US diplomats decry ‘worsening humanitarian situation’ in Sudan/node/2464216/middle-east
US diplomats decry ‘worsening humanitarian situation’ in Sudan
Sudanese families who have fled from the war in Sudan carry their belongings while arriving at a Transit Centre for refugees in Renk, on February 14, 2024. (AFP)
US diplomats decry ‘worsening humanitarian situation’ in Sudan
6m people face acute starvation, American envoy tells press briefing attended by Arab News
Assistant secretary of state on African affairs: ‘Continued fighting threatening the break-up of the country’
Updated 21 February 2024
Alex Whiteman
LONDON: US diplomats on Wednesday decried the deteriorating situation in Sudan, with the conflict there having displaced some 8 million people, according to the UN.
During a digital press briefing attended by Arab News, Assistant Secretary of State on African Affairs Molly Phee said she is “deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation” and the risk posed by Sudan’s fractious military forces.
With 6.2 million internally displaced and 1.8 million having been forced to flee abroad, “the continued fighting in Sudan is threatening the break-up of the country,” she added.
“I want to underscore upfront that the United States doesn’t support military governance, and will continue as we’ve done for decades to support the Sudanese people against military repression, and in their goal of charting a democratic future.”
More than 7 million Sudanese are contending with food insecurity, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
US Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey said of those affected by food insecurity, as many as 6 million face the very real prospect of acute starvation.
Godfrey and Phee both urged the conflicting parties to stop fighting so as to facilitate badly needed humanitarian access.
Godfrey said: “There’s urgent need to facilitate humanitarian assistance; it’s only becoming more urgent by the day.
“This includes facilitating cross-border assistance ahead of the impending rainy season, which will make roads impassable.
“We’re pressing for Sudan-related action in the UN Security Council, and insisting belligerents fulfill obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Conflict erupted last April between former allies who jointly seized power in a 2021 coup: the Sudanese Armed Forces and its breakaway paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Efforts at broking a ceasefire between them have so far failed, as have efforts to ensure that they meet their obligations to protect civilians under both the Jeddah Declaration and international humanitarian law.
Consequently, Godfrey and Phee said neither party should participate in post-conflict governance as the US and partners, including Saudi Arabia, push for a restoration of civilian government.
Nor is Sudan the lone area of hostilities in the region, with Phee noting that during last week’s African Union Summit, the US had sought to reaffirm its committed support to those fighting against Somali militant group Al-Shabaab.
“We consulted with our partners in the horn (of Africa) about how to focus on what we’re doing together to tighten up our effort to combat Al-Shabaab,” she said.
“That included discussions on helping Somalia develop. It was important also to speak with Somali partners about their continued focus on governance.”
“Victory in Gaza may be delayed, but it is coming” says Hamas former leader Khaled Mashaal
Updated 16 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: Hamas’ former leader Khaled Mashaal said what is happening in Gaza is a “holocaust” in a speech he delivered on Monday morning.
Mashaal said the Oct. 7. attacks happened because all political horizons were closed and has achieved "strategic results" since.
He thanked Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran for supporting Hamas and called on Arab countries to provide financial support to Gaza.
Mashaal said Israel opened the war front in Lebanon after failing to achieve its goals in Gaza and claimed that Israel is conspiring against Jordan and Egypt.
“Israel is defeated although it has achieved accomplishments against Iran and Hezbollah,” added Mashaal.
Mashaal concluded by asking the people of Gaza not to despair and promises them victory soon.
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied is poised to win a second term after cracking down on the opposition
“We’re going to cleanse the country of all the corrupt and schemers,” Saied said
Updated 21 min 4 sec ago
AP
TUNIS:Tunisia’s incumbent president said he would wait for official results before declaring victory while acknowledge exit polls showing him winning by a landslide in an election Sunday marred by earlier arrests of his opponents.
President Kais Saied’s supporters jubilantly honked and celebrated after voting ended and public television broadcast images of the president pledging to pursue traitors and those acting against Tunisia, much like he has throughout his tenure.
“We’re going to cleanse the country of all the corrupt and schemers,” Saied said at his campaign headquarters.
Tunisia’s public television broadcast exit polls from Sigma Conseil, an independent firm that has historically published figures not far off official tallies, showing Saied winning more than 89 percent of the vote over imprisoned businessman Ayachi Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, a leftist who supported Saied before choosing to run against him.
