No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win

No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win
Sudan has seen a surge in extreme violence in recent weeks as the warring military and paramilitary push for a decisive victory, with no political solution in sight. (AFP/File)
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Updated 13 November 2024
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No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win

No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win
  • Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs said: “Let me stress that both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence“
  • “All indicators so far show that both sides are committed to military solutions, with no genuine interest in political resolutions,” said Mohamed Osman of HRW

CAIRO: Sudan has seen a surge in extreme violence in recent weeks as the warring military and paramilitary push for a decisive victory, with no political solution in sight.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has intensified since late October, with reports of attacks on civilians including sexual violence against women and girls raising alarm.
The war that erupted in April 2023 has created what the UN calls the world’s worst displacement crises, with more than 11 million people forced from their homes.
It has put the country on the brink of famine, and sparked warnings of intensifying violence in a war that has already killed tens of thousands.
“Over the last two weeks, the situation in the country has been marked by some of the most extreme violence since the start of the conflict,” according to Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
“Let me stress that both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence,” she said, adding that both sides “seem convinced they can prevail on the battlefield.”
Since October 20, at least 124 civilians have been killed in central Al-Jazira state and another 135,000 have fled to other states, according to the UN.
With global attention focused on other wars, chiefly in Ukraine and the Middle East, civilians in Sudan are paying a steep price for the escalation.
“All indicators so far show that both sides are committed to military solutions, with no genuine interest in political resolutions or even easing the suffering of civilians,” according to Mohamed Osman of Human Rights Watch.
Amani Al-Taweel, director of the Africa program at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, agreed.
“There is no political solution on the horizon,” she told AFP, adding that both sides were seeking a “decisive military solution.”
The war in Sudan has pitted army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his erstwhile ally Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the RSF.
The country is split into zones of control, with the army holding the north and east, and the government based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
The RSF controls much of the capital Khartoum, the Darfur region in the west and parts of Kordofan in the south, while the center is split.
With no mandatory military conscription, the Sudanese army includes Islamist-leaning forces as well as other factions.
The RSF is primarily made up of tribal militias from Darfur’s Arab communities.
According to local reports, the army has about 120,000 troops while the RSF has 100,000.
On the battlefield, Sudan’s air force gives the military an advantage.
Rights groups have accused both sides of committing atrocities.
The UN population agency published on Tuesday horrific accounts of women and girls fleeing the violence, including one who said she was urged to kill herself with a knife rather than be raped.
Successive rounds of talks have been held in Saudi Arabia, but the negotiations have yet to produce a ceasefire.
In August, the Sudanese military opted out of US-brokered negotiations in Switzerland and an African Union-led mediation has also stalled.
“The deadlock in peaceful channels, whether regionally or internationally, is exacerbating the violence,” said Mahmud Zakaria, a professor of political science at Cairo University’s Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies.
Since October, the RSF escalated its attacks in Al-Jazira state, south of Khartoum, following what the military said was the defection of one of its commanders to the army.
Before the war, Al-Jazira was known as Sudan’s breadbasket, hosting Africa’s largest agricultural project, yielding 65 percent of the country’s cotton, according to Zakaria.
Some areas have been scarred by conflict before.
Darfur saw a major war two decades ago, during which the then-government’s allies in the Janjaweed militia faced accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
With roots in the Janjaweed, the RSF became a force in its own right in 2013.
Sudan’s conflict has increasingly drawn in regional powers, prompting the United States to urge all countries to stop arming rival generals.
Former Egyptian deputy foreign minister for African affairs Ali el-Hefny said progress will require global willpower.


UNRWA chief says pausing aid delivery through key Gaza-Israel crossing

UNRWA chief says pausing aid delivery through key Gaza-Israel crossing
Updated 19 sec ago
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UNRWA chief says pausing aid delivery through key Gaza-Israel crossing

UNRWA chief says pausing aid delivery through key Gaza-Israel crossing
  • Delivery through Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing has been paused due to unsafe route and looting by armed gangs inside Gaza
The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees is pausing the delivery of aid through the key Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza because of security concerns, its chief said Sunday.
“We are pausing the delivery of aid through Kerem Shalom... The road out of this crossing has not been safe for months. On 16 November, a large convoy of aid trucks was stolen by armed gangs. Yesterday, we tried to bring in a few food trucks on the same route. They were all taken,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

Turkish-backed Syrian militants blocked Kurdish plan, Turkish security sources say

Turkish-backed Syrian militants blocked Kurdish plan, Turkish security sources say
Updated 01 December 2024
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Turkish-backed Syrian militants blocked Kurdish plan, Turkish security sources say

Turkish-backed Syrian militants blocked Kurdish plan, Turkish security sources say
  • Militants blocked an attempt by Kurdish groups to establish a corridor connecting Tel Rifaat to northeastern Syria

ANKARA: Turkiye-backed Syrian militants who are fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad have blocked an attempt by Kurdish groups to establish a corridor connecting Tel Rifaat to northeastern Syria, Turkish security sources said on Sunday.
Turkiye refers to this group of rebels as Syrian National Army.
The sources said that Kurdish groups, including the PKK and YPG, had sought to take advantage of Syrian government forces withdrawing from parts of the country under the control of Assad’s forces.
The corridor would have linked the Kurdish-held northeastern regions to Tel Rifaat, a strategic area northwest of Aleppo.


