Deadly floods in war-torn Sudan displace thousands

Deadly floods in war-torn Sudan displace thousands
Every year in Sudan, sasonal peak flow on the Nile is accompanied by torrential rains, destroying homes, wrecking infrastructure and claiming lives. (AFP)
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Updated 12 August 2024
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Deadly floods in war-torn Sudan displace thousands

Deadly floods in war-torn Sudan displace thousands
  • Authorities in Kassala on Friday issued an “urgent call” to the international community, asking for “immediate assistance to rescue victims”

KASSALA: Amna Hussein sat grieving in a disaster relief tent in eastern Sudan, where she fled with her children after deadly floods displaced thousands in a country already reeling from war.
“My father died in the floods,” Hussein said in Kassala, a state on the border with Eritrea.
Sudan has experienced an intense rainy season since last month, with intermittent torrential flooding mainly in the country’s north and east.
Authorities have not released an updated death toll, but 34 people have died in the northern town of Abu Hamad alone, according to the Sudanese Red Crescent.
“All our houses have collapsed. Mine has been totally destroyed. We’re sitting in the street with nowhere to go,” flood victim Umm Ayman Zakarya Adam told AFP in Abu Hamad.
Authorities in Kassala on Friday issued an “urgent call” to the international community, asking for “immediate assistance to rescue victims” of the flooding.
They said that in Kassala “thousands of people have been affected by the floods which have destroyed many homes.”
Every year between May and October peak flow on the Nile is accompanied by torrential rains, destroying homes, wrecking infrastructure and claiming lives, both directly and through water-borne diseases.
The impact is expected to be worse this year after nearly 16 months of fighting that has displaced millions of people into flood zones.
In Wadi Halfa, in the north of the country, near the Egyptian border, “around 3,000 homes and health facilities were severely damaged,” according to local authorities.
“I’m speaking to you from a hilltop where my family and dozens of others took shelter last night after we were completely surrounded by rising waters,” said Mohammed Othman, a resident of Wadi Halfa, speaking to AFP by phone.
Flood-hit communities
More than 73,000 Sudanese have been affected by the floods, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Among those, over 21,000 have been displaced and 14,300 had their homes destroyed.
In Kassala, despite health authorities spraying insecticide at the displacement camps, an AFP journalist reported that swarms of flies were making living conditions even more difficult for the displaced.
A doctor in Kassala, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported a rise in cases of diarrhea, particularly among children.
Medical worker have said this may indicate a rise in cholera, which health authorities have struggled to control with the war decimating Sudan’s health care system.
Since April of last year, a war between the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by his former deputy General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced millions of people both within and outside of Sudan.
Both sides are accused of war crimes, including the deliberate targeting of civilians and blocking of aid, worsening the country’s already stark humanitarian crisis.
According to the UN, more than 260,000 people have been displaced to Kassala state by the war.
Massive displacement
Omar Babiker and his family took refuge in Kassala after the RSF arrived on their doorstep in Sudan’s central Al-Jazira state.
The floods forced Babiker to move again to a camp for the displaced, where he is still vulnerable to the rains.
“The floods caught up with us when the waters surrounded our tents,” he told AFP.
In Aroma, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the east of Kassala, floods submerged entire houses, forcing residents to take refuge on a roadside.
Humanitarian organizations have warned that the rainy season could isolate entire regions, making rescue efforts even more difficult.
“Some have been displaced three or four times since the start of the conflict. They have lost their belongings, including food rations,” said Olga Sarrado, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
They “are facing significant challenges in accessing clean water and sanitation facilities, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases,” she added.
To the west of Kassala, white tents stretch out over five square kilometers (two square miles).
“These tents don’t protect us from the rain,” said Fathiya Mohammed, a displaced mother trying to light a fire despite the ever-present dampness.
Like others in her situation, Mohammed counts on a single daily meal distributed by a kitchen staffed by volunteers.
“We know it’s not enough, but it’s all we can provide,” a volunteer said.


Israel investigates after videos show soldiers pushing bodies off West Bank roof

Israel investigates after videos show soldiers pushing bodies off West Bank roof
Updated 27 sec ago
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Israel investigates after videos show soldiers pushing bodies off West Bank roof

Israel investigates after videos show soldiers pushing bodies off West Bank roof
The videos showed three soldiers on the roof of a building in the town of Qabatiya, dragging, pushing, throwing and in one case kicking what appear to be dead men off the edge
Zakaria Zakarneh, the uncle of one of the men, said he saw what had happened

QABATIYA, West Bank: The Israeli military said on Friday it had opened an investigation after videos showed soldiers pushing what appear to be dead bodies off a roof in the occupied West Bank during a raid against Palestinian militants.
The videos, which began circulating online on Thursday, showed three soldiers on the roof of a building in the town of Qabatiya, dragging, pushing, throwing and in one case kicking what appear to be dead men off the edge.
Zakaria Zakarneh, the uncle of one of the men, said he saw what had happened. Israeli soldiers had gone to the roof after the Palestinians were killed, he told Reuters.
“They tried to move the bodies down with a bulldozer but it didn’t work so they threw them from the second floor down to the ground,” he said. “I was in pain, very sad and angry I was unable to do anything,” Zakarneh said.
Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video as Qabatiya and confirm the date from eyewitness accounts and video filmed by local Palestinian news organizations showing the same scene.
The Israeli military said in a statement the incident was serious and was not in keeping with its values.
In a separate statement, it said that on Thursday its soldiers had killed seven militants in gunbattles and an airstrike in Qabatiya.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza nearly a year ago, with almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests and regular gunbattles between security forces and Palestinian fighters, as well as attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian communities.

Ukraine joins NATO drill to test anti-drone systems

Ukraine joins NATO drill to test anti-drone systems
Updated 10 min 13 sec ago
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Ukraine joins NATO drill to test anti-drone systems

Ukraine joins NATO drill to test anti-drone systems
  • The drills at a Dutch military base tested cutting-edge systems to detect and counter drones and assessed how they work together
  • The 11-day exercise ended with a demonstration of jamming and hacking drones in a week when their critical role in the Ukraine war was demonstrated once again

VREDEPEEL, Netherlands: NATO concluded a major anti-drone exercise this week, with Ukraine taking part for the first time as the Western alliance seeks to learn urgently from the rapid development and widespread use of unmanned systems in the war there.
The drills at a Dutch military base, involving more than 20 countries and some 50 companies, tested cutting-edge systems to detect and counter drones and assessed how they work together.
The 11-day exercise ended with a demonstration of jamming and hacking drones in a week when their critical role in the Ukraine war was demonstrated once again.
On Wednesday, a large Ukrainian drone attack triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major Russian arsenal. The following day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ramping up drone production tenfold to nearly 1.4 million this year.
The proliferation of drones in the war – to destroy targets and survey the battlefield – has prompted NATO to increase its focus on the threat they could pose to the alliance.
“NATO takes this threat very, very seriously,” said Matt Roper, chief of the Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center at the alliance’s technology agency.
“This is not a domain we can afford to sit back and be passive on,” he said at the exercise site, Lt. Gen. Best Barracks in the east of The Netherlands.
Experts have warned NATO that it needs to catch up quickly on drone warfare.
“NATO has too few drones for a high-intensity fight against a peer adversary,” a report from the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank declared last September.
“It would be severely challenged to effectively integrate those it has in a contested environment.”

THREAT EVOLUTION
The drills that wrapped up on Thursday — complete with ice cream for onlookers provided by a radar company — were the fourth annual iteration of the exercise.
Claudio Palestini, the co-chair of a NATO working group on unmanned systems, said the exercise had adapted to trends such as the transformation of FPV (first-person view) drones — originally designed for civilian racers – into deadly weapons.
“Every year, we see an evolution of the threat with the introduction of new technology,” he said. “But also we see a lot of capabilities (to counter drones) that are becoming more mature.”
In a demonstration on Thursday, two small FPV drones whizzed and whined at high speed through the blue sky to dart around a military all-terrain vehicle before their signal was jammed.
Such electronic warfare is widespread in Ukraine. But it is less effective against long-range reconnaissance drones, a technology developer at Ukraine’s defense ministry said.
The official, giving only his first name of Yaroslav for security reasons, said his team had developed kamikaze drones to destroy such craft – a much cheaper option than firing missiles, which Ukraine had previously done.
“You need to run fast,” he said of the race to counter the impact of drones. “Technology which you develop is there for three months, maybe six months. After, it’s obsolete.”


Israel army says conducted ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut

Israel army says conducted ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut
Updated 37 min 6 sec ago
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Israel army says conducted ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut

Israel army says conducted ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut

BEIRUT: The Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut on Friday which security sources in Lebanon said had hit near key Hezbollah facilities in the southern suburbs of the city, marking a sharp escalation of the conflict between the sides.

Witnesses heard a blast in Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs and smoke was seen rising over the area.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh had been subjected to an act of aggression. Reuters witnesses heard jet noise over the city around the time of the attack.

Ignited by the Gaza war, the conflict has intensified significantly this week, with Hezbollah suffering an unprecedented attack in which pagers and walkie talkies used by its members exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands.

