Economic integration key to African peace, says Egyptian president

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arriving in Zambia as part of an African tour. (Facebook/Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arriving in Zambia as part of an African tour. (Facebook/Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency)
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Updated 08 June 2023
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Economic integration key to African peace, says Egyptian president

Economic integration key to African peace, says Egyptian president
  • El-Sisi calls for continental unity while handing over leadership of COMESA trade bloc

CAIRO: Advancing economic integration in Africa is key to achieving peace and security on the continent, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has said.

His comments on Thursday came at the 22nd Summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa in Zambia.

He said: “Egypt has assumed the leadership of the COMESA over the past two years, during a very delicate period that witnessed important developments at the international and regional levels.”

The Egyptian leader highlighted important steps that the group has made over the past two years.

He said: “With regard to the field of economic development, Egypt has paid great attention to activating the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement and achieving harmony between it and the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area through specific measures to urge member states to implement customs exemptions and facilitate the movement of trade exchange among them.

“These efforts resulted in an increase in intra-exports of the COMESA to reach $13 billion in 2022, the highest value since the establishment of the free trade zone within the framework of the COMESA in 2000.”

Trade between Egypt and the COMESA countries last year reached its highest value ever, $4.3 billion, since Egypt joined the bloc, El-Sisi added.

EAC and SADC refer to Southern African Development Community and East African Community, respectively.

COMESA includes 21 countries: Egypt, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Malawi, Madagascar, Libya, Seychelles, Rwanda, Mauritius, Tunisia, Sudan, Somalia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

El-Sisi also highlighted recent developments in a number of African countries, notably Sudan, with the situation “requiring us to join forces to support its people.”

He said: “I emphasize that Egypt is assuming its responsibilities as a direct neighboring country by making all endeavors with the active parties and international partners, and engaging in existing mechanisms, to ensure coordination between them in order to reach a secure and stable Sudan.”

The Egyptian president announced his country’s candidature for the African Peace and Security Council for the 2024–2026 term.

Egypt’s proposed leadership demonstrates its belief in supporting peace and security efforts on the continent, he said.

El-Sisi announced the end of Egypt’s chairmanship of the COMESA, saying: “It is my pleasure to hand over the chairmanship of the COMESA to my brother, president of the Republic of Zambia.”

A new bureau of the COMESA Summit was also announced by the Egyptian leader, and will include Zambia as chair, Burundi as vice chair and Egypt as rapporteur.

El-Sisi arrived in Zambia on Wednesday on an official visit after ending his visit to Angola at the start of an African tour that also includes Mozambique.

He met Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on the sidelines of the COMESA Summit.

The two leaders discussed ways to enhance bilateral relations, agreeing on the importance of activating mechanisms for cooperation and developing economic ties.

They stressed the need to reach the goals outlined in the African Development Agenda 2063.

The continent’s strategic agenda promotes inclusive and sustainable development as part of a pan-African drive for unity.

Separately, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics revealed an annual increase in trade between Egypt and southern African countries — Zambia, Mozambique, and Angola — of 6.5 percent.

In 2022, Egyptian trade with the three countries grew to $381.9 million from 2021’s $358.6 million.


Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria

Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria
Updated 58 min 53 sec ago
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Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria

Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria
  • Save the Children is asking the court to bring the 11 women and 20 children from Al-Roj camp in Syria before the court in Australia

Sydney: More than 30 Australian women and children living in “appalling conditions” in a Syrian detention camp launched court action Tuesday to compel Canberra to bring them home.
Their case opened at the High Court in Melbourne, nearly a year after Australia repatriated the last group of four women and 13 children — the wives, sons and daughters of vanquished Daesh group fighters — from Syria.
“The situation of the remaining persons detained is stark and dire,” said Peter Morrissey, counsel for the charity Save the Children, which is acting on their behalf.
“Save the Children Australia represents women and children charged with no crime, detained in piteous and appalling conditions,” he told the court.
“Their health, safety, and dignity are seriously compromised by any standard. Their detention in the camps has endured for several years.”
Save the Children is asking the court for a writ of habeas corpus (or unlawful detention) requiring the government to bring the 11 women and 20 children from Al-Roj camp in Syria before the court in Australia.
“Despite countless opportunities to repatriate these families, the Australian government has ultimately failed in its duty to bring all of its citizens home to safety,” said Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler.
“We desperately hope these children and their mothers will be imminently repatriated home to safety. It is unfathomable that the Australian government has abandoned its citizens,” he said in a statement.
Repatriations of Australian women and children from Syrian camps are a politically contentious issue in a country long known for its hard-line approach to immigration.
The Australian women and children have lived in the Al-Hol and Al-Roj detention camps in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria since the 2019 collapse of Daesh.


Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy

Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy
Updated 24 min 11 sec ago
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Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy

Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s security forces on Monday said they had arrested a man suspected of firing 15 bullets at the American embassy building in Beirut last week.

A source named the suspect as 26-year-old Lebanon national Muhammad Mahdi Hussein Khalil, who works for a delivery company. The source added that Khalil had previously been convicted of opening fire on a Lebanese public security center.

According to the source, Khalil confessed to shooting at the embassy compound in the Aukar suburb of Beirut, and that the weapon used in the attack had been seized.

Surveillance cameras showed a lone man dressed in black firing a Kalashnikov rifle before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle.

“The shooter carried out his act after previous disputes between him and embassy security over food deliveries,” the source told Arab News.

There were no injuries caused by the shooting late on Wednesday.


Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program

Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program
Updated 26 September 2023
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Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program

Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program
  • Some Palestinians have protested at Israel’s entry into the VWP, citing what they say are decades of discriminatory treatment of Arab Americans and harassment at Israel’s borders

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday it expects the United States to announce this week that it will be admitted to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which would allow Israeli citizens visa-free entry to America as of November.
The deadline for Israel to show compliance with the US conditions is Sept. 30. If successful, it would offer a win for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist government, whose relations with Washington have been strained over its plans to overhaul the judiciary as well as over its policies toward the Palestinians.
“Israel joining the Visa Waiver Program is a diplomatic achievement and good news for all Israeli citizens,” said Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.
A US State Department spokesperson said on Monday that a final decision on Israel’s candidacy had not been made.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, will make a determination in the coming days,” the spokesperson said.
For admission to the program, Washington requires countries to treat all US travelers equally, regardless of whatever other passports they may hold. In Israel’s case, that would mean free passage for Palestinian Americans at its airports and when traveling into and out of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Some Palestinians have protested at Israel’s entry into the VWP, citing what they say are decades of discriminatory treatment of Arab Americans and harassment at Israel’s borders.
In a pilot period that has been running since July 20, Israel has loosened access for Palestinian Americans through its borders and in and out of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Between 45,000 and 60,000 Palestinian Americans live in the West Bank, a US official estimated. An Israeli official gave lower figures, saying that of 70,000 to 90,000 Palestinian Americans worldwide, 15,000 to 20,000 are West Bank residents.
There are currently 40 countries in the VWP. Countries are not added frequently, with Croatia being the latest to join in 2021. 

 


Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan

Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan
Updated 25 September 2023
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Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan

Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan
  • Sudanese doctors’ union said health situation ‘is deteriorating at a horrific rate’

PORT SUDAN: Outbreaks of dengue fever and acute watery diarrhea have “killed hundreds” in war-torn Sudan, medics reported Monday, warning of “catastrophic spreads” that could overwhelm the country’s decimated health system.

In a statement, the Sudanese doctors’ union warned that the health situation in the southeastern state of Gedaref, on the border with Ethiopia, “is deteriorating at a horrific rate,” with thousands infected with dengue fever.

Though Gedaref has been spared the direct effects of the brutal war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, it has nonetheless been impacted by mass displacement and other humanitarian crises.

Over five months into the war, 80 percent of the country’s hospitals are out of service, according to the UN. Even before the war, Sudan’s fragile healthcare system struggled to contain the annual disease outbreaks that accompany the country’s rainy season starting in June, including malaria — endemic in Sudan — and dengue fever.

This year, with Gedaref hosting over 250,000 internally displaced people according to the UN, the situation is much worse.

“The hospital’s beds are all full but the cases keep coming in, particularly children,” a medical source said from Gedaref Hospital.


US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia

US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia
Updated 25 September 2023
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US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia

US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia

BEIRUT: US-backed Kurdish-led forces imposed a curfew after clashes erupted again on Monday in eastern Syria, where their fighters had battled for weeks with rival militiamen, Syrian media and activists reported.

The fighting in a region where hundreds of American troops are deployed has pointed to dangerous seams in a coalition that has kept on a lid on the defeated Daesh for years.

The reports say the Syrian Democratic Forces imposed the open-ended measure in several towns in Deir Ezzor province, including the town of Ziban, close to the Iraqi border where the Americans are based. 

Hundreds of US troops have been there since 2015 to help in the fight against Daesh. 

The province is home to Syria’s largest oil fields.

Al Mayadeen, a pan-Arab TV station, said several fighters from the Kurdish-led forces were killed after gunmen took over several parts of Ziban on Monday. 

Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some of the fighters had crossed from regime-held areas.

Local media in the province reported that some Kurdish fighters had fled the area as the clashes intensified. There were no further details.

The Kurdish-led forces have accused the Syrian regime of inciting the violence by allowing the rival militiamen to cross the Euphrates River. 

The clashes first erupted in late August when two weeks of fighting killed 25 Kurdish fighters, 29 members of tribal groups and gunmen, as well as nine civilians, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces .