At least 12 die, 10 missing as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia

Update At least 12 die, 10 missing as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia
Tunisian coast guards patrol the area off Tunisia's northern town of Bizerte on March 30, 2017. (File/AFP)
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Updated 30 September 2024
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At least 12 die, 10 missing as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia

At least 12 die, 10 missing as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia
  • Human Rights Observatory, a local rights group, said that all the migrants on board were Tunisians bar two Moroccans

At least 12 Tunisians including three children were found dead after a migrant boat capsized off the coast of the southeastern island of Djerba on Monday, a judicial official said.
The boat went down at dawn and 29 people were rescued, Medenine court spokesman Fethi Baccouche told AFP, adding five men and four women were among the dead, and that the cause of the sinking remained unknown.
The Tunisian National Guard said it was alerted by four migrants who swam back ashore.
Tunisia and neighboring Libya have become key departure points for migrants seeking better lives in Europe, often risking dangerous Mediterranean crossings.
The exodus is fueled by Tunisia’s stagnant economy, with only 0.4 percent of growth in 2023 and unemployment soaring.
The North African country has also been shaken by political tensions, after President Kais Saied orchestrated a sweeping power grab in July 2021.
Each year, tens of thousands of people attempt to make the crossing, with Italy — whose Lampedusa island is only 150 kilometers (90 miles) away — often their first port of call.
Since January 1, at least 103 makeshift boats have capsized and 341 bodies have been recovered off Tunisia’s coast, the government says.
Last year, more than 1,300 people died or disappeared last year in shipwrecks off Tunisia, according to the FTDES rights group.
The International Organization for Migration has said more than 30,309 migrants have died in the Mediterranean in the past decade, including more than 3,000 last year.


Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks

Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks
Updated 8 sec ago
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Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks

Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks
  • UK’s Maritime Trade Operations said it received an alert from the master of a ship sailing southwest of Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah that an unidentified projectile had struck the ship
  • Ambrey, another UK marine security agency, gave the same information about the incident off Yemen’s Hodeidah

AL-MUKALLA: Multiple attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia caused minor damage to a commercial ship bound for Oman in the Red Sea on Thursday morning in the latest in a series of incidents.

The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations said it received an alert from the master of a ship sailing southwest of Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah that an unidentified projectile had struck the ship, causing damage but no fire or casualties.

Hours later, the UK’s marine agency sent two messages saying that the master had also reported three unidentified projectiles exploding near the ship, causing no damage.

Ambrey, another UK marine security agency, gave the same information about the incident off Yemen’s Hodeidah, identifying the attacked ship as a chemical tanker flying the Liberian flag and traveling from Saudi Arabia to Oman.

The Houthis have sunk two ships since November, seizing one with its crew, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at more than 100 ships in the Red Sea and other international shipping lanes in a campaign that the Yemeni militia claims is in support of Palestinians under attack from Israel.

The Houthis say that the group is only targeting Israeli-linked ships or ships owned by companies that do business with Israeli ports, in order to put pressure on Israel to end its war in the Gaza Strip.

Critics say that the Houthis are using public outrage in Yemen over the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza to recruit new fighters, increase public support, and divert attention away from the militia’s failures to improve public services and pay public salaries.

The news comes a day after the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said that the number of people abducted by the Houthis for celebrating the 1962 revolution had surpassed 434, and that the Houthis had banned people from celebrating the revolution in areas under the militia’s control.

The Yemeni rights group has demanded that the Houthis stop harassing those who celebrate the event; bring operatives who abducted those people to justice; and that the UN’s Yemen envoy, the US’ Yemen envoy, and international rights organizations put pressure on the Houthis to release the abductees.

The organization said: “The network (has) urged the Houthi militias to halt their brutal attacks and immediately release all those abducted for celebrating Yemeni Revolution Day.”

The Houthis have abducted hundreds of Yemenis who were commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the 1962 revolution, as well as suppressing celebratory gatherings in Sanaa, Ibb, and other Yemeni areas.