 

More to follow...


Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah says fighter killed in “Zionist attack” in Damascus

Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah says fighter killed in “Zionist attack” in Damascus
Updated 20 September 2024
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Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah says fighter killed in “Zionist attack” in Damascus

Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah says fighter killed in “Zionist attack” in Damascus
  • A fighter got killed in the “Zionist attack”

DUBAI: Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah armed group announced that one of its fighters was killed in what they called a “Zionist attack” in the Syrian capital Damascus, the group said in a statement on Telegram on Friday.


Israel-Hezbollah exchanges intensify on Lebanon border

Israel-Hezbollah exchanges intensify on Lebanon border
Updated 20 September 2024
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Israel-Hezbollah exchanges intensify on Lebanon border

Israel-Hezbollah exchanges intensify on Lebanon border
  • The intensifying exchanges came as the UN Security Council prepared to discuss this week’s attacks on Hezbollah pagers and two-way radios
  • Hezbollah said it targeted at least six Israeli military bases with salvos of rocket fire in response to overnight bombardment

BEIRUT: Israel said Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon on Friday following overnight air strikes which destroyed dozens of launchers after its leader vowed retribution for deadly sabotage attacks on its communications.
The intensifying exchanges came as the UN Security Council prepared to discuss this week’s attacks on Hezbollah pagers and two-way radios, which killed 37 people and wounded thousands over two days.
Hezbollah said it targeted at least six Israeli military bases with salvos of rocket fire in response to overnight bombardment which people in south Lebanon described as among the fiercest so far.
“Some 140 rockets were fired from Lebanon within an hour,” an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
The military said that overnight its jets hit infrastructure and “approximately 100 launchers” ready to be fired.
Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed, without elaborating.
Residents of Marjayoun, a Lebanese town close to the border, said the bombardment was among the heaviest since the border exchanges began in October last year.
“We were very scared, especially for my grandchildren,” said Nuha Abdo, 62. “We were moving them from one room to another.”
Clothing store owner Elie Rmeih, 45, said he counted more than 50 strikes.
“It was a terrifying scene and unlike anything we have experienced since the escalation began.
“We live in fear of a wider war, you don’t know where to go.”
The communications device explosions and intensifying air strikes came after Israel announced it was shifting its war objectives to its northern border with Lebanon.
For nearly a year, Israel’s firepower has been focused on Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, but its troops have also been engaged in near-daily exchanges with Hezbollah militants.
International mediators have repeatedly tried to avert a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah and staunch the regional fallout of the Gaza war started by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Hezbollah maintains its fight is in support of Hamas, and its leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Thursday that the attacks on Israel would continue as long as the war in Gaza lasts.
Speaking for the first time since the device blasts, Nasrallah warned Israel would face retribution.
Describing the attacks as a “massacre” and a possible “act of war,” Nasrallah said Israel would face “just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not.”
The cross-border exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon, mostly fighters, and dozens in Israel, including soldiers. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have fled their homes.
Speaking to troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Hezbollah will pay an increasing price” as Israel tries to “ensure the safe return” of its citizens to border areas.
“We are at the start of a new phase in the war,” he said.
Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the “blatant assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous development that could “signal a wider war.”
Speaking ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the attacks set for Friday, he said Lebanon had filed a complaint against “Israel’s cyber-terrorist aggression that amounts to a war crime.”
Senior UN officials have also expressed concern about the legality of the Israeli sabotage.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk called the blasts “shocking,” and said their impact on civilians was “unacceptable.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres said it was “very important... not to weaponize civilian objects.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been scrambling to salvage efforts for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, called for restraint by everyone.
“We don’t want to see any escalatory actions by any party” that would endanger the goal of a Gaza ceasefire, he said.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressed “deep concern” over the rising tensions and renewed a call for Britons to leave Lebanon, saying the “situation could deteriorate rapidly.”
Hamas’s October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures as reliable.
In the latest Gaza violence, the territory’s civil defense agency said an air strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp killed eight people. Another six people, including children, were killed in a separate strike on an apartment in Gaza City, it added.
The preliminary findings of a Lebanese investigation found the pagers that exploded had been booby-trapped, a security official said.
Lebanon’s UN mission concurred, saying in a letter that the probe showed “the targeted devices were professionally booby-trapped... before arriving in Lebanon, and were detonated by sending emails to the devices.”
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the pagers that exploded were produced by the Hungary-based BAC Consulting on behalf of Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo. It cited intelligence officers as saying BAC was part of an Israeli front.
A government spokesman in Budapest said the company was “a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary.”