New militias sow future danger for war-weary Sudan
They established the so-called joint forces to fight on the army’s side, while other groups “wavered, before throwing their weight behind the RSF,” Hamrour said
Historically, though ethnic or tribal armed groups “may ally themselves with the regular army, they remain essentially independent,” according to Ameer Babiker, author of the book “Sudan’s Peace: A Quagmire of Militias and Irregular Armies”
Updated 04 December 2024
AFP
CAIRO: Mohamed Idris, 27, has despaired of ever finding a job in war-torn Sudan. Instead, he’s now set his sights on a training camp on the Eritrean border, hoping to join a militia.
“I got my university degree but there aren’t any job opportunities, if I get into a training camp I can at least defend my country and my people,” he told AFP from Kassala in Sudan, the nearest city to the border.
Analysts say the growing role such militias and armed groups are playing in the war will only prolong the country’s suffering.
Sudan’s war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April 2023, sparking what the UN calls the world’s worst displacement crisis.
More than eight million people have been uprooted internally and more than three million have fled abroad.
The northeast African country is on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies, and a UN investigation found both sides committed rights abuses with the RSF particularly implicated in sexual violence.
In Sudan’s east, Kassala and Gedaref have so far been spared the chaos of war, but host more than a million people who have fled fighting elsewhere.
In both cities, AFP correspondents have seen convoys of four-wheel drives mounted with anti-aircraft weapons speed through the streets.
Each vehicle, blasting its horn as it went, was manned by a handful of young men waving assault rifles — though the nearest battles are hundreds of kilometers (miles) away.
The men, like Idris, are part of a generation who have lost their futures to the flames of Sudan’s war.
Now, they represent recruiting potential for new armed groups being formed, particularly along ethnic and tribal lines in the country’s army-controlled east.
“The forces I want to join are from my tribe and my family,” said Idris.
According to Sudanese analyst and former culture and information minister Faisal Mohammed Saleh, “these groups haven’t yet joined the fray in the current war.”
“But the fear is that they could be preparing for future rounds,” he told AFP.
Sudan, which has only known brief interludes of civilian rule since independence from Britain in 1956, is rife with armed groups, some with the capacity of small armies.
For decades, many were locked in wars with the central government, claiming to champion the rights of marginalized ethnic minorities or regions.
In 2020, most signed a peace agreement with the government in Khartoum, and several rebel leaders subsequently became senior officials in the government of army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
“In the first months of the war, many of these groups were neutral, but have since declared allegiance to the army,” Sudanese policy researcher Qusay Hamrour told AFP.
They established the so-called joint forces to fight on the army’s side, while other groups “wavered, before throwing their weight behind the RSF,” Hamrour said.
According to former information minister Saleh, “what’s new now is the eastern Sudanese groups, most of which are training inside Eritrea.”
Eyewitnesses told AFP earlier this year that they saw Sudanese fighters being trained in at least five locations in neighboring Eritrea, which has not commented on the allegations.
The witnesses said the camps were linked to Burhan’s army or to figures from the former Islamist-backed regime of ousted dictator Omar Al-Bashir.
Historically, though ethnic or tribal armed groups “may ally themselves with the regular army, they remain essentially independent,” according to Ameer Babiker, author of the book “Sudan’s Peace: A Quagmire of Militias and Irregular Armies.”
Khartoum has long relied on armed groups to fight its wars in other parts of Sudan.
In response to an uprising in Darfur in 2003, Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, leading to war crimes charges against him and others.
The RSF, formalized by Bashir in 2013, are descended from the Janjaweed.
In 2021, army chief Burhan led a coup that derailed a fragile civilian transition that followed Bashir’s own ouster.
By April 2023, a long-running power struggle between Burhan and his deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted into all-out war.
Now, what Babiker calls “the weakness of the Sudanese state” has compelled it to again to depend on militias to secure territory.
He said this strategy would “only lead to these groups growing stronger, making them impossible to bypass in the future.”
Already, there have emerged “multiple centers of decision-making within the army,” he told AFP.
According to a May report from the International Crisis Group think tank, “both main belligerents are struggling with command and control.”
Burhan, increasingly reliant on powers from the Bashir regime “as well as communal militias and other armed groups ... risks losing his hold on the various factions.”
