Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine

Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine
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A Sudanese woman from a community kitchen, run by local volunteers, prepares a meal for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman. (Reuters)
Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine
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Sudanese women from community kitchens, run by local volunteers, prepare meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan. (Reuters)
Sudan’s warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine
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Sudanese women from community kitchens run by local volunteers prepare meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan. (Reuters)
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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.”


‘Bulldozer’ Katz, long-time ally of Israel’s Netanyahu

‘Bulldozer’ Katz, long-time ally of Israel’s Netanyahu
Updated 06 November 2024
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‘Bulldozer’ Katz, long-time ally of Israel’s Netanyahu

‘Bulldozer’ Katz, long-time ally of Israel’s Netanyahu
  • Katz, 69, labelled by Israeli media as a “bulldozer” for his direct and sometimes abrasive style, is considered both close and loyal to Netanyahu

JERUSALEM: Israel’s new Defense Minister Israel Katz, known for his abrasive style, is a long-time ally and loyalist of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a dramatic announcement late on Tuesday, Netanyahu sacked defense minister Yoav Gallant over what he said was a breakdown in trust during the Gaza war against Hamas.
“Over the past few months that trust has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defense minister,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.
The statement added that he had appointed Foreign Minister Israel Katz to take Gallant’s place.
Katz, 69, labelled by Israeli media as a “bulldozer” for his direct and sometimes abrasive style, is considered both close and loyal to Netanyahu.
After his appointment, Katz vowed to defeat Israel’s enemies and achieve the country’s war goals.
“We will work together to lead the defense establishment to victory over our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of all hostages as the most important moral mission, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the containment of Iranian aggression, and the safe return of the residents of the north and south to their homes,” he said in a statement.
A member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, in which he was previously president of the party’s convention, Katz has held multiple cabinet roles going back to 2003.
As foreign minister, Katz drew international attention for his pointed attacks on world leaders and international organizations that had expressed opposition to Israeli military actions, particularly in Gaza.
He spearheaded a diplomatic battle against the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and last month Israel’s parliament banned the agency from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem.
On Monday, Katz instructed his ministry to formally notify the United Nations that Israel was canceling its agreements with UNRWA.
Last month Katz triggered outrage when he declared UN chief Antonio Guterres “persona non grata in Israel” and wrote in a post on X that he would ban him from entering the country.
Before serving as foreign minister, Katz’s most notable role was as minister of transport.
He spent a decade in the post from 2009-2019, but had also held the energy and finance portfolios in various Netanyahu cabinets.
Aviv Bushinsky, a political commentator and Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, told AFP that Katz was likely to be more in tune with the prime minister than his predecessor Gallant.
“I cannot recall an incident when Israel Katz was in opposition to Netanyahu with anything,” Bushinsky said.
“It is true he does not have any military experience, but he was a very good transport minister and has sat in the cabinet for many years,” he added.
“Besides, Netanyahu thinks he can run the show himself — and he has managed to run the show even though Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, two generals, quit the government.”
Born in the coastal city of Ashkelon, Katz has been a prominent player in Israeli politics since becoming a member of parliament, the Knesset, in 1998.
Today he is among the highest-ranking ministers in the Likud party.
Married with two children, Katz is a resident of Moshav Kfar Ahim in southern Israel.


Gideon Saar, Netanyahu rival turned Israel’s new wartime foreign minister

Gideon Saar, Netanyahu rival turned Israel’s new wartime foreign minister
Updated 06 November 2024
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Gideon Saar, Netanyahu rival turned Israel’s new wartime foreign minister

Gideon Saar, Netanyahu rival turned Israel’s new wartime foreign minister
  • Saar was appointed foreign minister to replace Israel Katz, who took over the defense portfolio on Tuesday after Netanyahu fired Yoav Gallant over an erosion of trust during the Gaza war

JERUSALEM: A self-styled political rebel and once a rival of the prime minister, Gideon Saar was named Israel’s new foreign minister on Tuesday.
Just five years ago Saar openly challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the leadership of Israel’s right-wing Likud party.
The former journalist and lawyer then left Likud in 2020, saying it had been corrupted under Netanyahu’s leadership, to form the hawkish, right-wing New Hope party.
Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last year, Saar joined the emergency war cabinet, before leaving the administration.
In September, he joined Netanyahu’s government as minister without a portfolio.
“As a long-time member of the government and cabinet, Gideon Saar brings substantial experience and sound judgment in security and policy matters, making him a valuable addition to our leadership team,” Netanyahu said Tuesday in a statement issued by his office.
“The addition of Saar and his party will strengthen the coalition and stabilize the government, which is crucial at all times, particularly in times of war.”
Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza since the militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,391 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry, figures considered reliable by the UN.
Saar was appointed foreign minister to replace Israel Katz, who took over the defense portfolio on Tuesday after Netanyahu fired Yoav Gallant over an erosion of trust during the Gaza war.
Gallant had for months clashed with Netanyahu over his approach to talks on a possible hostage release deal and on the future of Gaza.
Israeli media earlier this year quoted Gallant as privately telling a parliamentary committee that a hostage release deal “is stalling... in part because of Israel.”
Netanyahu’s office accused Gallant of adopting an “anti-Israel narrative.”
Saar entered politics in 1999 as government secretary, before being elected to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in 2003.
He rose through the ranks to become interior minister and education minister in previous Netanyahu governments.
In 2021 he joined the government of former prime minister Naftali Bennett as justice minister with the title of deputy prime minister.
His political star had, however, dimmed in recent years.
Though he participated in the emergency government formed in the wake of the October 7 attack, he joined the opposition in March after failing to get a seat in the war cabinet.
He is considered more right-wing than Netanyahu, but lacks his charisma.
He has spoken out in favor of the all-out annexation of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
His ideology is “that of the Likud” but he believes that the party has “abandoned its values under Netanyahu,” deputy Sharren Haskel, a close friend of Saar’s, told AFP.
With a father who grew up in Argentina and a mother with roots in Uzbekistan, Saar calls himself a practicing Jew while affirming that “every Israeli citizen must be able to live freely according to his conscience and way of life.”
He is married to high-profile Israeli journalist Geula Even, with whom he has two children.
A daughter from his first marriage, Alona Saar, is a popular actress.


