Sudanese refugees face ‘grave risks’ from Ethiopia clashes: HRW

Sudanese refugees face ‘grave risks’ from Ethiopia clashes: HRW
Displaced Sudanese who have returned from Ethiopia gather in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat in the eastern state of Gadaref on September 11, 2024 (AFP)
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Sudanese refugees face ‘grave risks’ from Ethiopia clashes: HRW

Sudanese refugees face ‘grave risks’ from Ethiopia clashes: HRW

Addis Ababa: Clashes between Ethiopian federal forces and militias in the country’s north-west are placing fleeing Sudanese refugees at “grave risk,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Thursday.
The Fano militia, based in Amhara state, is one of several regional groups battling the federal government since it vowed to crush paramilitary forces in April 2023.
A government state of emergency in Amhara, home to some 23 million people, expired in June but the unrest has continued, with a large contingent of federal forces deployed in September.
The region borders Sudan, itself embroiled in a civil war between the Rapid Support Forces and the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan since 2023, with tens of thousands fleeing.
“Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia have been targets of abuses for more than a year from various armed actors,” HRW’s deputy Africa director Laetitia Bader said.
“These refugees have fled horrific abuses back home and urgently need protection, not further threats to their lives.”
HRW said in a report that “armed men and local militias have committed murder, beatings, looting, kidnapping for ransom and forced labor” near two camps.
The abuses have been ongoing since June 2023, according to HRW, which conducted phone interviews with 20 refugees in three camps and a transit center earlier this year.
The rights body also accused the Ethiopian government of placing the camps in areas prone to local skirmishes prior to the outbreak of war in Sudan and yet still providing only “limited security.”
“We wanted to be safe when we left Sudan, but the beatings and robbery (in Ethiopia) were a lot for us to take,” a 45-year-old refugee told HRW.
“My kids were crying,” the refugee said, describing how the police and military beat them in front of their children.
“They started insulting us, saying if we didn’t want to stay in Ethiopia, then we should go back to our country, to Sudan.”
The individual, who was not named for their safety, said: “Every time the (Ethiopian authorities) promise something, nothing changes.”
HRW said it sent the report’s preliminary findings to Ethiopia’s refugee service, which acknowledged the camps were “relatively close to conflict areas” but said there was “adequate security.”
Escalating Amhara clashes prompted the closure of Awlala and Kumer camps in July, it added.


Gaza unemployment surges to 80 percent as economy collapses, UN agency says

Gaza unemployment surges to 80 percent as economy collapses, UN agency says
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Gaza unemployment surges to 80 percent as economy collapses, UN agency says

Gaza unemployment surges to 80 percent as economy collapses, UN agency says
  • Economic output in Gaza shrank by 85 percent, plunging 2.3 million into poverty
  • West Bank unemployment averaged 34.9 percent, economy contracted by 21.7 percent
ZURICH: Unemployment in Gaza has soared to nearly 80 percent since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, with the devastated enclave’s economy in almost total collapse, the International Labour Organization said on Thursday.
Economic output has shrunk by 85 percent since the conflict with Israel began a year ago, plunging almost the entire 2.3 million population into poverty, the United Nations agency said.
The conflict has caused “unprecedented and wide-ranging devastation on the labor market and the wider economy across the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the ILO said, referring to Gaza and the West Bank.
In the West Bank, the unemployment rate averaged 34.9 percent between October 2023 and the end of September 2024, while its economy has contracted by 21.7 percent compared with the previous 12 months, the ILO said.
Before the crisis, the unemployment rate in Gaza was 45.3 percent and 14 percent in the West Bank, according to the Geneva-based organization.
Gazans either lost their jobs entirely or picked up informal and irregular work “primarily centered on the provision of essential goods and services,” the ILO said.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led gunmen attacked on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign in response has killed more than 42,000 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities. Two-thirds of Gaza’s pre-war structures — over 163,000 buildings — have been damaged or flattened, according to UN satellite data.
Israel says its operations are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants hiding in tunnels and among Gaza’s civilian population. The crisis has spilled into the West Bank, where Israeli barriers to movement of persons and goods, coupled with broader trade restrictions and supply-chain disruptions, have severely impacted the economy, the ILO said.
Israel says its actions in the West Bank have been necessary to counter Iranian-backed militant groups and to prevent harm to Israeli civilians.
“The impact of the war in the Gaza Strip has taken a toll far beyond loss of life, desperate humanitarian conditions and physical destruction,” said ILO regional director for Arab states Ruba Jaradat.
“It has fundamentally altered the socio-economic landscape of Gaza, while also severely impacting the West Bank’s economy and labor market. The impact will be felt for generations to come.”