Meanwhile the RSF is “an ever more motley assortment of tribal militias and warlords,” according to Crisis Group, which says that both wartime coalitions have become more unwieldy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin receives UAE’s interior minister to discuss bilateral cooperation
2 sides discuss joint initiatives in fields of security, policing
Updated 14 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: Russian President Vladimir Putin received Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and minister of interior, during an official meeting, the Emirates News Agency reported on Thursday.
The two sides discussed bilateral ties, highlighting their shared commitment to promoting peace and global cooperation.
They also looked at joint initiatives in the fields of security and policing, including progress on strategic police dialogue, training programs in child protection, and other collaborative efforts.
The meeting was also attended by Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Al-Jaber, the UAE’s ambassador to the Russian Federation.
Israel firefighters battle blaze near Jerusalem as roads reopen
The fires broke out on Wednesday along the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned the flames could reach Jerusalem
Updated 17 min 33 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israeli firefighting teams battled bushfires that threatened Jerusalem for a second day on Thursday, with police reporting the reopening of several major roads that had been closed.
The fires broke out on Wednesday along the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, prompting police to shut roads and evacuate thousands of residents from nearby communities.
Israel’s firefighting service said 163 ground crews and 12 aircraft were working to contain the blaze, which authorities said was the country’s largest in a decade.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned the flames could reach Jerusalem, declaring the situation a “national emergency.”
Crews worked through the night, allowing the reopening of main roads, including the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv route, according to police.
“All routes have been reopened to traffic,” they said in a statement, adding residents of the Mavo Horon settlement had been allowed to return.
AFP footage on Thursday showed firefighters dousing scorched fields near a church and a stand of charred tree trunks.
Israel is engulfed by devastating wildfires
Authorities are evacuating local residents, and the road to Jerusalem has been blocked.
Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, and Italy have already sent assistance. Strong winds are fueling the rapid spread of the fire. pic.twitter.com/rQ6kfFSCq5
Several ceremonies scheduled for Wednesday — the eve of Israel’s Independence Day — were canceled due to the fires, but events to mark the occasion were still being held on Thursday.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hinted that arson may be behind the fires, though authorities have not presented any evidence to support such claims.
While wildfires are not unheard of in Israel this time of year in the past, they are not considered a regular occurrence.
Rescue agency Magen David Adom said it treated 23 people on Wednesday, mostly for smoke inhalation and burns.
Seventeen firefighters were injured, according to public broadcaster Kansas
The Israeli military said its personnel were helping in Jerusalem and other central districts.
“Overnight dozens of engineering vehicles started operating throughout the country to form lines to prevent the fire from spreading into other trees,” said a military statement.
“The IAF (air force) continues assisting in the effort to extinguish the fires,” it said, adding that about 50 firetrucks were dispatched to where the blaze had spread.
Fanned by strong winds, the fires spread rapidly through wooded areas on Wednesday, prompting evacuations from at least five communities, police said.
“It’s just very sad because we knew the weather, we kind of knew that would happen, and still we feel like they weren’t ready enough with the big planes that can drop large amounts of water,” evacuee Yuval Aharoni, 40, said on Wednesday.
“A lot of police arrived, a lot of firefighters, but it didn’t really help. The fire had already completely taken over the whole area here,” student Yosef Aaron said from the side of a highway, flames visible in the distance.
Late Wednesday, the foreign ministry said firefighting aircraft were expected to arrive from Croatia, France, Italy, Romania and Spain to join the operation.
Cyprus and Serbia also announced they were sending firefighting helicopters to Israel.
Syria’s Druze take up arms to defend their town against Islamists
Seven Druze fighters were among the 17 people killed in the Damascus suburb as clashes raged from Monday into Tuesday
Updated 47 min 9 sec ago
AFP
JARAMANA, Syria: Syrian estate agent Fahd Haidar shuttered his business and got out his rifle to defend his hometown of Jaramana when it came under attack this week by Islamists loyal to the new government.
Seven Druze fighters were among the 17 people killed in the Damascus suburb as clashes raged from Monday into Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the sectarian violence spread to the nearby town of Sahnaya, where 22 combatants were killed, a war monitor said.
Fourteen years after former ruler Bashar Assad’s bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests triggered a devastating civil war, Haidar said he feared a return to “chaos,” a slide into a “quagmire of grievances that will affect every Syrian.”
He appealed to the new authorities, who took over after Assad’s ouster in December, to step back from the brink and find “radical solutions” to rein in “uncontrolled gangs” like those who attacked his mainly Druze and Christian hometown this week.
