UN food agency says it has reports of people dying from starvation amid the conflict in Sudan

A general view of the Ourang refugee camp in Adre on December 7, 2023 where refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan live. (AFP)
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Updated 03 February 2024
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UN food agency says it has reports of people dying from starvation amid the conflict in Sudan

  • The hotspots include Khartoum, the western Darfur region, and the provinces of Kordofan and Gezira — areas where roadblocks, taxation demands and security threats endanger supplies

CAIRO: The UN food agency said Friday it has received reports of people dying from starvation in Sudan, where raging fighting between rival generals is hampering the distribution of aid and food supplies to those most hungry.
The 10 months of clashes between the Sudanese military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has decimated vast swaths of the northeastern Africa country.
The conflict erupted last April in the capital, Khartoum, and quickly spread to other areas of the country, after months of simmering tensions between the two forces.
World Food Program said that some 18 million people across Sudan currently face acute hunger, with the most desperate trapped behind the front lines of the conflict.
The hotspots include Khartoum, the western Darfur region, and the provinces of Kordofan and Gezira — areas where roadblocks, taxation demands and security threats endanger supplies.
“Life-saving assistance is not reaching those who need it the most, and we are already receiving reports of people dying of starvation,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP’s director for Sudan.
The United Nations says at least 12,000 people have been killed in the conflict, although local doctors groups say the true toll is far higher. Over 10.7 million people have been displaced, according to the UN migration agency.
Dagalo’s paramilitary forces appear to have had the upper hand in the conflict over the past three months, with their fighters advancing to the east and north across Sudan’s central belt. Both sides have been accused of war crimes by rights groups.
Regional partners in Africa have been trying to mediate an end the conflict, along with Saudi Arabia and the United States, which facilitated several rounds of unsuccessful, indirect talks between the warring parties. Burhan and Dagalo are yet to meet in person since the conflict began.

 


Jordan evacuates second group of cancer patients from Gaza

Updated 4 min 53 sec ago
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Jordan evacuates second group of cancer patients from Gaza

AMMAN: Jordan’s government on Wednesday began evacuating four child cancer patients and 12 family members from Gaza.

They are the second group of patients evacuated for treatment under the Jordan Medical Corridor initiative, started in March this year, that aims to treat 2,000 Gazan children.

The children and their families were evacuated by the Royal Jordanian Air Force in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health.

They will be treated at the King Hussein Cancer Center.

The first evacuees were 29 children and 44 family members. Seventeen of these children have since returned to Gaza with their families after completing their treatment.


Trump: Iran has ‘somewhat agreed’ to terms of a deal

Updated 13 min 9 sec ago
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Trump: Iran has ‘somewhat agreed’ to terms of a deal

  • Trump says the US is in serious negotiations with Iran to reach a long-term peace

DUBAI: President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran had “somewhat agreed” to the terms of a potential long-term agreement with the United States, signaling progress in ongoing negotiations aimed at defusing tensions over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

“We are in very serious negotiations with Iran to reach a long-term peace,” Trump said, adding that the US was seeking to resolve the Iran issue “in a smart, but not violent, way.”

Donald Trump, in his first term as president, effectively torpedoed the accord in 2018 by unilaterally withdrawing the US.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has revived his campaign on Tehran, backing nuclear diplomacy but warning of military action if it fails.

He also reaffirmed Washington’s strategic role in the region, stating, “America is a strong ally of the Middle East.”

Speaking on broader foreign policy, Trump criticized US aid oversight in Ukraine: “We don’t know where the money we gave to Ukraine went,” he said. “The war in Ukraine must stop.”

Turning to defense, Trump claimed the US possesses “the most powerful military in the world—not Russia or China,” and “the most powerful weapons in the world.” 