Iran Guards chief warns will hit Israel ‘painfully’ if attacks Iranian targets

Iran Guards chief warns will hit Israel ‘painfully’ if attacks Iranian targets
Updated 10 min 29 sec ago
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Iran Guards chief warns will hit Israel ‘painfully’ if attacks Iranian targets

Iran Guards chief warns will hit Israel ‘painfully’ if attacks Iranian targets
  • ‘If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in Iran, we will strike you again painfully’

TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami warned Thursday of further retaliation against Israel if it attacks Iranian targets, which Israel has vowed to do after Iran’s missile attack on October 1.

“If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in Iran, we will strike you again painfully,” Salami said at the funeral of a Guards general killed in an Israeli strike last month.

Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force foreign operations arm, was killed on September 27 alongside Hassan Nasrallah, the chief of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in an Israeli strike on south Beirut.

Funeral services for Nilforoushan, whose body the Guards said was recovered last week, began on Monday in Iraq. His body was then moved to Iran for burial in his hometown of Isfahan later Thursday.

During his speech Salami criticized as “not reliable” the THAAD missile defense battery which the Pentagon on Tuesday said arrived in Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it.

“Do not trust these systems. You cannot massacre Muslim nations and remain safe,” he said.

“We know your weaknesses. You know them well,” he added addressing Israel.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is “designed to intercept targets outside and inside the atmosphere,” according to its manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Salami’s remarks came as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi intensified diplomatic efforts on ways to contain the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon from spreading across the region.

Araghchi has over the past nearly two weeks visited Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.

He is currently in Egypt and is scheduled to head to Turkiye afterwards.

Iran has said its October 1 missile barrage, most of which was intercepted by Israeli air defenses, according to Israel, was in retaliation for the killing of Nilforoushan, Nasrallah, and the political chief of the Palestinian movement Hamas.


Israel pressured by UN and US to step up action to tackle Gaza’s escalating humanitarian crisis

Israel pressured by UN and US to step up action to tackle Gaza’s escalating humanitarian crisis
Updated 5 min 23 sec ago
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Israel pressured by UN and US to step up action to tackle Gaza’s escalating humanitarian crisis