In the North African country known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring, much of the opposition chose to boycott the election. They called it a sham with Saied’s leading critics imprisoned alongside journalists, lawyers, activists and leading civil society figures. They emphasized the low voter turn out in Sunday’s election. Official results are expected on Monday.
At the time polling stations closed, only 2.7 million voters, 27.7 percent of the electorate, had cast ballots — far fewer than the 49 percent who participated in the first round of the last presidential race in 2019.
Supporters of the president — who rode anti-establishment backlash to win a first term five years ago — said his second win would send a clear message to the political class that preceded his ascendance.
“We’re tired of the governance we had before. We want a leader who wants to work for Tunisia. This country was on the road to ruin,” said Layla Baccouchi, a Saied supporter.
The election was Tunisia’s third since the nation became known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled dictators throughout the region. Weeks after a fruit vendor set himself ablaze to protest police humiliation and corruption, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali abdicated and fled the country.
In the years that followed, Tunisia enshrined a new democratic constitution, created a Truth and Dignity Commission to bring justice to citizens tortured under the former regime and saw its leading civil society groups win the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering political compromise. But its new leaders were unable to buoy its struggling economy and quickly became unpopular amid constant political infighting and episodes of violence and terrorism.
Observers judged the country’s first two post-Arab Spring elections as free and fair. However the lead-up to this year’s race saw the arrests of several declared challengers and the ongoing incarceration of his most prominent right-wing and Islamist critics.
Dozens of candidates had expressed interest in challenging the president and 17 submitted preliminary paperwork to run in Sunday’s race. However, members of the election commission, all of whom are appointed by the president, approved only the three. Zammel was subsequently charged with violating election laws and sentenced to years behind bars.
The president’s detractors have routinely staged protests since July 2021, when he used emergency powers to suspend parliament and later rewrote the constitution giving himself more power. Since then, dozens of his opponents have been imprisoned on charges including inciting disorder, undermining state security and violating a controversial anti-fake news law that critics say is used to stifle dissent.
Among the changes enshrined in Saied’s constitution, which voters approved via referendum the following year, was allowing the president to appoint all members of Tunisia’s election authority, ISIE. It has faced scrutiny this year for ignoring court rulings ordering it put candidates it rejected back on the ballot and denying election monitors permission to observe the polls.
Such conditions led many to boycott the race, including Siwar Gmati, a 27-year-old who works for I Watch, one of the non-governmental organizations whose application to monitor the polls was rejected.
“We, as young people, are more attached to what the revolution brought to us,” Gmati said at a Friday protest. “We were raised after the revolution to speak our minds.”
Apart from Friday’s protest and Sunday’s celebration in downtown Tunis, there were few signs that an election was even underway throughout campaign season. The mood was a pronounced departure from the country’s past two presidential elections, which were Tunisia’s first contested races in decades.
Critics have called years of crackdown on Saied’s opponents democratic backsliding and a reversal the progress made after the Arab Spring. Additionally, the country’s economy continues to face major challenges. Unemployment has steadily increased to one of the region’s highest at 16 percent, the government owes billions to international lenders and an increasing number of Tunisians attempted to migrate to Europe without authorization each year from 2019 to 2023.
Israeli hostage forum announces death of captive held in Gaza
Idan Shtivi, 28, was abducted from the site of the Nova music festival
Updated 07 October 2024
AFP
TEL AVIV: An Israeli campaign group on Monday announced the death of a hostage held in Gaza, as the country marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Idan Shtivi, 28, was abducted from the site of the Nova music festival and his “body is still held captive by Hamas.”
The forum said Shtivi had just arrived at the festival site when the attack began.
“On October 7, Idan arrived at the Nova Festival in the early morning to document his friends’ performances and workshops,” the forum said in a statement.
“However, he never made it inside. When the attack began, Idan helped two strangers he had just met escape from the site. This selfless choice ultimately led to his abduction.”
Hamas armed wing claims to fire rockets at southern Israel
Updated 07 October 2024
AFP
GAZA: The Israeli military said Monday that at least four projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip just minutes after the country began to formally commemorate last year’s October 7 attacks.
“Following the sirens that sounded at 06:31 in several communities near the Gaza Strip, four projectiles were identified crossing from the southern Gaza Strip. Three of the projectiles were intercepted by the IAF (air force) and a fallen projectile was identified in an open area,” the military said in a statement.
The armed wing of Hamas said it had fired rockets into southern Israel at “enemy gatherings” at Rafah crossing, Kerem Shalom crossing and kibbutz Holit near the border with Gaza.