Meanwhile, Hamid Abdullah Hussein Al-Ahmar, a Yemeni politician and businessman, has said he will challenge US sanctions against him for supporting Hamas, saying that his actions were “compatible” with Yemeni laws and international charters that supported the Palestinian people.

Al-Ahmar said: “This unjustified decision is yet another example of America’s blatant bias toward injustice and occupation, as well as an illegitimate attempt to criminalize my modest legal and humanitarian efforts in support of the Palestinian people’s just cause.”

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Monday imposed sanctions on Al-Ahmar — who has been in exile since the Houthis seized power in Yemen a decade ago — as well as other individuals and businesses, accusing them of supporting Hamas.

Al-Ahmar is a Yemeni member of parliament who owns major media, banking, oil, and real estate companies in Yemen and elsewhere.


Lebanon state media says Israeli strike hits central Beirut

Smoke rises as a building collapses in Beirut's southern suburbs in Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises as a building collapses in Beirut's southern suburbs in Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP)
Updated 1 min 37 sec ago
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Lebanon state media says Israeli strike hits central Beirut

Smoke rises as a building collapses in Beirut's southern suburbs in Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP)
  • “An enemy strike targeted the area of Ras Al-Nabaa-Nweiri” residential neighborhoods, adding that ambulances rushed to the targeted sites
  • A security official said the strikes hit two locations in the area of Nweiri

BEIRUT: State media said an Israeli strike hit the central area of Lebanon’s capital on Thursday, the third such attack on Beirut since Israel escalated its air campaign last month.
Israel has repeatedly pounded southern Beirut suburbs, the bastion of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, bastion for more than two weeks but strikes have rarely hit in the city’s center.
“An enemy strike targeted the area of Ras Al-Nabaa-Nweiri” residential neighborhoods, adding that ambulances rushed to the targeted sites.
An AFP journalist in Beirut heard three loud explosions.
A security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that the strikes hit two locations in the area of Nweiri.
AFP live footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing in between densely-packed buildings where lights were still on in the windows.
Last month, Israeli bombing killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in south Beirut.


Activists report spike in mass civilian deaths after Sudan’s army ups airstrikes

Activists report spike in mass civilian deaths after Sudan’s army ups airstrikes
Updated 27 min 30 sec ago
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Activists report spike in mass civilian deaths after Sudan’s army ups airstrikes

Activists report spike in mass civilian deaths after Sudan’s army ups airstrikes
  • Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese human rights group, said hundreds of people had been killed in such strikes across the country
  • It did not state the period of time for that casualty toll but said it demonstrated “the armed forces’ indifference to protecting defenseless civilians“

CAIRO: Rights activists and local responders said scores of civilians had been killed at sites across Sudan in the past week as the army escalates air strikes nearly 18 months into its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
While the RSF controls almost half of the country, the army has recently deployed its superior air power to help it regain some territory in the capital Khartoum, and to pound other areas occupied by its rivals.
Sudan’s war, which erupted from a power struggle between the army and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule and free elections, has already created the world’s largest displacement crisis and caused famine.
Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese human rights group, said hundreds of people had been killed in such strikes across the country. It did not state the period of time for that casualty toll but said it demonstrated “the armed forces’ indifference to protecting defenseless civilians.”
In Hasaheisa, a town in El Gezira state south of Khartoum where the RSF has stationed many fighters, airstrikes killed or injured over 100 people on Monday, Emergency Lawyers said.
An activist from the area said at least 38 people were killed, mostly children. He shared video with Reuters of the aftermath of the strike appearing to show a residential area.
In the North Kordofan town of Humrat Alsheikh, west of Khartoum, an airstrike on Oct. 5 killed 30 people and injured more than 100, Emergency Lawyers said, posting a video that appeared to show a market that had been hit.
Reuters could not independently verify the footage in either video.
A day earlier, a strike that hit another market in Al-Koma in North Darfur killed 61 people, according to the local emergency response room. Those killed included 13 children, UN agency UNICEF said.
The army, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has accused the RSF of occupying civilian homes and launching attacks from civilian areas. The RSF denies using civilians as human shields.
FIGHTING LIKELY TO INTENSIFY
Yale Humanitarian Lab, which monitors the war in Sudan, said the army had also carried out a significant campaign of bombardment in RSF-controlled areas of Al-Fashir, a North Darfur city that the paramilitary has besieged for months.
The army’s advance in the capital, which began in late September, has also led to reported casualties. Radhouane Nouicer, Sudan expert for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed alarm at reports, some of which circulated on social media, of the summary execution of 70 young men by forces allied to the army in Bahri, part of the greater capital region.
Fighting is expected to intensify with the end of rains that had halted the RSF’s advance in southeast Sudan. The RSF’s leader called on troops to report to their units and said they were prepared to fight on for years.
Overall death tolls from the war are highly uncertain due to the collapse of health and government services, and lack of access for aid workers. Both sides have received material support from external supporters.
“The uptick in fighting and reported civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure are all happening while more weapons are finding their way to the warring parties,” said Mohamed Osman of Human Rights Watch.


Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘misleading’ Lebanon evacuation orders

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP)
Updated 10 October 2024
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Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘misleading’ Lebanon evacuation orders

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP)
  • Callamard said the warning included “misleading maps” and were issued “at short notice — in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began”
  • “The conditions being created by Israel’s actions in south Lebanon risk forcibly displacing the majority of the civilian population there,” Amnesty said

BEIRUT: Amnesty International accused Israel on Thursday of “misleading” and sometimes inadequate calls for residents to evacuate parts of the country, expressing concern the warnings intend to massively uproot southerners.
Since September 23, Israel has launched an intense air campaign that has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and displaced over a million more from their homes, according to official figures.
“Warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahiyeh, the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, were inadequate,” Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
The group said it analyzed more than a dozen evacuation warnings and maps and conducted interviews with residents of south Beirut and south Lebanon.
Callamard said the warning included “misleading maps” and were issued “at short notice — in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began — in the middle of the night, via social media” when many are asleep, she added.
The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson has been routinely issuing evacuation orders online ahead of expected strikes mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
“Israel’s warnings in southern Lebanon covered large geographical areas, raising concerns as to whether they were designed instead to trigger mass relocation,” Amnesty said.
“The conditions being created by Israel’s actions in south Lebanon risk forcibly displacing the majority of the civilian population there,” it added.
Last week, Israel also announced it was conducting “targeted” ground incursions in Lebanon’s south.
Analysts had previously told AFP Israel’s aim in expanding its activity at the border could be to create a buffer zone in Lebanon’s south, where Hezbollah holds sway.
Israel has issued calls to evacuate 118 south Lebanon towns and villages in the first week of October, Amnesty said.
The group warned that evacuation calls “do not make south Lebanon a free-fire zone” where remaining civilians as seen as targets and urged Israel to abide by international law to minimize harm to civilians.
One quarter of Lebanese territory is under Israeli military displacement orders, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
On September 27, an Israeli air strike killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had led the group for 32 years, in the group’s south Beirut stronghold.
The latest escalation followed a year of near-daily fire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, which the group launched in support of ally Hamas after its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.


Italy summons Israeli ambassador after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon: govt source

Italy summons Israeli ambassador after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon: govt source
Updated 10 October 2024
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Italy summons Israeli ambassador after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon: govt source

Italy summons Israeli ambassador after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon: govt source
  • The UNIFIL force said that Israeli tank fire on its headquarters wounded two members

ROME: Italy’s defense minister summoned the Israeli ambassador Thursday, a government source told AFP, after the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said it had been hit by Israeli tank fire.
The UNIFIL force, which has some 10,000 peacekeepers in south Lebanon, said that Israeli tank fire on its headquarters wounded two members, as Israeli troops battle Hezbollah militants on the border.