In Jaramana, Druze leaders reached a deal with government representatives on Tuesday evening to put a halt to the fighting.
On Wednesday morning, an AFP correspondent saw hundreds of armed Druze, some of them just boys, deployed across the town.
Behind mounds of earth piled up as improvised defenses, Druze fighters handed out weapons and ammunition.
“For the past two days, the people of Jaramana have been on a war footing,” said local activist Rabii Mondher.
“Everybody is scared – of war... of coming under siege, of a new assault and new martyrs.”
Like many residents in the confessionally mixed town, Mondher said he hoped “peace will be restored... because we have no choice but to live together.”
Mounir Baaker lost his nephew Riadh in this week’s clashes.
“We don’t take an eye for an eye,” he said tearfully, as he received the condolences of friends and neighbors.
“Jaramana is not used to this,” he went on, holding up a photograph of his slain nephew, who was among a number of young Druze men from the town who signed up to join the new security forces after Assad’s ouster.
“We’re brought up to be tolerant, not to strike back and not to attack anyone, whoever they are,” he said. “But we defend ourselves if we are attacked.”
Jordan jails 4 for 20 years in case linked to Muslim Brotherhood
On Wednesday, Jordan’s state security court said that it had sentenced four of the 16 defendants to 20-year jail terms and unspecified fines
Updated 01 May 2025
AFP
AMMAN: A Jordanian court sentenced four people to 20 years in prison on Wednesday over plans to “target national security,” in a case linked to the recently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Earlier in April, the kingdom’s intelligence service announced it had arrested 16 suspects and “foiled plans aimed at targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotaging within Jordan.”
Jordan then announced last week that it was banning the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist movement, accusing it of manufacturing and stockpiling weapons and planning to destabilize the kingdom.
On Wednesday, Jordan’s state security court said in a statement that it had sentenced four of the 16 defendants to 20-year jail terms and unspecified fines.
The four were convicted of “possession of explosives, weapons and ammunition with the intent to use them illegally and commit acts that would disrupt public order and threaten social safety and security, in violation of the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Law,” it said.
The statement did not specify whether they were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, but state television had previously broadcast what it described as confessions from three of the 16 suspects admitting they were members of the Islamist group.
The Brotherhood later issued a statement distancing itself from the individuals and saying they acted on their own motives.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya announced on April 23 that the government had decided to “ban all activities of the so-called Muslim Brotherhood and to consider any activity (carried out by it) a violation of the provisions of the law.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has continued to operate in Jordan despite a ruling by the country’s top court dissolving it in 2020, with authorities turning a blind eye to its activities.
Shifting power in Lebanon revives hopes for Beirut port blast accountability
Judge Tarek Bitar has questioned former security chiefs and ex-Prime Minister Hassan Diab in his Beirut blast investigation
As Hezbollah’s influence wanes after its battering by Israel, analysts say the path is finally clear for the probe to progress
Updated 01 May 2025
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: On Aug. 4, 2020, the biggest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded tore through Lebanon’s Port of Beirut, devastating entire neighborhoods and leaving hundreds dead or wounded. Almost five years on, no one has been held to account for the blast.
In a rare breakthrough in the long-stalled inquiry into the explosion, presiding judge Tarek Bitar was recently able to question two former security chiefs — including one who was appearing in court for the first time since his 2020 summons.
This development on April 11 signaled a renewed momentum after years of obstruction and political interference, brought about in part by the election of a new technocratic government and the weakening of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
An aerial view shows the massive damage done to Beirut port's grain silos (C) and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a mega-blast tore through the harbor in the heart of the Lebanese capital with the force of an earthquake. (AFP)
According to four judicial and two security officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, Bitar questioned Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, head of the General Security Directorate from 2011 to 2023, and former State Security chief Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba.
The momentum continued the following week when Bitar summoned former Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk. Days later, he interrogated former Prime Minister Hassan Diab for more than two hours and remanded him for further questioning.
Lebanon’s judiciary has long been plagued by interference and a political culture resistant to accountability, particularly when powerful groups such as Hezbollah are involved.
Wounded men are evacuated following of an explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut, on August 4, 2020. (AFP/File)
Observers say the blast, which killed more than 218 people, remains a painful emblem of Lebanon’s systemic dysfunction.
Fadi Nicholas Nassar, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, described the Beirut port blast as “a reflection of everything that pushed Lebanon to the brink: militia control, a political class beholden to Hezbollah, a weakened judiciary, and corruption at every level — all made worse by the obstruction of justice.”
“How Lebanon handles the investigation now will be the defining moment: a turn toward accountability, or a confirmation that impunity still rules,” he told Arab News.
The investigation into the Beirut port blast ground to a halt in late 2021 after Hezbollah’s then-leader, Hassan Nasrallah, accused Bitar of political bias and called for his replacement.
In this photo taken on October 14, 2021, a supporter of Hezbollah and the Amal movements carries a portrait of Judge Tarek Bitar, the Beirut blast lead investigator, near the Justice Palace in Beirut during a gathering to demand his dismissal. (AFP)
“The targeting is clear, you are picking certain officials and certain people,” Nasrallah said at the time. “The bias is clear,” he added, demanding that Bitar be replaced with a “transparent” judge.
This public condemnation marked a turning point in what many viewed as a calculated effort to derail the investigation and shield powerful figures from prosecution.
The list of those questioned includes former prime ministers, cabinet ministers, security chiefs, and customs and port authorities — many of whom reportedly have ties to Hezbollah and its allies, including the Amal Movement.
Diab himself was nominated to lead the government in 2019 by Hezbollah and its allies.
A demonstrator poses next to a sign of "wanted posters" showing the faces of government officials including Prime Minister Hassan Diab as protesters head towards the port of Lebanon's capital on August 4, 2021, on the first anniversary of the blast that ravaged the port and the city. (AFP/File)
Yet the specific charges against these figures remain undisclosed, underscoring the secrecy that has surrounded the investigation since it began.
Critics say the attack on Bitar was part of a broader campaign to undermine the probe.
FAST FACTS
• The Beirut port blast had a force equivalent to 1,000-1,500 tons of TNT, or 1.1 kilotons.
• It registered as a 3.3-magnitude earthquake, with shockwaves disrupting the ionosphere.
• Felt over 200 kilometers away in Cyprus, causing damage to buildings up to 10km from the port.
Makram Rabah, an assistant professor at the American University of Beirut, says Hezbollah and its allies “have tried to implode it through using red tape, through trying to rig and play the system.”
In recent months, however, shifting political dynamics may have reopened the path to justice. Hezbollah’s influence has waned since its 2023-24 conflict with Israel, while the appointment of President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has fueled hopes for progress.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (C) attend a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (seated 2nd L), at the Baabda presidential palace, east of Beirut, on February 11, 2025. (AFP/File)
“The new government will definitely empower Tarek Bitar to pursue justice,” Rabah told Arab News, adding that his optimism stems not from the government’s technocratic makeup, “but because it’s a normal functioning government.”
Mohammed Chebaro, a London-based political analyst and researcher, echoed Rabah’s optimism. “Since the defeat of Hezbollah in the latest war — and what I would describe as a regime change — we’ve seen a series of developments that have been broadly welcomed by most Lebanese, and by any sovereign nation,” he told Arab News.
Hezbollah suffered a major blow during its war with Israel, which resulted in the killing of Nasrallah and other top officials, the destruction of much of its military hardware, and the draining of its finances.
Forced to accept a ceasefire deal brokered by the US, the group has since ceded most of its positions south of the Litani River to the Lebanese army, leaving its future uncertain.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, surrounded by Lebanese army soldiers, checks a map as he visits the southern village of Khiam near the border with Israel, on February 28, 2025. (AFP)
Chebaro said the election of Aoun as president in January and the appointment of Salam as prime minister signaled a shift.
“Both leaders appear to be free from foreign influence, whether Syrian or Iranian,” he said, adding that the weakening of Hezbollah’s grip on the country has “automatically paved the way for many initiatives to be relaunched.”
With political space opening, Chebaro believes Bitar now has the latitude to act. “At the moment, Judge Bitar has a free hand — and he will likely continue to have one. The real question is whether the investigation can extend to apprehending and questioning figures with political protection.”
He cited Machnouk as an example. “He’s part of the (Third) Independence Movement, and individuals from this group have generally acted within the law and have been willing to cooperate. Even if they were implicated, they wouldn’t resist presenting themselves for questioning.”
But “the real test,” Chebaro added, “lies with members of the military establishment who served under the Hezbollah-aligned governments of Diab and Najib Mikati.”
“A turning point would be seeing those military officials stand before Bitar — especially if they are backed by political patrons in what’s known as the Shiite Duo alliance of Hezbollah and Amal,” he said. “These are the same individuals who previously rejected the investigation and even accused Judge Bitar of treason for summoning them.”
