A sword, e-cigarette capsules containing drugs, wireless devices, tools used in casinos, antique coins, and a set of binoculars were among the items uncovered
Updated 16 March 2023
Gobran Mohamed
Cairo: Customs officials at Cairo International Airport recently thwarted attempts by passengers to smuggle a range of banned items into Egypt.
A sword, e-cigarette capsules containing drugs, wireless devices, tools used in casinos, antique coins, and a set of binoculars were among the items uncovered.
The sword was found inside a wooden case in the baggage of an EgyptAir passenger arriving in Cairo from Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania.
Another individual flying with EgyptAir, this time from New York, was stopped and discovered to be in possession of five electronic hookah capsules containing marijuana oil, 10 wireless devices that should have had a special permit, and 37 gambling accessories.
In addition, a traveler jetting in from Dublin, in Ireland, was caught carrying three antique coins, and a pair of binoculars. Two of the coins were from the Moroccan Alawites era, and the other was Roman.
Legal action is being taken against all three passengers.
Separately, Cairo airport officials foiled a bid by an Egyptian passenger to smuggle a large quantity of cosmetics into the country.
Also, a foreign passenger of Egyptian origin was found in possession of a telescope used in firearms, and an Egyptian national was discovered to be concealing two daggers. They were referred to the prosecution.
Israeli army mounts rare raid into Palestinian city of Ramallah, clashes ensue
Israel has said the policy of demolishing homes of perpetrators is both punitive and a deterrence to potential attackers
Updated 08 June 2023
Reuters
RAMALLAH: Clashes erupted after Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank early on Thursday, in what the military said was an operation to demolish the house of an assailant.
A Reuters witness said a large military convoy arrived in downtown Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government, leading hundreds of Palestinians to gather in the area.
Some Palestinian youth hurled stones at the Israeli forces, who fired live bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at the crowd, the witness said. Trash bins that were set on fire blocked roads as ambulance sirens wailed.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least six people were transferred to hospital for treatment, including three who sustained gunshot wounds.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating in Ramallah “to demolish the residence of the terrorist who carried out the bombing attack in Jerusalem last November.”
The twin blasts killed two people, including an Israeli-Canadian teenager, and wounded at least 14 others in what police said were explosions of improvised bombs that were planted at bus stops near the city exit and in a junction leading to a settlement.
“The demolition of the homes of fighters is a collective punishment that falls under the war crimes committed by the occupation against our people,” said Abdel Fattah Dola of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
Israel has said the policy of demolishing homes of perpetrators is both punitive and a deterrence to potential attackers.
Hours earlier the US envoy to Palestinians, Hady Amr, met with senior Palestinian official Hussein Al-Sheikh.
Violence in the West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has risen during the past year. Israel has intensified its military raids amid a spate of street attacks carried out by Palestinians in its cities.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 158 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since January. Israel’s foreign ministry said 20 Israelis and two foreign nationals have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the same period.
Conflict and chaos in Sudan taking a devastating toll on women and girls
Sudanese women’s rights activists accuse armed combatants of using rape as a weapon of war
RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed, implicated in similar crimes during the 2003-20 Darfur conflict
Updated 08 June 2023
Rebecca Anne Proctor
CAIRO: When the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces transformed the streets of Sudan’s capital Khartoum into a war zone, 48-year-old math teacher Muna Ageeb Yagoub Nishan and her children were forced to flee.
Before embarking on their long and perilous journey to Egypt, Nishan, her 21-year-old daughter Marita, 22-year-old son George, and 16-year-old son Christian hid in their home in Khartoum’s Manshi district, as battles raged in the street outside.
Free of consequences and accountability amid the lawlessness since the conflict began on April 15, the armed men roaming their neighborhood pose a threat to the civilian population, particularly women and girls.
Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in southern Khartoum on May 25, 2023. (AFP file photo)
“They want to traumatize us,” Nishan told Arab News from the safety of an apartment in Egypt. “Now the RSF are raping women. People think I am still in Sudan and are sending me digital pamphlets on what to do if I get raped so that I won’t get pregnant.”
According to Hala Al-Karib, a Sudanese women’s rights activist and regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, gender-based violence, including rape as a weapon of war, is being perpetrated by members of the paramilitary RSF.