Iran says to ‘firmly support’ Damascus after militant attacks

Iran says to ‘firmly support’ Damascus after militant attacks
Updated 28 min 10 sec ago
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Iran says to ‘firmly support’ Damascus after militant attacks

Iran says to ‘firmly support’ Damascus after militant attacks
  • Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi will leave Tehran for Damascus on Sunday

Tehran: Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said Sunday he will leave Tehran for Damascus to deliver a message of support for Syria’s government and armed forces, state media said, after a lighting advance by rebels.
Tehran has been a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad during the civil war that broke out in 2011. Iran maintains it does not have combat troops in Syria, only officers who provide military advice and training.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, of Lebanon, has for years fought on the side of the Syrian government.
“I am going to Damascus to convey the message of the Islamic Republic to the Syrian government,” Araghchi said, emphasising Tehran will “firmly support the Syrian government and army,” the IRNA state news agency reported.
Islamist-led rebels on Saturday seized Aleppo’s airport and dozens of nearby towns after overrunning most of Syria’s second city Aleppo, a war monitor said.
Syria’s army confirmed that the rebels had entered “large parts” of the city of around two million people and said “dozens of men from our armed forces were killed.”
Araghchi again called the surprise rebel offensive a plot by the United States and Israel.
“The Syrian army will once again win over these terrorist groups as in the past,” the foreign minister added.
An Iranian news agency reported earlier that a general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in Syria on Thursday during the fighting.
On Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry said its consulate in Aleppo had come under attack, but staff members were safe.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Araghchi who will visit Ankara for consultations with Turkish officials after his stop in Damascus.
Since 2020, the rebel enclave in Syria’s northwestern Idlib region has been subject to a Turkish- and Russian-brokered truce that had largely been holding despite repeated violations.
But the insurgents’ launch on Wednesday of a surprise offensive against the city of Aleppo shattered the truce, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighboring Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Syrian government had regained control of a large part of the country in 2015 with the support of its Russian and Iranian allies, and in 2016 the entire city of Aleppo.


Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, Cairo holds fresh talks with Hamas

Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, Cairo holds fresh talks with Hamas
Updated 01 December 2024
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Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, Cairo holds fresh talks with Hamas

Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, Cairo holds fresh talks with Hamas
  • The strike in the Muwasi area is a sprawling tent camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people
  • Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes killed at least 15 Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, medics said, as Israeli forces kept up bombardments across the enclave and blew up houses on its northern edge.
In the central Gaza camp of Nuseirat, an Israeli airstrike killed six people in a house, and another attack killed three in a home in Gaza City, medics said.
Two children were killed when a missile hit a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while four other people were killed in an airstrike in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics told Reuters.
Residents said the military blew up clusters of houses in the northern Gaza areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, where Israeli forces have operated since October this year.
Palestinians say Israel’s operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone — an allegation the army denies.
The military says it has killed hundreds of Hamas militants there as it fights to stop the faction regrouping almost 14 months since the war in Gaza started. Hamas’s armed wing says it has killed many Israeli forces in anti-tank rocket and mortar fire attacks, and in ambushes with explosive devices since the new operation started.

Prisoners, Talks
Two Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli custody, prisoner advocacy groups said on Sunday, bringing the number of detainees reported killed since the start of the war to 47.
They named the two men as Mohammad Idris and Muath Rayyan, both in their 30s.
The Israel Prison Service said the cases were not under its jurisdiction and there was no immediate comment from the military which runs detention camps.
Israel has denied accusations from Palestinian and international human rights organizations that detainees have been mistreated and tortured in its jails and detention camps.
Meanwhile, Hamas leaders held talks in Cairo with Egyptian security officials to explore ways to reach a deal with Israel that could secure the release of hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners.
The visit was the first since the United States announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas is seeking an agreement that would end the war while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war will only end when Hamas is eradicated.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,300 people and displaced nearly all of the enclave’s population, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruins.
The conflict when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.


Syrian militants expand offensive after taking Aleppo

Syrian militants expand offensive after taking Aleppo
Updated 01 December 2024
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Syrian militants expand offensive after taking Aleppo

Syrian militants expand offensive after taking Aleppo
  • Thousands of fighters move to nearby province, facing almost no defense from government forces
  • Syria’s President Bashar Assad says will defeat militants no matter how much their attacks intensify

BEIRUT: Thousands of Syrian militants took over most of Aleppo on Saturday, establishing positions in the country’s largest city and controlling its airport before expanding their shock offensive to a nearby province. They faced little to no resistance from government troops, according to fighters and activists.

A war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham seized control of Aleppo International airport, the first international airport to be controlled by insurgents. The fighters claimed they seized the airport and posted pictures from there.

Thousands of fighters also moved on, facing almost no opposition from government forces, to seize towns and villages in northern Hama, a province where they had a presence before being expelled by government troops in 2016. They claimed Saturday evening to have entered the city of Hama.

