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CAIRO: Qatari, Egyptian and US leaders called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent talks on Aug. 15 either in Doha or Cairo to bridge all remaining gaps in the proposed Gaza ceasefire agreement and start implementing it without any delay, the three countries said in a joint statement on Thursday.
“It is the time to conclude a ceasefire agreement and release hostages and prisoners,” the statement added.
LONDON: Amnesty International has called for a global, legally binding treaty to regulate the production and use of electric shock equipment such as stun guns and electric shock batons.
The rights monitor said the “inherently abusive” equipment was being used by law enforcement agencies for “torture and other ill-treatment” in countries.
Electric shock equipment was being used in a range of detention settings, including prisons, mental health institutions, and migrant and refugee detention centers, the London-based group said in a report.
“Direct contact electric shock weapons can cause severe suffering, long-lasting physical disability and psychological distress. Prolonged use can even result in death,” said Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International’s researcher on military, security, and policing issues.
The study also looked at the “escalating” use of projectile electric shock weapons, or PESWs, which attach to the target and can deliver an immobilizing shock.
According to the report, PESWs could sometimes have a legitimate role in law enforcement but were often misused, including cases of “unnecessary and discriminatory use.”
“Direct contact electric shock weapons need to be banned immediately and PESWs subject to strict human-rights-based trade controls,” Wilcken said.
He added that despite “clear human rights risks,” no global regulations control the production of and trade in electric shock equipment.
This lack of clarity is exacerbated in cases when PESWs are used for torture and other ill-treatment, as the reports often do not indicate whether the weapon was employed from a distance or was instead used in “drive-stun” mode as a direct-contact weapon.
GOMA: Congo’s former President Joseph Kabila has initiated talks with opposition politicians about the country’s political future as Rwanda-backed rebels seize territory in the east, five sources familiar with the outreach told Reuters.
The discussions, which have also involved civil society members, represent a potential additional threat to current President Felix Tshisekedi, who has faced criticism over his response to the unprecedented advance by M23 rebels.
Tshisekedi and Kabila once formed an awkward power-sharing deal following Congo’s disputed 2018 election, but Tshisekedi eventually began chipping away at his predecessor’s influence while accusing him of blocking reforms.
The two men’s relationship soured to the point that, as M23 marched on east Congo’s second-largest city of Bukavu last month, Tshisekedi told the Munich Security Conference that Kabila had sponsored the insurgency.
Kabila did not make any public statements on the crisis or respond to the accusation until he published an op-ed in a South African newspaper on Feb. 23 that accused Tshisekedi of violating the constitution, committing human rights abuses, and bringing Congo to the brink of civil war.
The ex-president has been equally withering in private, according to sources that either spoke to Kabila directly or had knowledge of his recent exchanges with opposition politicians and civil society members.
One source who spoke to Kabila said the message was that “the Tshisekedi regime is soon over.”
“We will see what they do,” said the source, who did not wish to be named due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
All the sources said that, while Kabila and his lieutenants had spoken about some political transition, there was no clear plan or details about how this might potentially unfold.
The talks have been private, though Kabila met openly in December in Addis Ababa with opposition leaders Moise Katumbi and Claudel Lubaya.
Asked for comment on Thursday on Kabila’s reported outreach to the opposition, a spokesperson for Katumbi, former governor of Congo’s copper-rich Katanga province, referred Reuters to past statements criticizing Tshisekedi.
Lubaya, for his part, told Reuters on Thursday: “The sky is grey and the outcome uncertain for the country since Tshisekedi seems more concerned with retaining his power than with finding a solution.”
In a rare interview this week with the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation, Kabila called for an inclusive peace process but was vague about his own goals.
“Our intentions are to be very much available to serve our country, serve our people,” Kabila said after attending the funeral of Namibia’s former President Sam Nujoma and meeting several African leaders.
Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, one of Kabila’s political party leaders, told Reuters that while it would be “good” to exclude Tshisekedi from talks about Congo’s political future, it was important to respect the constitution.
Tshisekedi announced on Feb. 22 that he would launch a unity government, though that plan has not yet been implemented.
Tshisekedi’s government is wary of Kabila.
A Congolese security source and a senior government official told Reuters this week that authorities had blocked a Kabila-owned boat on Lake Tanganyika on suspicion it would be used to transport weapons to groups that would side with M23.