Hala Al-Karib, regional director of Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa. (Supplied)
“That doesn’t mean that Sudan’s armed forces don’t have a track record of sexual violence, but present victims of violence and rape are all stating that RSF soldiers have committed such crimes,” Al-Karib told Arab News.
Before they fled, Nishan and her children were like many Sudanese — trapped inside their homes, fearing for their lives. As the fighting raged, they quickly ran out of food and were forced to survive on rationed water until they found their opportunity to escape Khartoum.
When the RSF came knocking, Nishan’s 26-year-old son, Nadir Elia Sabag, answered the door while the family escaped through the back. Sabag was supposed to reunite with the family, but, according to Nishan, he is still in Khartoum, his exact whereabouts unknown.
Passengers fleeing war-torn Sudan rest before crossing into Egypt through the Argeen Land Port on May 12, 2023. (AFP)
When the family caught the bus that would take them to Egypt, Nishan says it was attacked by prisoners recently released by the RSF from Al-Huda prison in West Khartoum’s Omdurman, with one passenger robbed at knifepoint.
Eventually, the bus was allowed to continue, and, after several days, Nishan and her children arrived in Cairo. “I have lost everything,” said Nishan. “l sold my house to pay for my husband’s cancer treatment in Egypt.”
FASTFACTS
Sudanese women’s rights activists accuse armed combatants of using rape as a weapon of war.
RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed, implicated in similar crimes during the 2003-20 Darfur conflict.
Nishan had returned to Sudan only two years ago following the death of her husband. Now, all that she had rebuilt since then has been lost. “I have lost my car, my gold, my documents,” she said. “I lost everything with this war.”
Nishan and her children arrived in Cairo 10 days after Sudan’s descent into chaos. Today, they live in an apartment with other Sudanese families in the city’s El-Khalifa El-Mamoun district, awaiting an appointment with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR — scheduled for October.
University student Marita Elia Joseph Sabag (left) and math teacher Muna Ageeb Yagoub Nishan. (Supplied)
“We don’t know what we will do next month, where we will go and what we will do for work,” Nishan said. “We hope we can make it to Europe.”
Her story is not unique. It is shared by thousands of other refugees who have arrived in Egypt in recent weeks, now the primary destination for people fleeing the conflict in Sudan.
According to UNHCR, there have been 42,300 documented arrivals in Egypt to date, although the true figure is likely far higher. The UN agency estimates around 300,000 people could arrive over the coming months.
Passengers fleeing war-torn Sudan rest before crossing into Egypt through the Argeen Land Port on May 12, 2023. (AFP)
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has had a devastating impact on women and girls, who are among the most vulnerable demographics in times of violent upheaval everywhere in the world.
Women and girls displaced by the fighting in Sudan are at risk of rape as a weapon of war or falling prey to human traffickers. Indeed, the RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed, was implicated in similar crimes during the 2003-20 conflict in the country’s western Darfur region.
Reports and testimonials from the time concluded that the Janjaweed waged a systematic campaign of rape designed to humiliate women and ostracize them from their own communities.
Picture taken in April 2004 shows the village of Terbeba after being burnt by the "Janjaweed" militias in the western Darfur region of Sudan. The militia had been transformed into the RSF, which is now engaged in a destructive power struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces. (AFP file)
Many female Sudanese political activists had already experienced gender-based violence, including rape, at the hands of security forces during the pro-democracy protests of 2019. The latest conflict has made matters far worse, with armed men accused of acting with complete impunity.
“Since the start of the hostilities, UNHCR and humanitarian protection partners have been reporting a shocking array of humanitarian issues and human rights violations, including indiscriminate attacks causing civilian casualties and injuries, widespread criminality, as well as sexual violence with growing concerns over risks of gender-based violence for women and girls,” Olga Sarrada Mur, a spokesperson for UNHCR, told Arab News.
“UNHCR is working with the governments of the countries receiving refugees from Sudan as well as with humanitarian partners to ensure all the reception and transit centers have staff trained to treat these cases in a confidential manner and provide survivor-centered services, including health support but also psychosocial support, counseling as well as legal aid services if needed.
“Sexual exploitation and abuse prevention measures are being developed in the new sites hosting refugees fleeing the conflict.”