54 people killed in overnight airstrikes on southern Gaza city, hospital says

Updated 15 May 2025
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54 people killed in overnight airstrikes on southern Gaza city, hospital says

  • Some bodies arrived in pieces, with some body bags containing the remains of multiple people
  • There had been hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza

KHAN YOUNIS: A hospital in southern Gaza says 54 people have been killed in overnight airstrikes on the city of Khan Younis.
An Associated Press cameraman in Khan Younis counted 10 airstrikes on the city overnight into Thursday, and saw numerous bodies taken to the morgue in the city’s Nasser Hospital. Some bodies arrived in pieces, with some body bags containing the remains of multiple people. The hospital’s morgue confirmed 54 people had been killed.
It was the second night of heavy bombing, after airstrikes Wednesday on northern and southern Gaza killed at least 70 people, including almost two dozen children.
The strikes come as US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East, visiting Gulf states but not Israel. There had been widespread hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. An Israeli blockade of the territory is now in its third month.


Trump heads to UAE as it hopes to advance AI ambitions

Updated 15 May 2025
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Trump heads to UAE as it hopes to advance AI ambitions

  • A string of business agreements has been inked during Trump’s four-day swing through the Gulf region

DOHA: US President Donald Trump was due to end a brief trip to Qatar with a speech to US troops on Thursday then fly to the United Arab Emirates, where leaders hope for US help to make the wealthy Gulf nation a global leader in artificial intelligence.

The US has a preliminary agreement with the UAE to allow it to import 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips a year, starting this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The deal would boost the country’s construction of data centers vital to developing artificial intelligence models.

A string of business agreements has been inked during Trump’s four-day swing through the Gulf region, including a deal for Qatar Airways to purchase up to 210 Boeing widebody jets, a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US and $142 billion in US arms sales to the Kingdom.

The trip has also brought a flurry of diplomacy. Trump made a surprise announcement on Tuesday that the US will remove longstanding sanctions on Syria and subsequently met with Syrian interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

On Thursday, Trump will address US troops at the Al Udeid Air Base, which is in the desert southwest of Doha and hosts the largest US military facility in the Middle East. He then flies to Abu Dhabi to meet with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and other leaders.

AI is likely to be a focus for the final leg of Trump’s trip.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration had imposed strict oversight of exports of US AI chips to the Middle East and other regions. Among the Biden administration’s fears were that the prized semiconductors would be diverted to China and buttress Beijing’s military strength.

Trump has made improving ties with some Gulf countries a key goal of his administration. If all the proposed chip deals in Gulf states, and the UAE in particular, come together, the region would become a third power center in global AI competition after the United States and China.

Trump had dangled the possibility of making a side trip to Turkiye to join Russia-Ukraine talks before returning to Washington, but a US official said on Wednesday that the president would not make that stop.


Two Israelis, one pregnant, wounded in occupied West Bank: authorities

Updated 15 May 2025
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Two Israelis, one pregnant, wounded in occupied West Bank: authorities

  • Bruchin is an Israeli settlement built on West Bank land without the Israeli authorities’ approval which was retroactively legalized by the Israeli government

JERUSALEM: Two Israeli civilians including a pregnant woman were wounded on Wednesday when shots were fired at their vehicle in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities.

An Israeli army statement said “a terrorist opened fire on an Israeli vehicle” near Bruchin, an Israeli settlement in the center of the Palestinian territory considered illegal under international law.

“Two Israeli civilians were wounded” in the attack and are being treated, the statement added.

The Beilinson hospital said a woman taken there was pregnant.

“Medical teams are currently fighting in the traumatology ward to save the life of the woman and that of her fetus,” a hospital spokesperson said.

Emergency services had earlier said the woman driver, who was aged about 30, was “in a critical state with gunshot wounds.”

A male passenger around the age of 40 was “in a grave state,” emergency services added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “deeply shocked by the horrific terrorist attack against a woman in advanced pregnancy and her husband.”

“This abhorrent incident precisely reflects the difference between us, who desire and bring life, and the reprehensible terrorists, whose goal is to kill us and destroy life,” he said in the statement released by his office.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the West Bank has seen an upsurge in violence.

Bruchin is an Israeli settlement built on West Bank land without the Israeli authorities’ approval which was retroactively legalized by the Israeli government.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.