Nehemie Mwilanya Wilondja, a former chief of staff for Kabila, said officials had failed to provide any evidence of those allegations.
Congo, UN experts, and Western powers accuse Rwanda of backing M23.
Rwanda denies this and says it is defending itself against ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in Congo and threatening Rwanda.
Mwilanya said the current crisis was reminiscent of 2001 when Kabila took office after the assassination of his father.
Then, as now, forces from Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi were active on Congo’s soil, threatening the government in Kinshasa.
Mwilanya said Kabila, aged 29 when he was sworn in as president, had managed to navigate the crisis far better than Tshisekedi has.
“Given the state the country is in, who should be blamed?” Mwilanya said. “Or better, who should be saved? Congo or its rulers?“
LONDON: Queen Rania of Jordan hosted a Ramadan iftar banquet on Thursday at the Prince Rashid Club in Aqaba.
Women leaders and activists from various sectors in Aqaba, a governorate on the Red Sea in southern Jordan, attended the event.
Queen Rania congratulated the attendees on Ramadan and the upcoming International Women’s Day, which will be marked on March 8, the Jordan News Agency reported.
She praised the contributions of Jordanian women in the workforce and the labor market, as well as their roles in caring for their families to provide comfort and reassurance at home.
Khaled Al-Hajjaj, the governor of Aqaba, welcomed the queen to the city and expressed gratitude for her efforts to empower women.
Mahmoud Khalifat, the director general of Aqaba Ports Corporation, and Muhannad Al-Naser, director of Prince Rashid Club, were also present.
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s national security adviser said that authorities were actively searching for Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli Russian academic kidnapped nearly two years ago in Baghdad.
Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, has been missing in Iraq since March 2023.
Israeli authorities said later she had been kidnapped, blaming a pro-Iranian group for her disappearance.
National Security Adviser Qassem Al-Araji said “Iraqi authorities are working under the prime minister’s direction” to solve the issue.
“The security services are mobilized to locate her and find the group that kidnapped her,” he said, adding there had been no claims of responsibility for her abduction or demands for her release.
“We have to operate discreetly and through intermediaries” to locate her, he said.
Tsurkov, who had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport, had traveled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.
An Iraqi security source told AFP that the last trip was not Tsurkov’s first visit to Iraq.
In November 2023, Iraqi channel Al Rabiaa TV aired the first hostage video of Tsurkov known to the public since her kidnapping.
AFP was unable to independently verify the footage or determine whether her statement was coerced.
In the video, Tsurkov mentioned the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah of holding her, but the armed faction has implied it was not involved in her disappearance.
TULKARM: At a makeshift kitchen inside a city office building, volunteers rub paprika, oil and salt on slabs of chicken before arraying them on trays and slipping them into an oven.
Once the meat is done, it is divided into portions and tucked into plastic foam containers along with piles of yellow rice scooped from large steel pots.
The unpaid chefs at the Yasser Arafat Charity Kitchen in Tulkarm hope their labors will bring joy to displaced Palestinians trying to mark Ramadan.
An Israeli military raid launched in the West Bank weeks ago has uprooted more than 40,000 people.
Israel says it was meant to stamp out militancy in the occupied region, which has experienced a surge of violence since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
The raid has been deadly and destructive, emptying several urban refugee camps that house descendants of Palestinians who fled wars with Israel decades ago.
The refugees have been told they will not be allowed to return for a year.
In the meantime, many of them have no access to kitchens, are separated from their communities, and are struggling to mark the end of the daily Ramadan fast with what are typically lavish meals.
“The situation is difficult,” said Abdullah Kamil, governor of the Tulkarm area.
He said some are drawing hope from the charity kitchen, which has expanded its usual operations to provide daily meals for up to 700 refugees, an effort to “meet the needs of the people, especially during the month of Ramadan.”
For Mansour Awfa, 60, the meals are a bright spot in a dark time.
He fled from the Tulkarm refugee camp in early February and does not know when he can return. “This is the house where I was raised, where I lived, and where I spent my life,” he said of the camp. “I’m not allowed to go there.”
Awfa, his wife, and four children live in a relative’s city apartment, where they sleep on thin mattresses on the floor.
“Where do we go? Where is there to go?” he asked. “But thanks to God, we await meals and aid from some warmhearted people.”