Israel pressured by UN and US to step up action to tackle Gaza’s escalating humanitarian crisis
  • Israel accused of blocking the delivery of desperately needed aid to Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: The top UN humanitarian official accused Israel on Wednesday of blocking the delivery of desperately needed aid to Gaza, and the US ambassador demanded that its government step up efforts to tackle the Palestinian territory’s ”intolerable and catastrophic humanitarian crisis.”
Acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya and US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield stepped up the pressure on Israel at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the escalating humanitarian emergency, especially in northern Gaza.
The council meeting, called by Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, followed a US warning to Israel to boost aid efforts dramatically or risk losing funding for weapons from its main supplier. The Biden administration gave Israel 30 days to take a number of actions, including sending 350 trucks with food and other aid into Gaza every day.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon insisted that his country’s humanitarian efforts remain “as comprehensive as ever” and criticized the council for focusing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza while Israeli civilians “are being targeted daily by those who seek our destruction.”
He said Israel has delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation after Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Danon accused the international community of missing the real issue — which he said was Hamas’ hijacking of aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.
“This makes it incredibly difficult to ensure that the aid reaches its intended recipients,” he said. But Israel remains committed to working with its partners to deliver aid, “even under these dangerous and morally reprehensible conditions.”
Msuya, the top UN aid official, painted a grim picture, telling the council that there is barely any food left in northern Gaza where an Israeli offensive is under way. No food entered the north from Oct. 2 to Oct. 15 “when a trickle was allowed in,” she said, and “most bakeries will be forced to shut down again in the next several days without additional fuel.”
Throughout Gaza, Msuya said, less than one-third of the 286 humanitarian missions coordinated with Israeli authorities in the first two weeks of October “were facilitated without major incidents or delays.”
The level of suffering in Gaza worsens every day, she said, as Israeli bombs continue to fall, fierce fighting continues, and “supplies essential for people’s survival and humanitarian assistance are blocked at every turn.”
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, accused Israel of besieging, bombing and starving 400,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza as part of its all-out war against the Palestinian people.
“These are crimes,” he said. “This is genocide. They must be stopped — and they must be stopped now.”
Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador, pointed to some new Israeli commitments since the US warning and two dozen trucks entering northern Gaza for the first time in several weeks.
But she said Israel’s progress since last week is “insufficient” and stressed that it must follow through on its commitments, including opening more border crossings and routes and taking steps “to help secure delivery routes against armed gangs involved in violent looting.”
“A `policy of starvation’ in northern Gaza would be horrific and unacceptable and would have implications under international law and US law,” the US ambassador warned. “The government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will be watching to see that Israel’s actions on the ground match this commitment.”
At the council meeting, there were repeated calls by members for action by the UN’s most powerful body to end the more than yearlong war in Gaza.
Guyana’s UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett lamented that 47 Security Council meetings and four legally binding resolutions in the past year, including demands for a ceasefire, “have not had the expected results, and the situation in Gaza continues to worsen with each passing day.”
“We must not allow the shredding of the moral and legal thread that holds our organization together,” she said. “The most fundamental question then that this council faces is, what will we do to stop this tide?”
Thomas-Greenfield urged all council members to support the UN as it works with Israel to step up aid deliveries. She said the US focus in the coming months will be “getting humanitarian aid in, getting hostages out, and ending the conflict.”


US forces target underground Houthi weapons storage sites in Yemen

US forces target underground Houthi weapons storage sites in Yemen
Updated 17 October 2024
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US forces target underground Houthi weapons storage sites in Yemen

US forces target underground Houthi weapons storage sites in Yemen
  • Long-range B-2 stealth bombers used in precision strikes, says US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
  • The Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV earlier reported US-British air strikes targeted the capital city of Sanaa and the city of Saada

RIYADH: US military forces conducted precision strikes against five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said early Thursday morning.

In a statement posted on the US Defense Department's website, Austin also said long-range B-2 stealth bombers were used in the airstrikes targeting facilities "housing various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region."

"The employment of US Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere," he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what damage was done in the strikes. However, it is incredibly rare for the B-2 Spirit to be used in the strikes targeting the Houthis, who have been attacking ships for months in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

"At the direction of President Biden, I authorized these targeted strikes to further degrade the Houthis' capability to continue their destabilizing behavior and to protect and defend US forces and personnel in one of the world's most critical waterways," Austin further said.

His announcement followed a report by the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV early Thursday claiming US-British air strikes targeted Houthi positions in Yemen.

Al Masirah TV said the strikes targeted the capital city of Sanaa and the city of Saada.

The Houthis said that the strikes targeted Sanaa, Dhamar, Hodeidah and Al-Bayda, with residents reporting thick smoke and explosions rocking military bases in targeted areas.

US and British forces have deployed in the Red Sea since the Iran-backed Houthi militia began a drone and missile campaign against commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea, in sympathy with Gazans under attack from Israel.

The attacks forced many shipping companies to avoid the Red Sea and take the longer sea lane passing through the coast of South Africa.

(With agencies)


Israeli strike targets Syria’s Latakia, fires break out, state media reports

Israeli strike targets Syria’s Latakia, fires break out, state media reports
Updated 17 October 2024
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Israeli strike targets Syria’s Latakia, fires break out, state media reports

Israeli strike targets Syria’s Latakia, fires break out, state media reports

CAIRO: An Israeli strike targeting Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Latakia early on Thursday resulted in fires breaking out there, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
Firefighters are working on extinguishing the fires, SANA added.
Syrian state television reported the country’s air defenses had confronted Israeli targets over Latakia.
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, but has ramped up such raids since last year’s Oct. 7 attack by armed group Hamas on Israeli territory.

Google map showing the location of Latakia.