Attacks on famine-hit camps in Sudan’s Darfur leave at least 100 people dead, UN official says

Update Attacks on famine-hit camps in Sudan’s Darfur leave at least 100 people dead, UN official says
1 / 2
For almost two years the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudan's army have waged a war that has killed tens of thousands and created what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 14 called "a crisis of staggering scale and brutality." El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state (AFP)
Update Attacks on famine-hit camps in Sudan’s Darfur leave at least 100 people dead, UN official says
2 / 2
Short Url
Updated 12 April 2025
Follow

Attacks on famine-hit camps in Sudan’s Darfur leave at least 100 people dead, UN official says

Attacks on famine-hit camps in Sudan’s Darfur leave at least 100 people dead, UN official says
  • RSF fighters attacked Zamzam displacement camp around El-Fasher, killing civilians, including women, children and elderly residents
  • UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned on Friday of deeply catastrophic consequences for civilians as the conflict approaches its third year

CAIRO: Sudan’s notorious paramilitary group launched a two-day attack on famine-hit camps for displaced people that left more than 100 dead, including 20 children and nine aid workers, in the Darfur region, a UN official said Saturday.
The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias launched an offensive on the Zamzam and Abu Shorouk camps and the nearby city of el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, on Friday, said UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami.
El-Fasher is under the control of the military, which has fought the RSF since Sudan descended into civil war two years ago, killing more than than 24,000 people, according to the United Nations, though activists say the number is likely far higher.
The camps were attacked again on Saturday, Nkweta-Salami said in a statement. She said that nine aid workers were killed “while operating one of the very few remaining health posts still operational” in Zamzam camp.
“This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago,” she said.
Nkweta-Salami didn’t identify the aid workers but Sudan’s Doctors’ Union said in a statement that six medical workers with the Relief International were killed when their hospital in Zamzam came under attack on Friday. They include Dr. Mahmoud Babaker Idris, a physician at the hospital, and Adam Babaker Abdallah, head of the group in the region, the union said. It blamed the RSF for “this criminal and barbaric act.”
In a statement Saturday evening, Relief International mourned the death of its nine workers, saying they were killed the previous day in a “targeted attack on all health infrastructure in the region,” including the group’s clinic.
The group said the central market in Zamzam along with hundreds of makeshift homes in the camp were destroyed in the attack.
The offensive forced about 2,400 people to flee the camps and el-Fasher, according to the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees, a local group in Darfur.
Zamzam and Abu Shouk shelter more than 700,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes across Darfur during past bouts of fighting in the region, Nkweta-Salami said.
Late last month, the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, a major symbolic victory in the war. But the RSF still controls most of Darfur and some other areas.
The two camps are among five areas in Sudan where famine was detected by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC, a global hunger monitoring group. The war has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with about 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — facing extreme hunger.


Gaza civil defense says 16 killed in Israel strikes

Gaza civil defense says 16 killed in Israel strikes
Updated 2 sec ago
Follow

Gaza civil defense says 16 killed in Israel strikes

Gaza civil defense says 16 killed in Israel strikes
GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed 16 people on Friday across the territory, where Israel has ramped up its military offensive in recent days.
The toll from “Israeli strikes in various areas of the Gaza Strip since midnight totals 16 dead,” agency official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir told AFP.

US and regional countries team up to resolve the issue of Daesh prisoners in Syria

US and regional countries team up to resolve the issue of Daesh prisoners in Syria
Updated 49 min 42 sec ago
Follow

US and regional countries team up to resolve the issue of Daesh prisoners in Syria

US and regional countries team up to resolve the issue of Daesh prisoners in Syria
  • President Trump asked the Syrian government to “assume responsibility” Daesh prisoners
  • Some 9,000 Daesh prisoners are being held by the US-backed SDF in northeast Syria

ISTANBUL: Turkiye, the United States, Syria and Iraq have formed a working group to try to resolve the issue of Daesh group prisoners held in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments published Thursday.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, control large parts of northeast Syria bordering Turkiye and Iraq and oversee more than a dozen prison camps holding thousands of suspected Daesh — also known as Islamic State or IS — fighters and their families.
US President Donald Trump asked the Syrian government to “assume responsibility” for some 9,000 Daesh prisoners when he met Syrian President President Ahmad Al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on May 14.
Erdogan said a committee had been formed to work out what to do with the prisoners, particularly women and children held at refugee camps such as Al-Hol in northern Syria. His comments on the presidential website were released as he returned from a trip to Hungary.
“Iraq needs to focus on the issue of the camps,” Erdogan said. “The vast majority of women and children in the Al Hol camp in particular belong to Iraq and Syria. They should do what is necessary for them.”
In 2014, Daesh declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria and attracted tens of thousands of supporters from around the world. The extremists were defeated by a US-led coalition in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Tens of thousands of people linked to the group were taken to Al-Hol camp close to the Iraqi border.
It is anticipated that the government in Damascus will take control of the prison camps, a move Erdogan said would make it easier to integrate the Kurdish forces in Syria.
Kurdish fighters in Syria have ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which on May 12 agreed to dissolve and lay down its weapons following a four-decade insurgency against Turkiye.
 


