Libya’s NOC declared force majeure on several Es Sider crude cargoes, sources say

Onlookers gather in front of the headquarters of Libya's National Oil Company in the capital Tripoli on September 10, 2018. (AFP)
Onlookers gather in front of the headquarters of Libya's National Oil Company in the capital Tripoli on September 10, 2018. (AFP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Libya’s NOC declared force majeure on several Es Sider crude cargoes, sources say

Libya’s NOC declared force majeure on several Es Sider crude cargoes, sources say
  • Kriti Samaria loaded more than 700,000 barrels at Zueitina last week and departed on Sunday while Front Jaguar loaded about 600,000 barrels from Brega port last week and departed on Friday, Kpler data showed

LONDON: Libya’s NOC late last week declared force majeure on several crude cargoes loading from the Es Sider port, with oil production curtailed by a political standoff over the central bank and oil revenue, four trading sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) did not declare force majeure on all loadings for the port, a measure that would have shut all loadings, two of the sources said.
NOC was not immediately available for comment.
The crisis was triggered when western factions moved on Aug. 18 to oust veteran central bank governor Sadiq Al-Kabir, who has since fled the country. Eastern factions responded by declaring a shutdown on all oil output on Aug. 26.
The central bank is the sole legal depository for oil revenue and pays state salaries across the long-divided country.
It was not immediately clear how many cargoes were subject to force majeure, but one source who had a cargo canceled said it was several.
“It’s not a complete shutdown, some cargoes will load,” the source said.
Force majeure is declared when unforeseeable events prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.
Some tankers have been allowed to load crude from storage at Libyan ports. An NOC source told Reuters that those cargoes were to fulfil contractual obligations and avoid financial penalties.
The tanker Energy Triumph is loading about 1 million barrels at Hariga port, Kpler data showed and engineers at the port said. Kpler data estimates that it will depart on Monday.
Pacific Pearl, expected to load from Es Sider, is still anchored and awaiting berthing instructions, Kpler told Reuters.
Kriti Samaria loaded more than 700,000 barrels at Zueitina last week and departed on Sunday while Front Jaguar loaded about 600,000 barrels from Brega port last week and departed on Friday, Kpler data showed.
NOC said on Aug. 28 that oil production had dropped by more than half from typical levels to a little more than 590,000 barrels per day (bpd). It was not immediately clear where production levels now stand.
Reuters reported on Sept. 1 that the the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) ordered production to resume at the Sarir, Messla and Nafoura fields, which it controls.
A Kpler report said it expects the east-west standoff to persist throughout September, with AGOCO continuing to produce at about 100,000 to 150,000 bpd to meet domestic needs.
AGOCO’s production has risen to nearly 200,000 bpd, engineers told Reuters on Monday. It was producing 290,000 bpd on July 20, NOC has said.
NOC said late on Sunday that fuel and gas continue to be supplied to power stations as normal, adding that it was “working to provide the required fuel and gas needs according to the capabilities available, taking into account the operational and production conditions.”

 


Palestinian prime minister announced national team to reconstruct Gaza

Palestinian prime minister announced national team to reconstruct Gaza
Updated 24 min 41 sec ago
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Palestinian prime minister announced national team to reconstruct Gaza

Palestinian prime minister announced national team to reconstruct Gaza

RAMALLAH: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa has announced the formation of a national team to reconstruct Gaza.

In a live broadcast from Ramallah on Tuesday, Mustafa said the state had already provided more than 400,000 people in Gaza with aid so far and would continue to do so.

More than 40,000 people have been killed there so far, including over 10,000 children.

There have been global protests against the Israeli military offensives in both Gaza and Lebanon, including in the Middle East, Europe, the US, India, Pakistan and the Far East, with calls for the international community to take action.


Turkiye says will evacuate citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday

Turkiye says will evacuate citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday
Updated 08 October 2024
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Turkiye says will evacuate citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday

Turkiye says will evacuate citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday
  • Turkiye is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon

ISTANBUL: Turkiye is sending ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said.
Two Turkish navy ships will leave a port in southern Turkish province of Mersin for Beirut on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.
Turkiye is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon.
Turkish officials said they had drawn up contingency plans to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon because of the deteriorating security situation on the ground.
Last week, the foreign ministry said guidelines for the evacuation of third countries’ citizens via Turkiye have also been determined, adding that necessary preparations were underway in cooperation with nearly 20 countries that have requested support.


Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine

Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine
Updated 08 October 2024
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Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine

Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine
  • Arrests and looting hinder Sudan’s community kitchens
  • Some have stopped serving meals for weeks in areas at risk of famine
  • Donors have ramped up support, but volunteers say this is making them a target for troops

KHARTOUM: Local volunteers who have helped to feed Sudan’s most destitute during 17 months of war say attacks against them by the opposing sides are making it difficult to provide life-saving aid amid the world’s biggest hunger crisis.
Many volunteers have fled under threat of arrest or violence, and communal kitchens they set up in a country where hundreds are estimated to be dying of starvation and hunger-related diseases each day have stopped serving meals for weeks at a time.
Reuters spoke with 24 volunteers who manage kitchens in Sudan’s central state of Khartoum, the western region of Darfur and parts of the east where millions of people have been driven from their homes since fighting erupted between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
International humanitarian agencies, which have been unable to get food aid to parts of Sudan at risk of famine, have ramped up support for such groups. But that has made them more of a target for RSF looters, 10 of the volunteers told Reuters by phone.
“We were safe when the RSF didn’t know about the funding,” said Gihad Salaheldin, a volunteer who left Khartoum city last year and spoke from Cairo. “They see our kitchens as a source of food.”
Both sides have also attacked or detained volunteers on suspicion of collaborating with their opponents, a dozen volunteers said.
Most of the volunteers spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
One volunteer in Bahri, a city that together with Khartoum and Omdurman makes up Sudan’s greater capital, said troops in RSF uniforms stole the phone he used to receive donations via a mobile banking app along with 3 million Sudanese pounds ($1,200) in cash intended for food in June.
It was one of five incidents this year in which he says he was attacked or harassed by paramilitary troops who control neighborhoods where he oversees 21 kitchens serving around 10,000 people.
Later that month, troops burst into a home housing one of the kitchens in the middle of the night and stole sacks of sorghum and beans. The volunteer, who had been sleeping there, said he was bound, gagged and whipped for hours by troops who wanted to know who was funding the group.
Reuters could not independently verify his account, but three other volunteers said that he reported the events to the rest of the group at the time.
The frequency of such incidents increased as international funding for communal kitchens picked up heading into the summer, according to eight volunteers from Khartoum state, which is mostly controlled by the RSF.
Many kitchens do not keep data on attacks, while others declined to provide details for fear of drawing more unwanted attention. However, volunteers described to Reuters 25 incidents targeting their kitchens or volunteers in the state since July alone, including more thefts and beatings and the detention of at least 52 people.
Groups that run kitchens there have announced the deaths of at least three volunteers in armed attacks, including one they said was shot and killed by RSF troops in Khartoum’s SHajjarah neighborhood in September. The identities of the other assailants were not immediately clear, and Reuters could not verify the accounts.
“Community kitchens in Sudan are a lifeline for people who are trapped in areas with ongoing conflict,” said Eddie Rowe, the UN World Food Programme’s country director in Sudan.
“By supporting them, WFP is able to get food into the hands of hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine, even in the face of severe access constraints,” he told Reuters, saying the safety of aid workers must be guaranteed.
The RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces did not respond to questions for this article. However, the RSF has previously denied targeting aid workers and said any rogue elements who did so would be brought to justice.
The military has also said it does not target aid workers, but anyone who collaborates with the “rebellious” RSF is subject to arrest.