Security forces push back relatives of victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion trying to push their way into the palace of justice in Beirut on January 26, 2023, after he was charged by the country's top prosecutor in the highly political case. (AFP/File)
That puts the new government in a delicate position. “How far are they willing to go?” Chebaro asked. “This is sensitive terrain. Will they pursue full justice, even at the risk of destabilizing the political system, or move more cautiously while rebuilding rule of law?”
Chebaro believes Salam’s government has little choice but to act. “A crime as devastating as the Beirut port explosion would inevitably be a priority for a government seeking to reassert sovereignty and demonstrate to the world that Lebanon has an independent judiciary capable of uncovering the truth.”
The Beirut port blast occurred when a fire ignited 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored in a warehouse since 2014.
The resulting explosion, widely blamed on years of government negligence and corruption, killed at least 218 people, injured more than 7,000, displaced some 300,000, and caused property damage estimated at over $15 billion.
In the face of a stalled investigation, the families of victims and rights groups began pushing for international intervention.
They “called for a UN-backed, independent factfinding mission that would determine the truth and clearly delineate responsibility for the disaster,” said Nassar of the Middle East Institute.
Lebanon’s new leadership now has an opportunity to reset the course “by backing the call for a UN-backed factfinding mission, ensuring the local investigation moves forward free from obstruction, and letting the truth bring justice to the victims of the Beirut blast,” he added.
In July 2024, a coalition of Lebanese and international groups, survivors, and victims’ families urged members of the UN Human Rights Council to support a resolution establishing an independent factfinding mission into rights violations tied to the explosion.
The call reflected a broader crisis of accountability in Lebanon, where major crimes have routinely gone unpunished.
Protesters lift portraits of relatives they lost in the Beirut port blast during a march on the fourth anniversary of the devastating explosion near the capital city's harbour on August 4, 2024. (AFP/File)
Lebanon has a long history of political assassinations and violence — including the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and the 2012 murder of intelligence chief Wissam Al-Hassan — that have largely evaded accountability.
Investigations have repeatedly been derailed by political interference and a judiciary weakened by corruption and partisan control. However, Nassar pointed to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as a rare exception.
“The STL was the rare moment when truth broke through Lebanon’s entrenched obstruction and violence, even in the face of the assassination of Wissam Eid, a Lebanese intelligence officer who gave his life to expose the truth,” he said.
However, “since then, international diplomacy has consistently prioritized short-term stability over accountability.
“The STL’s findings, which confirm Hezbollah’s responsibility in Rafic Hariri’s assassination, remain an enduring truth. As Lebanon now faces the probe into the Beirut blast, it has a chance to break from its past.
With the Hezbollah militia's armed might reduced to ruins in its war with Israel, there may be hope that the quest for justice for victims of the Beirut port blast would finally prosper. (AFP/File)
“Only by committing to truth and accountability can Lebanon begin to undo the forces that have held it hostage for so long.”
Echoing that concern, Middle East expert Chebaro warned that while hope for justice in the Beirut port case remains, the reality is far more complicated. “Many in Lebanon already have a clear idea of who controls the state,” he said. “As much as I hope impunity won’t prevail, the outcome remains uncertain.”
Chebaro said that while those responsible for the storage of the explosive material could, in theory, be identified and prosecuted, the greater challenge lies in whether Lebanon’s political elite is willing to face the consequences.
“Balancing the pursuit of justice with the stability of the current regime — and the future of Lebanon — will ultimately determine how deep this investigation is allowed to go,” he said.
Activists and relatives of victims of the August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion hold posters of then Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (R) and Wafiq Safa, a top Hezbollah security official, with a slogan in Arabic that reads: "He knew," during a sit-in outside the Justice Palace, a government building affiliated with the judiciary, in the Lebanese capital on January 17, 2022. (AFP)
Still, he noted that the resumption of the probe is a positive sign. “The fact that things are moving again is, at least, encouraging,” Chebaro said.
That cautious optimism is shared by Rabah of the American University of Beirut. While skeptical that Bitar can uncover the full truth on his own, Rabah said the investigation is a step in the right direction.
“I don’t believe that Tarek Bitar on his own will be able to actually know what really happened, because the way he’s going about it is only exploring the technical aspect,” he said.
“But in all cases, we do have reason to be optimistic, be it in the investigation of Tarek Bitar or any other one.”