Turkiye, Kyrgyzstan sign strategic partnership on Erdogan visit

Turkiye, Kyrgyzstan sign strategic partnership on Erdogan visit
Updated 06 November 2024
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Turkiye, Kyrgyzstan sign strategic partnership on Erdogan visit

Turkiye, Kyrgyzstan sign strategic partnership on Erdogan visit
  • Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov said in a statement: “We have taken an important decision to raise the level of strategic partnership between Kyrgyzstan and Turkiye to that of a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’“

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: Turkiye and Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday agreed to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” boosting defense ties, during an official visit to the Central Asian state by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ankara is strengthening its presence across the region, as it seeks to compete with the likes of Russia and China for influence.
Erdogan regularly visits Central Asia and will on Wednesday take part in a summit of the Organization of Turkic States, a Turkish-led initiative to promote its culture and ties across several former Soviet republics.
Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov said in a statement: “We have taken an important decision to raise the level of strategic partnership between Kyrgyzstan and Turkiye to that of a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership.’“
The two sides signed 19 agreements in areas including energy, defense and the fight against terrorism.
Japarov hailed “Kyrgyz-Turkish cooperation in the field of defense and the potential for further development.”
Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkiye has stepped up military cooperation with Central Asian states, a challenge to Moscow’s historic supremacy in the region.
Turkiye was the third-biggest investor in Kyrgyzstan in the first half of 2024, behind Russia and China.
But it lags in terms of trade, accounting for 3.8 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s imports and exports, against 34.2 percent for China and 19.5 percent for Russia.
 

 


Turkiye sacks 3 pro-Kurdish mayors for ‘terror ties’

Turkiye sacks 3 pro-Kurdish mayors for ‘terror ties’
Updated 06 November 2024
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Turkiye sacks 3 pro-Kurdish mayors for ‘terror ties’

Turkiye sacks 3 pro-Kurdish mayors for ‘terror ties’

ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Monday sacked three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeast on alleged “terrorism” charges, despite Ankara’s apparent desire to seek a rapprochement with the Kurdish community.

In a sweep, the mayors of the cities of Mardin and Batman as well as the Halfeti district in Sanliurfa province were all removed and replaced with government-appointed trustees, the Interior Ministry said.

All three belong to DEM, the main pro-Kurdish party, and were elected in March’s local elections, when opposition candidates won in numerous towns and cities, including Istanbul.

Among those removed were Ahmet Turk, Mardin’s 82-year- old mayor, along with Batman mayor Gulistan Sonuk and Mehmet Karayilan in Halfeti.

The ministry outlined a string of allegations against them, frommembershipinanarmed group to disseminating propaganda for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as PKK.

Since 1984, the PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state in which more than 40,000 people have died. It is blacklisted as a “terror” group by Turkiye and its Western allies.

Kurds make up around 20 percent of Turkiye’s overall population.

DEM swiftly denounced the moveas“amajorattackonthe Kurdish people’s right to vote and be elected.”


Red Cross launches international emergency appeal urging donors to provide resources for Lebanon

Red Cross launches international emergency appeal urging donors to provide resources for Lebanon
Updated 06 November 2024
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Red Cross launches international emergency appeal urging donors to provide resources for Lebanon

Red Cross launches international emergency appeal urging donors to provide resources for Lebanon

BEIRUT: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Tuesday launched an international emergency appeal asking donors to provide resources for Lebanon during the Israel-Hezbollah war.
IFRC also called on all parties to protect paramedics in the conflict that has left thousands of people dead and wounded, many of them over the past six weeks.
Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told The Associated Press in Beirut that “needs are just growing so fast.” He met with officials and toured shelters housing people displaced by the conflict.
The IFRC said its emergency appeal for 100 million Swiss Francs ($115.8 million) is aimed at helping Lebanon and the Lebanese Red Cross through the ongoing conflict.

Jagan Chapagain, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP)

The 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 3,000 people, wounded over 13,000 in Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of the displaced are staying in shelters around the small nation that is passing through a historic economic crisis.
In northern Israel, 68 soldiers and 41 civilians have been killed since October 2023, according to the prime minister’s office. More than 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
The conflict dramatically escalated on Sept. 23, with intense Israeli airstrikes on south and east Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, leaving hundreds dead and leading to the displacement of nearly 1.2 million people.
Chapagain said people staying in community centers around the country need hygiene kits, non-food items, blankets and heaters as winter approaches. He added that even if the hostilities stop, it will take time for things to go back to normal and that is one of the reasons why the IFRC’s emergency appeal goes for two years.
“The global community needs to come together to find a political solution to the challenges this region has been facing for decades,” Chapagain said.
He said that more than 30 staff and volunteers globally have already been killed this year and dozens injured adding that many other organizations have also lost members of their staff.
“This is something unheard of many years ago,” he said about the 30 deaths, adding that among the countries where paramedics suffered most are Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Sudan.
In Lebanon, 17 members of the Lebanese Red Cross have been wounded since the conflict began while carrying out their rescue duties in different parts of Lebanon. Three of the 17 paramedics were wounded twice, according to IFRC.
“The Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems are protected,” said Chapagain.