Marauding troops
UN officials say more than half of Sudan’s population – 25.6 million people – are experiencing acute hunger and need urgent assistance. In the worst-hit areas, residents displaced by fighting or under siege in their homes have resorted to eating dirt and leaves.
Local volunteers founded hundreds of kitchens early in the war that served hot meals — typically a meagre porridge of sorghum, lentils or beans — once or twice a day. But as food prices soared and private donations dwindled, some had to close or reduce services to as little as five times a month.
In North Darfur state, a group that runs kitchens in a camp housing half a million people displaced by ethnically driven violence has repeatedly had to stop serving meals due to insufficient funds, a volunteer there said. A global authority on hunger crises said in August that the conflict and restrictions on aid deliveries have caused famine in the Zamzam camp.
Many communal kitchens are operated by a loose network of community groups known as emergency response rooms, which have tried to sustain basic services, such as water and power, and distribute food and medical supplies.
Both the army and RSF distrust these groups, in part because they include people who were members of grassroots “resistance committees” that led pro-democracy protests during the uprising that toppled former autocrat Omar Al-Bashir in 2019. The volunteers who spoke to Reuters said the objectives of the emergency response rooms are purely humanitarian.
The army joined forces with the RSF to derail the political transition that followed Bashir’s ouster by staging a military coup two years later, but rivalries between them erupted into open warfare in April 2023.
In the worst-hit areas, local volunteers said they were now being targeted weekly or every few days by marauding troops, compared to roughly once a month earlier in the year. Some have started hiding food supplies at different locations to avoid being cleaned out by a single raid.
Reuters spoke to nine volunteers who fled various parts of the country after being targeted by the warring sides.
“These attacks are having a huge negative impact on our work,” Salaheldin said from Cairo. “We are losing our volunteers who are serving their communities.”
In areas where the army retains control, six volunteers described arrests and surveillance that they said drove away people who had helped run kitchens, reducing their capacity to operate.
A UN fact-finding mission discovered that, of 65 cases tried by army-convened courts against alleged “commanders and employees” of the RSF as of June, 63 targeted activists and humanitarian workers. They included members of emergency response rooms, the mission said in its report.
Both sides have deployed siege-like tactics to prevent food and other supplies reaching their opponents, according to relief workers. The RSF and allied militias have also looted aid hubs and plundered harvests, they say.
The warring parties have traded blame for delays in the delivery of food relief, while the RSF has denied looting aid.
Military chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo both said in September that they were committed to facilitating the flow of aid.

Donor reticence
As hunger spreads, emergency response rooms have set up 419 kitchens that aim to serve over 1 million people daily in Khartoum state alone, said Abdallah Gamar, a state organizer. But volunteers have struggled to secure the $1,175,000 needed every month. In September, they received around $614,000, Gamar told Reuters.
In the beginning, most of their support came from the Sudanese diaspora, but the resources of these donors have been depleted, Gamar said.
Aid workers said many foreign donors hesitated to fund kitchens because the groups running them are not registered with the government and often use personal bank accounts.
“There’s a lot of risk aversion when it comes to supporting unregistered platforms,” said Mathilde Vu, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s advocacy manager for Sudan.
Her organization began supporting local responders in Sudan last year, she said. “Now we have seen that a lot of NGOs, UN agencies and donors are starting to realize that we cannot do any humanitarian response — we can’t save lives — without them.”
Some donors are now working through registered intermediaries to get funding to communal kitchens. The WFP, for example, began partnering with local aid groups in July to help some 200 kitchens provide hot meals to up to 175,000 people daily in greater Khartoum, spending more than $2 million to date, said spokesperson Leni Kinzli.
Volunteers welcomed the support but said it can take weeks for money to filter down to kitchens through intermediaries. Cumbersome reporting requirements add to the delays, they said.
“The kitchens work in a sporadic way — there’s no consistent funding,” said Mohamed Abdallah, spokesperson for an emergency response room south of Khartoum. He said his group sometimes has only enough money to provide meals once a week, including in neighborhoods at risk of famine.
Justin Brady, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, said donors need safeguards to ensure funds are used for their intended purpose but have taken steps to simplify the process.
Meanwhile, needs continue to grow.
The arrival of the rainy season over the summer brought flash floods and a heightened risk of deadly diseases such as cholera and malaria, stretching resources even thinner, volunteers said.
Sudan’s currency has fallen around 300 percent against the dollar on the parallel market during the war, and food prices have risen by almost as much, according to WFP surveys.
“In neighborhoods where we had one kitchen, we now need three more,” said Hind Altayif, spokesperson for volunteers in Sharq Al-Nil, a district adjacent to Bahri where she said several people were dying of hunger each month. “As the war goes on, we’ll see more people reaching rock bottom.”
In one Bahri neighborhood, people line up twice a day with bowls and buckets to collect ladles of gruel prepared over a fire in the courtyard of a volunteer’s home. Standing among them are teachers, traders and others cut off from livelihoods.
“We don’t have any food at home because we don’t have the money,” said a 50-year-old housewife, who like others interviewed requested anonymity for safety. “We rely on the community kitchen ... We don’t have an alternative.”


Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies, as memorials mark war anniversary

Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies, as memorials mark war anniversary
Updated 08 October 2024
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Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies, as memorials mark war anniversary

Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies, as memorials mark war anniversary
  • Iran-backed Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli military base south of Haifa, launched another strike on Tiberias
  • Isael says air force is carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon as conflict rages on

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel’s third-largest city, Haifa, and Israel looked poised to expand its offensive into Lebanon on Monday, one year after the devastating Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
Israelis held ceremonies and protests to mark the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack as the Gaza conflict has spread across the Middle East and raised fears of an all-out regional war.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally in Lebanon of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with “Fadi 1” missiles and launched another strike on Tiberias, 65 km (40 miles) away.
The armed group later said it also targeted areas north of Haifa with missiles. Israel’s military said around 190 projectiles had entered Israeli territory on Monday. There were at least 12 injuries.
Israel’s military said the air force was carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon and two Israeli soldiers were killed, taking the Israeli military death toll inside Lebanon to 11.