Turkiye to provide Syria with 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually

Turkiye to provide Syria with 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually
Updated 23 May 2025
Follow

Turkiye to provide Syria with 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually

Turkiye to provide Syria with 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually
  • Deal signed to activate gas pipeline connecting Syria with Turkiye
  • Turkiye will also start supplying 500 megawatts of electricity to Syria by yearend

DAMASCUS: Turkiye will provide 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Syria each year, Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday.
In a joint news conference with his Syrian counterpart in Damascus, Bayraktar said that Turkiye’s gas exports to Syria will contribute to an additional 1,300 megawatts of electricity production in the country.
Ankara, which supported rebel forces in neighboring Syria throughout the 13-year civil war that ended this month with the ousting of Bashar Assad, is now positioning itself to play a major role in Syria’s reconstruction.
Turkiye will also provide an additional 1,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring Syria for its short term needs, he added.
Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed Al-Bashir said they agreed to activate a gas pipeline that connects Syria with Turkiye, with gas flows expected in June.
“This will significantly boost electricity generation, which will positively impact the Syrian people’s electricity needs,” Al-Bashir said.
The two minister discussed completing a 400-kilovolt line that links the countries, contributing to importing around 500 megawatts of electricity into Syria, to be ready by the end of the year or shortly thereafter, he added.
Cooperation also includes opening the door for Turkish companies to invest in mining, phosphate, electricity generation and electricity distribution in Syria.
“There is very intensive work underway regarding the discovery of new natural resources, whether gas or oil, on land or at sea,” Bayraktar said. (Reporting by Riham Alkousaa in Damascus and Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Louise Heavens)


WHO chief begs Israel to show ‘mercy’ in Gaza

WHO chief begs Israel to show ‘mercy’ in Gaza
Updated 23 May 2025
Follow

WHO chief begs Israel to show ‘mercy’ in Gaza

WHO chief begs Israel to show ‘mercy’ in Gaza
  • Tedros said only a political solution could bring a meaningful peace.

GENEVA: Fighting back tears, the head of the World Health Organization on Thursday urged Israel to have “mercy” in the Gaza war and insisted peace would be in Israel’s own interests.
In an emotional intervention at the WHO annual assembly, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the war was hurting Israel and would not bring a lasting solution.
“I can feel how people in Gaza would feel at the moment. I can smell it. I can visualize it. I can hear even the sounds. And this is because of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder),” said Tedros, 60, who has often recalled his own wartime upbringing in Ethiopia.
“You can imagine how people are suffering. It’s really wrong to weaponize food. It’s very wrong to weaponize medical supplies.”
The United Nations on Thursday began distributing around 90 truckloads of aid which are the first deliveries into Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2.
Tedros said only a political solution could bring a meaningful peace.
“A call for peace is actually in the best interests of Israel itself. I feel that the war is hurting Israel itself and it will not bring a lasting solution,” he said.
“I ask if you can have mercy. It’s good for you and good for the Palestinians. It’s good for humanity.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (Keystone/AP)

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said that 2.1 million people in Gaza were “in imminent danger of death.”
“We need to end the starvation, we need to release all hostages and we need to resupply and bring the health system back online,” he said.
“As an ex-hostage, I can say that all hostages should be released. Their families are suffering. Their families are in pain,” he added.
The WHO said Gazans were suffering acute shortages of food, water, medical supplies, fuel and shelter.
Four major hospitals have had to suspend medical services in the past week, due to their proximity to hostilities or evacuation zones, and attacks.
Only 19 of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals remain operational, with staff working in “impossible conditions,” the UN health agency said in a statement.
“At least 94 percent of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed,” it said, while north Gaza “has been stripped of nearly all health care.”
It said that across the Palestinian territory, only 2,000 hospital beds remained available — a figure “grossly insufficient to meet the current needs.”
“The destruction is systematic. Hospitals are rehabilitated and resupplied, only to be exposed to hostilities or attacked again. This destructive cycle must end.”


Israel PM names new security chief, defying attorney general

Israel PM names new security chief, defying attorney general
Updated 23 May 2025
Follow

Israel PM names new security chief, defying attorney general

Israel PM names new security chief, defying attorney general

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday his pick for the next head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, defying the country’s attorney general and a significant segment of the public.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu announced this evening his decision to appoint Major General David Zini as the next head of the Shin Bet,” a statement from the premier’s office said.
The decision is the latest development in a long-running controversy surrounding the role, which has seen mass protests against the incumbent chief’s dismissal, as well as against moves pushed by Netanyahu’s government to expand elected officials’ power to appoint judges.
The supreme court on Wednesday ruled the government’s decision to fire current domestic security chief Ronen Bar was “improper and unlawful.”
Netanyahu’s move to tap Zini to replace Bar directly defied Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who had said that, given the court ruling, the premier “must refrain from any action related to the appointment of a new head of the Shin Bet.”
Netanyahu immediately responded in a rare press conference that his government would make an appointment despite Baharav-Miara’s stance.
Following Thursday’s announcement, the attorney general released a statement saying that the prime minister was acting “contrary to legal guidance.”
“There is serious concern that he acted while in a conflict of interest, and the appointment process is flawed,” the statement said.
Zini, the son of immigrants from France and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, has held “many” operational and command positions in the Israeli military, Thursday’s announcement said, including for some elite units and combat brigades.
The announcement comes after more than two months of political and legal wrangling over who should head the powerful agency.
In March, Netanyahu said that he was dismissing Bar due to “ongoing lack of trust.”