10 upwards, but struggles to find enough qualified coaches. 'The lads in there are committed. The coaches are committed. It's just all the things that they can't control,' he said. The academy launched in time for its first season in August last year, and is currently on a break. 'I don't know a lot about boxing gyms. What I've learnt this year [is] it's not testosterone, it's not egos. The biggest thing is respect and discipline,' Matt said. 'It's almost the opposite of what a lot of people would expect of boxing and a male-dominated environment.' He hopes the club will start to attract female boxers and begin teaching children from a younger age, when the focus is on discipline rather than contact. Matt is torn between the need to keep his brother's case alive so the investigation does not get buried by those who would rather forget about it, and his horror at the humanitarian crisis and high death toll in Gaza, which has surpassed 55,000 people. 'That's whole families being killed. It's not just my brother. Too many innocent people are dying,' he said. 'Although it's massive to me and my family, my brother's a very small part of this whole issue that's happening out there at the moment,' he said. 'Without more pressure from governments, I can't see that this ends well.'
BBC News
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Hell Jumper: Ukraine war documentary about Chris Parry wins award
A BBC film about a Truro man killed in Ukraine after helping rescue hundreds of people from the front line has won an award at a world media documentary Hell Jumper, depicting aid worker Chris Parry, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Rockie 28-year-old went to the country shortly after it was invaded by Russia and died from gunshot wounds alongside fellow volunteer Andrew Bagshaw in January organisation said the director Paddy Wivell brought a "tenderness and empathy to his interviewing" within the documentary. 'Breathless sequence' It said: "These interviews are the architecture of the whole film, giving it its tone and emotional heart. "Stylistically the master interviews were laced with social media posts, personal voice messages, and self-shot go-pro footage to create a first-person quality throughout."Most of Chris Parry's work was captured on 10 hours of bodycam footage, making up a large part of the added: "The team wanted the audience to be fully immersed in Chris' experiences, so chose to run much of their footage at length. "It's an extraordinary, breathless sequence that perfectly captures Chris' character."
RNZ News
30-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Father of Kiwi killed in Ukraine says government offered 'virtually nothing' in support
Andrew Bagshaw. Photo: Supplied / Susan and Philip Bagshaw The father of a New Zealand aid worker killed in Ukraine says his family received no support from our government. Professor Phil Bagshaw, father of Andrew Bagshaw, hopes the family of Shan-Le Kearns receive more support than they did. "We got some support from the UK government. We got virtually nothing from the New Zealand government," Phil Bagshaw told Midday Report. "Both my wife and I hope the New Zealand government is more supportive of this young man's family then they were of us." New Zealand aid worker Andrew Bagshaw, 47, was killed in eastern Ukraine in January 2023, alongside fellow British volunteer Christopher Parry. The pair were killed while trying to rescue a civilian from the Soledar region. On Thursday, reports emerged that 26-year-old Shan-Le Kearns was killed in Ukraine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had not yet received any confirmation from Ukraine authorities and was urgently seeking information. It said the process may take some time given the situation on the ground in Ukraine. When contacted about Prof Bagshaw's claims, a Mfat spokesperson said: "The New Zealand Government condemned the killings of Andrew Bagshaw and his British colleague Chris Parry in Ukraine in January 2023. For privacy reasons, no other information about the assistance provided can be provided." Kearns would be the fourth New Zealander known to have died in Ukraine. Dominic Abelen, 28, was killed on 23 August 2022; Bagshaw, 47, on 6 January 2023; and Kane Te Tai, 38, on 20 March 2023. Shan-le Kearns. Photo: Supplied Prof Phil Bagshaw, who founded the Canterbury Charity Hospital, said at the time of his son's death, his family received lots of "confusing" and "very distressing" information. "We hoped we'd get some good information from the New Zealand government but what we got was incorrect and unhelpful, I'm afraid," he said. "We were told Andrew was killed accidentally by an artillery shell, when in fact, that clearly was not true. In fact, we got more information from his friends in Ukraine who did know what had happened to him." Post-mortem reports found Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were both killed by gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of the body , rather than the initial official explanation of their death, which was that their vehicle was hit by artillery fire. He urges Kearns' family to reach out to the team of people Kearns worked with, as they will be a reliable source of information. Prof Phil Bagshaw expressed his deep sympathies to Kearns' family. "You have good days and you have not good days. This is something that you live with." Andrew Bagshaw in Ukraine. Photo: Supplied/Grzegorz Rybak Prof Phil Bagshaw, alongside his wife Dame Sue Bagshaw, have always maintained their son was the victim of a war crime and they want it to be investigated by the International Criminal Court at the Hague. "I can tell you we will not rest until our son's death is listed as a war crime which is held against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in the International Criminal Court," he said. "We've forgiven those who killed him but we do not forgive Putin. We want him to stand trial, even in absentia, for the death of our son." "This war is a crime against humanity and the New Zealand government should be speaking out actively against it."
Associated Press
12-05-2025
- Associated Press
More than 100 killed in jihadi attack in northern Burkina Faso
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — An attack by a jihadi group in northern Burkina Faso killed more than 100 people, mostly soldiers, an aid worker and local residents said Monday. The attack on several locations, including a military base and the long besieged strategic town of Djibo, occurred early Sunday, said an aid worker actively involved in dialogues in Burkina Faso's hard-hit communities. A student from the area said her father was among those killed. Both individuals spoke to The Associated Press on Monday on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals. A jihadi group aligned with Al-Qaida known as Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin or JNIM, which is active in the Sahel region, claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack. ____ McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal ____ Follow AP's Africa coverage at:
The Independent
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Australian former soldier killed by explosive device in Ukraine while working for aid organisation
An Australian aid worker who helped clear landmines in Ukraine has been killed in the war-ravaged country. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the death of the man, a former Australian soldier, following media reports the charity worker died after an an improved explosive device went off in a building. "I can confirm he wasn't a participant in the conflict, he was volunteering with a humanitarian organisation,' Mr Albanese said, adding the government was providing support for the man's family, but did not provide any specifics. "Out of respect for the family's privacy and consistent with our obligations, there is a limit to what we can say publicly at this time.' The fatal incident occurred in the Ukrainian city of Izyum, according to a report by the ABC, which cited an unidentified military source in Ukraine. The public broadcaster said the details of the death were yet to be formally verified. The ABC reported the Australian man was working for the US-based Prevail Together. The charity, which supports Ukrainian government agencies with landmine clearance, trauma medical care and humanitarian assistance, said in a statement that some team members were severely injured in an incident on May 6. "We are still gathering information and working alongside military and police officials to uncover the details," the organisation said.