Smoke rises from destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike hit in Choueifat, southeast of Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)

Lebanon’s health ministry reported dozens of deaths, including 10 firefighters killed in an airstrike on a municipal building in the border area. Around 2,000 Lebanese have been killed since Hezbollah began firing at Israel a year ago in solidarity with Hamas, most of them killed in the past few weeks.
The Israeli military has described its ground operation in Lebanon as “localized, limited and targeted,” but it has steadily increased in scale beginning last week.
Israel’s superpower ally, the United States, believes the Lebanon ground operation continues to be limited, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.
On Monday, Democratic US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump, who is running against Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election, all held events to mark the anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Israeli soldiers have been moving into southern Lebanon. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) says their aim is to clear border areas where Hezbollah fighters have been embedded, with no plans to go deep into Lebanon.
On Monday, Israel within the space of an hour carried out air strikes on 120 targets in southern Lebanon, including against Radwan special forces units, Hezbollah’s missile force and its intelligence directorate.
“This operation follows a series of strikes aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s command, control and firing capabilities, as well as assisting ground forces in achieving their operational goals,” the military said in a statement.
The spiraling conflict has raised concerns that the United States and Iran will be sucked into a wider war in the oil-producing region.
Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel on Oct. 1. Israel has said it will retaliate and is weighing its options. Iran’s oil facilities are a possible target.

ROCKETS HIT HAIFA
An Israeli military statement said five rockets were launched toward Haifa, a major Mediterranean port, from Lebanon and interceptors were fired at them.
The statement said 15 other rockets were fired at Tiberias in northern Israel, some of which were shot down. Israeli media said five more rockets hit the area later.
A surface-to-air missile fired at central Israel from Yemen was also intercepted, the military said. The Iran-backed Houthi movement, which controls northern Yemen, has attacked Israel during the past year in what it says is solidarity with Palestinians under attack in Gaza.
Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war with its surprise attack on Israel one year ago, said it targeted Israel’s commercial capital, Tel Aviv, with a missile salvo, setting off sirens.
Many Israelis have regained confidence in their long-vaunted military and intelligence after deadly blows in recent weeks to the command structure of Iran’s proxy force Hezbollah.
“We are changing the security reality in our region, for our children’s sake, for our future, to ensure that what happened on Oct. 7 does not happen again,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem marking the Gaza war anniversary.

CONFLICT SPREADS
Israeli airstrikes have displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon, and Israel’s intensified bombing campaign has left many Lebanese worried their country will experience the vast scale of destruction wrought on Gaza by Israel.
Israeli forces issued a warning in Arabic to beachgoers and boat users to avoid a stretch of the Lebanese coast, saying it would soon begin operations against Hezbollah from the sea.
The ceremonies in Israel on Monday included a memorial event for victims of the Nova Music Festival, where militants killed 364 people and kidnapped 44 partygoers and staff on Oct. 7 last year.
In a shock rampage through Israeli towns and kibbutz villages near the Gaza border a year ago, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
The huge security lapse led to the single deadliest day for Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.
The Hamas assault unleashed an Israeli offensive on Gaza that has largely flattened the densely populated enclave and killed almost 42,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.


Israel army begins operations against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon

Israel army begins operations against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon
Updated 3 min 29 sec ago
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Israel army begins operations against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon

Israel army begins operations against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon
  • The military said its 146th Division began “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” against Hezbollah targets
  • Israeli ground operations inside southern Lebanon began on September 30

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had launched targeted raids against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon, expanding its ground operations along the country’s coastline after deploying more troops.
On its Telegram channel, the military said its 146th Division began “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon.
While the military has not disclosed how many troops are operating inside Lebanon, the Times of Israel newspaper reported the number likely exceeds 15,000.
The 146th division is the first reserve division to operate in southern Lebanon as part of the ongoing operations against Hezbollah, the military said.
It previously served in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli ground operations inside southern Lebanon began on September 30.
The military describing them as “limited, localized, and targeted raids” aimed at dismantling Hezbollah’s infrastructure.
Initially concentrated in the south and southeast of Lebanon, the Israeli military operations have now been extended to the southwest.