A huge embarrassment for Assad

The swift and surprise offensive is a huge embarrassment for Syria’s President Bashar Assad and raises questions about his armed forces’ preparedness. The insurgent offensive launched from their stronghold in the country’s northwest appeared to have been planned for years. It also comes at a time when Assad’s allies were preoccupied with their own conflicts.

In his first public comments since the start of the offensive, released by the state news agency Saturday evening, Assad said Syria will continue to “defend its stability and territorial integrity against terrorists and their supporters.” He added that Syria is able to defeat them no matter how much their attacks intensify.

Turkiye, a main backer of Syrian opposition groups, said its diplomatic efforts had failed to stop government attacks on opposition-held areas in recent weeks, which were in violation of a de-escalation agreement sponsored by Russia, Iran and Ankara. Turkish security officials said a limited offensive by the militants was planned to stop government attacks and allow civilians to return, but the offensive expanded as Syrian government forces began to retreat from their positions.

The insurgents, led by the Salafi militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and including Turkiye-backed fighters, launched their shock offensive on Wednesday. They first staged a two-pronged attack in Aleppo and the Idlib countryside, entering Aleppo two days later and securing a strategic town that lies on the highway that links Syria’s largest city to the capital and the coast.

By Saturday evening, they seized at least four towns in the central Hama province and claimed to have entered the provincial capital. The insurgents staged an attempt to reclaim areas they controlled in Hama in 2017 but failed.

Preparing a counterattack

Syria’s armed forces said in a statement Saturday that to absorb the large attack on Aleppo and save lives, it redeployed troops and equipment and was preparing a counterattack. The statement acknowledged that insurgents entered large parts of the city but said they have not established bases or checkpoints. Later on Saturday, the armed forces sought to dispel what it said were lies in reference to reports about its forces retreating or defecting, saying the general command was carrying out its duties in “combatting terrorist organizations.”

The return of the insurgents to Aleppo was their first since 2016, following a grueling military campaign in which Assad’s forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.

The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and militant fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war. After appearing to be losing control of the country to the militants, the Aleppo battle secured Assad’s hold on strategic areas of Syria, with opposition factions and their foreign backers controlling areas on the periphery.

The lightning offensive threatened to reignite the country’s civil war, which had been largely in a stalemate for years.

Late on Friday, witnesses said two airstrikes hit the edge of Aleppo city, targeting insurgent reinforcements and falling near residential areas. The Observatory said 20 fighters were killed.

Insurgents were filmed outside police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo citadel, the medieval palace in the old city center, and one of the largest in the world. They tore down posters of Assad, stepping on some and burning others.

The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas.

The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battles at home. A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect Wednesday, the same day that Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive. Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days.

Insurgents raise flags over the Aleppo citadel

Speaking from the heart of the city in Saadallah Aljabri square, opposition fighter Mohammad Al-Abdo said it was his first time back in Aleppo in 13 years, when his older brother was killed at the start of the war.

“God willing, the rest of Aleppo province will be liberated” from government forces, he said.

There was light traffic in the city center on Saturday. Opposition fighters fired in the air in celebration but there was no sign of clashes or government troops present.

Journalists in the city filmed soldiers captured by the insurgents and the bodies of others killed in battle.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher who fled Aleppo in 2016 and returned Friday night after hearing the insurgents were inside, described “mixed feelings of pain, sadness and old memories.”

“As I entered Aleppo, I kept telling myself this is impossible. How did this happen?”

Alhamdo said he strolled through the city at night visiting the Aleppo citadel, where the insurgents raised their flags, a major square and the university of Aleppo, as well as the last spot he was in before he was forced to leave for the countryside.

“I walked in (the empty) streets of Aleppo, shouting, ‘People, people of Aleppo. We are your sons,’” he told The Associated Press in a series of messages.

City’s hospitals are full

Aleppo residents reported hearing clashes and gunfire but most stayed indoors. Some fled the fighting.

Schools and government offices were closed Saturday as most people stayed indoors, according to Sham FM radio, a pro-government station. Bakeries were open. Witnesses said the insurgents deployed security forces around the city to prevent any acts of violence or looting.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday Aleppo’s two key public hospitals were reportedly full of patients while many private facilities closed.

In social media posts, the insurgents were pictured outside of the citadel, the medieval palace in the old city center, and one of the largest in the world. In cellphone videos, they recorded themselves having conversations with residents they visited at home, seeking to reassure them they will cause no harm.

The Syrian Kurdish-led administration in the country’s east said nearly 3,000 people, most of them students, had arrived in their region after fleeing the fighting in Aleppo, which has a sizeable Kurdish population.

State media reported that a number of “terrorists,” including sleeper cells, infiltrated parts of the city. Government troops chased them and arrested a number who posed for pictures near city landmarks, they said.

On a state TV morning show Saturday, commentators said army reinforcements and Russia’s assistance would repel the “terrorist groups,” blaming Turkiye for supporting the insurgents’ push into Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

Russia’s state news agency Tass quoted Oleg Ignasyuk, a Russian Defense Ministry official coordinating in Syria, as saying that Russian warplanes targeted and killed 200 militants who had launched the offensive in the northwest on Friday. It provided no further details.