Given the pace of arrivals in Cairo and other cities, any assistance for people displaced by the Sudan conflict may be too little. With Nishan and her family’s appointment at the UN still months away, they say they have received no help whatsoever, while their apartment in Cairo is paid for by a friend.
For those unable to escape Khartoum and other violence-torn areas, the situation is dire. Activists such as Al-Karib urge women trapped by the fighting in Sudan to remain vigilant.
“The RSF have been implicated in sexual violence for over two decades,” said Al-Karib. “The overall structure is very flawed, enabling all kinds of crimes against civilians to happen. Citizens must take the issue of protection into their own hands (and) provide broad guidance for women and girls to protect themselves and (their) communities from sexual violence.”
She added: “The truth is that sexual violence has been happening in Sudan, in conflict and post-conflict areas, for the past 20 years.”
In this 2021 photo, Sudanese women rally in Khartoum against sexual violence that had been happening in the country in the last 20 years. (Twitter: @Sihanet)
According to her, the culture of impunity in Sudan, which has allowed such crimes to go unpunished, means the scale of the problem has been misreported, both regionally and internationally, for many years.
“The Sudanese regimes, including the transitional government, which took (power) after the 2019 revolution, have never addressed the issue of sexual violence and the perpetrators of sexual violence, who were mostly military forces and law enforcement,” Al-Karib said.
“They have enjoyed impunity and protections. Sudan has a very flawed and very problematic legal framework that constantly seeks to criminalize survivors of sexual violence, accusing them of adultery, and so on.
“This has led to the fact that sexual violence is now becoming normal — normalized — as are the perpetrators of sexual violence.”
Social media post, whose authenticity cannot be verified, claims an armed group broke into a university dorm and raped two foreign women. (Supplied)
Perpetrators often assume they are “invincible” due to this culture of impunity, added Al-Karib, “which is quite prevalent, particularly among the armed groups and the military.”
Gender-based violence is not the only issue impacting women and girls that aid agencies are trying to address amid the crisis in Sudan.
UNHCR says it is providing reproductive healthcare, with medical teams prioritizing assistance for pregnant and breastfeeding women, particularly in terms of nutrition.
Agencies are also monitoring the threat of human trafficking — already a concern in the east of the country prior to the latest bloodletting. “Conflict and disasters and the protection issues they generate create conditions for trafficking in persons to thrive,” said UNHCR’s Mur.
“Ongoing fighting limits the capacity to identify new victims, but mechanisms are being put in place by UNHCR and partners at border areas … to identify potential victims of trafficking.”
For Nishan and others who managed to escape to safety, all they want is peace and security. “All I wish from the world,” said Nishan, “is to see my children continue their university studies and then go on to work and live happily.”
Libya’s rival factions agree on terms for elections
Updated 07 June 2023
AFP
BOUZNIKA, Morocco: Envoys of rival Libyan factions have agreed on the legal steps to hold much delayed presidential and legislative elections in the conflict-scarred nation, both sides said early on Wednesday.
Election were due to be held in December 2021 but were never organized as differences persisted on key issues including who should run in the polls.
Libya has been torn by more than a decade of stop-start conflict since a 2011 revolt toppled strongman Muammar Qaddafi, with a myriad of militias forming opposing alliances backed by foreign powers.
The country remains split between a nominally interim government in Tripoli in the west, and another in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
After more than two weeks of talks in Morocco, representatives from both sides struck a deal but stopped short of inking any agreement so far in a sign some differences may still need to be resolved.
No date has yet been named for when the vote may take place.
“The members ... have agreed the laws for presidential and legislative elections,” Jalal Chouehdi, who represents the east-based parliament, told reporters in the southern Moroccan city of Bouznika.
“All that is left is for parliament to ratify” the texts of the accord, added Omar Boulifa, representative for the High State Council aligned with the Tripoli-based administration.
Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said the agreements would be signed “in the coming days” by Aguila Saleh, speaker of Libya’s east-based parliament, and Khaled Al-Mechri who heads the HSC.
Presidential and legislative elections have been repeatedly delayed over issues including their legal basis and the participation of controversial candidates including Haftar.
The talks in Bouznika, the latest attempt by both sides to reach a deal, had been underway since May 22.