The Israeli military said it had also prevented an “immediate threat” from Hamas’ intentions to fire rockets.
“The IAF (air force) struck Hamas launch posts and underground terrorist infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip,” the military said.
“Furthermore, overnight, the IAF and IDF (Israeli army) artillery struck targets in the central Gaza Strip that posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”
The military said sirens also sounded in the Upper Galilee area of northern Israel, with no let-up in the daily rocket fire from neighboring Lebanon, where Israeli forces are fighting Hezbollah militants.
Earlier on Monday the military said it had also intercepted two “suspicious aerial targets” that were launched from the east.
Israel intensifies bombardment of Gaza and southern Lebanon ahead of Oct. 7 anniversary
Updated 07 October 2024
AP
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: A new round of airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs late Sunday as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Lebanon in a widening war with Iran-allied militant groups across the region. Palestinian officials said a strike on a mosque killed at least 19 people.
A year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israel has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has traded fire with Israel since the war in Gaza began.
Israel’s military confirmed a Hezbollah attack on the northern city of Haifa, though it was not immediately clear whether shrapnel from “fallen projectiles” was from rockets or interceptors. Hezbollah said it tried to hit a nearby naval base. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated 10 people, most of them hurt by shrapnel.
Israel also has vowed to strike Iran after a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week. The widening conflict risks further drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.
Israel is on high alert ahead of memorial events for the Oct. 7 attack, while rallies continue around the world marking the anniversary. Israel bombards southern Beirut
Beirut’s skyline lit up again late Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on Sept. 23. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.
Israel confirmed the strikes and says it targets Hezbollah. The militant group, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, has called its months of firing rockets into Israel a show of support for the Palestinians.
A separate Israeli strike earlier Sunday in the town of Qamatiyeh southeast of Beirut killed six people, including three children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 30 strikes overnight into Sunday, while Israel’s military said about 130 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
“It was very difficult. All of us in Beirut could hear everything,” resident Haytham Al-Darazi said. Another resident, Maxime Jawad, called it “a night of terror.”
One strike killed three sisters and their aunt in the coastal village of Jiyyeh. “This is a civilian home, and the biggest evidence is those martyred are four women,” said a neighbor, Ali Al Hajj.
Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.
The Israeli military is now setting up a forward operating base close to a UN peacekeeping mission on the border in southern Lebanon, a UN official told The Associated Press. The base puts peacekeepers at risk, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
UNIFIL, created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion, refused the Israeli military’s request to vacate some of its positions ahead of the ground incursion. New evacuation orders in northern Gaza
An Israeli strike hit a mosque where displaced people sheltered near the main hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah. Another four were killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter near the town. The military said both strikes targeted militants. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue.
Israel’s military announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, home to a refugee camp dating to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israel has carried out several operations there only to see militants regroup. The military said three soldiers were severely wounded in Sunday’s fighting in northern Gaza.
Israel reiterated its call for the complete evacuation of heavily destroyed northern Gaza, where up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained.
“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.” A later statement said three projectiles were identified crossing from northern Gaza into Israeli territory, with no injuries reported.
Frantic residents fled again. “Since Oct. 7 to the present day, this is the 12th time that I and my children, eight individuals, have been homeless and thrown into the streets and do not know where to go,” said one, Samia Khader.
The Civil Defense — first responders operating under the Hamas-run government — said it recovered three bodies, including a woman and a child, after a strike hit a home in the Shati refugee camp.
Residents mourned. Imad Alarabid said on Facebook an airstrike on his Jabaliya home killed a dozen family members, including his parents. Hassan Hamd, a freelance TV journalist whose footage had aired on Al Jazeera, was killed in shelling on his home in Jabaliya. Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif confirmed his death.
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says a little over half were women and children.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They still hold around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
UK advises against travel while France seeks partial arms embargo on Israel
The United Kingdom on Sunday advised its citizens against non-essential travel to Israel due to the violent clashes in the Mideast. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office also advised against all travel in parts of northern and southern Israel, most of the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
Last week the UK advised its citizens against all travel to Lebanon.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel, which had prompted an angry response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu had described such calls by Macron as a “disgrace.” Macron’s office insisted that “France is Israel’s unfailing friend” and called Netanyahu’s remarks “excessive.”
Later on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said the two leaders had spoken and agreed to promote “a dialogue” on the matter. Macron’s office called the discussion “frank” and said both leaders “accepted their divergence of views.”