In mid-March, UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily had called on rival administrations to agree terms for elections “by mid-June.”
Kuwait votes in opposition-led parliament, one woman elected
Emir urges MPs to ‘carry responsibility of representing people, realize their aspiration for better future’
Updated 07 June 2023
AFP
KUWAIT CITY: Opposition lawmakers won a majority in Kuwait’s parliament with only one woman elected, results showed on Wednesday, after the Gulf state’s seventh general election in just over a decade.
The opposition figures include conservatives and independent politicians not tied to the ruling family who are pushing for a raft of reforms.
The vote on Tuesday came after Kuwait’s constitutional court in March annulled the results of last year’s election — in which the opposition made significant gains — and reinstated the previous parliament elected in 2020.
Opposition lawmakers won 29 of the legislature’s 50 seats, according to results published by the official Kuwait News Agency. Only one woman was elected — opposition candidate Janan Bushehri.
The makeup of the new parliament is very similar to the one elected last year and later annulled, with all but 12 of its 50 members retaining their seats.
This has sparked concerns that the legislature may once again find itself locked in disputes with the Cabinet, further deepening a political crisis that has delayed reforms and hampered growth.
“The government has to contend with a more combative parliament than the already combative 2022 version,” said Bader Al-Saif, assistant history professor at Kuwait University. “Therefore, expect bumps in the road unless radical reforms unfold,” he said.
Longtime speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and Ahmed Al-Saadoun, who replaced him last year, both return to parliament. Saadoun is expected to run again for the post of speaker.
Parliament’s first session is scheduled to take place on June 20.
“We are celebrating today the (victory of the) reformist approach,” opposition lawmaker Adel Al-Damkhi told reporters after the results were announced.
“The election results are an indication of the awareness of the Kuwaiti people.”
Turnout reached 50 percent one hour before polls closed, according to the Kuwait Transparency Society, a nongovernment group. Last year’s election saw turnout of 63 percent.
Since Kuwait adopted a parliamentary system in 1962, the legislature has been dissolved around a dozen times.
Continual standoffs between the branches of government have prevented lawmakers from passing economic reforms, while repeated budget deficits and low foreign investment have added to an air of gloom.
Bushehri, the new parliament’s sole female member, said she expected it “to seek stability and move ahead on outstanding issues, whether political or economic.”
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah congratulated the incoming deputies and called on them to “carry the responsibility of representing the people and ... realize their aspiration for a better future,” according to KUNA.
Kuwait, which borders Iraq, boasts 7 percent of global crude reserves. It has little debt and one of the strongest sovereign wealth funds in the world.
Macron names French ex-minister Lebanon special envoy
Le Drian, who served for five years as foreign minister up to 2022, had vast experience in “crisis management” and would be heading to Lebanon “very soon“
There is an urgent need “to bring together a form of consensus” to allow the election of a president of Lebanon
Updated 07 June 2023
AFP
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron has named his former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as his personal envoy for Lebanon, in a new bid to end the country’s political crisis, the presidency said on Wednesday.
Le Drian will be charged with helping to find a “consensual and efficient” solution to the crisis which has intensified after the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion, said a presidential official, asking not to be named.
The official said Le Drian, who served for five years as foreign minister up to 2022, had vast experience in “crisis management” and would be heading to Lebanon “very soon.”
Lebanon is facing a political crisis as factions struggle to agree on a new president while an economic crisis has seen the living standards of most Lebanese plummet over the last year.
“The situation remains difficult in Lebanon” with a need to “get out of both the political crisis and the economic and financial difficulties,” the official said.
There is an urgent need “to bring together a form of consensus” to allow the election of a president of Lebanon, which has been without a head of state for more than seven months because of the political deadlock.
Macron won praise from observers for heading to Beirut in the immediate aftermath of the explosion to push Lebanon’s leaders into radical reform. But he now faces pressure to follow up on these promises.
Former president Michel Aoun’s term expired last October with no successor lined up.
Since then, there have been 11 parliamentary votes to try to name a new president, but bitter divisions have prevented anyone from garnering enough support to succeed Aoun.
Lebanese lawmakers on Sunday nominated Jihad Azour, an International Monetary Fund regional director and former minister, for president, in a new bid to find a solution.
