Sudan one of world’s ‘worst crises’ in decades: medical charity

Update Sudan one of world’s ‘worst crises’ in decades: medical charity
People queue to refill donkey-drawn water tanks during a water crisis in Port Sudan in the Red Sea State of war-torn Sudan on Apr. 9, 2024. (AFP/File)
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Updated 20 June 2024
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Sudan one of world’s ‘worst crises’ in decades: medical charity

Sudan one of world’s ‘worst crises’ in decades: medical charity
  • Grandi said that although he had “seen a little bit of progress in the last few weeks,” much more action was needed to improve access
  • The global community had to continue lobbying for aid access, he said

PORT SUDAN: The ongoing civil war in Sudan has provoked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in decades, the international chief of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Thursday.
War has raged for more than a year between the regular military under army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
“Sudan is one of the worst crises the world has seen for decades... yet the humanitarian response is profoundly inadequate,” said Christos Christou, international president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
“There are extreme levels of suffering across the country, and the needs are growing by the day,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
The conflict, which began in April 2023, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced more than nine million people — the world’s worst internal displacement crisis — according to the United Nations.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid, despite warnings that millions are on the brink of starvation.
Rights groups and the United States have also accused the paramilitaries of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
MSF’s intervention is the latest in a series of dire warnings over human suffering in Sudan. Last week, as it pledged another $315 million in aid to the country, the United States warned of historic famine in the country.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told reporters hunger in Sudan could reach levels unseen since the famine in Ethiopia in the early 1980s when as many as 1.2 million people died.
UN agencies have also repeatedly warned of the perilous humanitarian situation in the country, and famine, amid repeated international calls for a ceasefire.
In an interview with AFP on Wednesday, Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency, said humanitarian access to the country remained woefully inadequate, despite a “little bit of progress in the last few weeks.”
“We are asking all the parties to give access to humanitarians because our presence there is insufficient to help the people in need, and especially to bring the food and the other supplies that are needed for people that otherwise risk starvation,” he said during a visit to Juba in South Sudan.
UN estimates say that five million people inside Sudan suffer extreme hunger, with food lacking also in neighboring countries where two million Sudanese have fled.
Repeated US-led efforts to end the conflict have failed, with many observers concluding that the warring generals each think they can win on the ground.
A number of foreign powers have supported rival forces. Sudan expelled diplomats from the United Arab Emirates on allegations of fueling the RSF, while Egypt, Turkiye and Iran have backed the army.
Recent fighting in El-Fasher, the last city in Darfur outside RSF control, has killed more than 220 people, according to Doctors Without Borders.
The UN Security Council on Thursday demanded that the RSF halt the siege, with all countries voting in favor except Russia, which abstained.
Sudan’s UN ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed on Tuesday criticized the UAE in the middle of a Security Council meeting, accusing the Gulf state of fomenting conflict in his country, a charge rejected by the Emirati envoy.
Talks last year in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia, only briefly paused fighting and a US push to restart the process has been unsuccessful.


UAE to lift travel ban on Lebanon for its citizens on May 7

UAE to lift travel ban on Lebanon for its citizens on May 7
Updated 37 sec ago
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UAE to lift travel ban on Lebanon for its citizens on May 7

UAE to lift travel ban on Lebanon for its citizens on May 7

DUBAI: The UAE Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that it will lift its travel ban on Lebanon as of May 7 following a visit by the Lebanese head of state last week, according to WAM News Agency. 

The decision comes after a joint statement issued on Thursday, stating that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed agreed to implement measures to facilitate travel and improve movement between the two countries.

The UAE ban its citizens from traveling to Lebanon in 2021. Lebanese citizens were not banned from traveling to the UAE. 


Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army

Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army
Updated 44 min 6 sec ago
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Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army

Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army
  • The paramilitaries have expanded the scope and frequency of their drone attacks on army-held areas since losing control of areas including most of the capital Khartoum in March
  • UN agencies have also moved their offices and staff to Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the war.

PORT SUDAN: Sudanese paramilitaries on Sunday struck Port Sudan, the army said, in the first attack on the seat of the army-aligned government in the country’s two-year war.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the regular army since April 2023, have increased their use of drones since losing territory including much of the capital Khartoum in March.
Army spokesman Nabil Abdullah said in a statement that the RSF “targeted Osman Digna Air Base, a goods warehouse and some civilian facilities in the city of Port Sudan with suicide drones.”
He reported no casualties but “limited damage” in the city, on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.
AFP images showed smoke billowing from the area of the airport in Port Sudan, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) from the nearest known RSF positions on the outskirts of Khartoum.
In the eastern border town of Kassala, some 500 kilometers south of Port Sudan, near Eritrea, witnesses said three drones struck the airport on Sunday for the second day in a row.
An AFP correspondent in Port Sudan said his home, about 20 kilometers from the airport, was shaking as explosions were heard early Sunday.
A passenger told AFP from the airport that “we were on the way to the plane when we were quickly evacuated and taken out of the terminal.”
On social media, users shared videos which AFP was not able to immediately verify showing a large explosion followed by a cloud of smoke rising from the blast site.
Flights to and from Port Sudan, the country’s main port of entry since the start of the war, were suspended until further notice, a government source told AFP.
The rare attacks on the airports in Port Sudan and Kassala, both far from areas that have seen much of the fighting since April 2023, come as the RSF has expanded the scope and frequency of its drone attacks.
The paramilitaries led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have been battling the regular army, headed by Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in a devastating war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million.
In the early days of the war, the government relocated from Khartoum to Port Sudan, which until Sunday’s attack had been spared the violence.
UN agencies have also moved their offices and staff to Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the war.
The conflict has left Sudan, Africa’s third largest country, effectively divided.
The army controls the center, east and north, while the RSF has conquered nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur and parts of the south.
Lacking the army’s fighter jets, the RSF has relied on drones, including makeshift ones, for air power.


Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport

Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport
Updated 20 min 36 sec ago
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Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport

Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport
  • Yemen's Houthis claim missile attack on Israel's main airport
  • Sirens were activated in Tel Aviv and other areas in the country

TEL AVIV: A missile landed inside the perimeter of Israel’s main airport on Sunday, wounding six people, halting flights and gouging a wide crater, in an attack claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.
The Israeli military said “several attempts were made to intercept” the missile that was launched from Yemen, a rare Houthi attack that penetrated Israel’s air defenses.
A video issued by Israel’s police force showed officers standing on the edge of a deep crater with the control tower visible in the distance behind them. No damage was reported to airport buildings or runways.
The police reported a “missile impact” at Ben Gurion airport, Israel’s main international gateway.
An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest, with the crater less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) away from the closest tarmac.
“You can see the area just behind us: a crater was formed here, several dozen meters (yards) wide and several dozen meters deep,” central Israel’s police chief, Yair Hezroni, said in the video shared by the force.
It was not immediately clear whether the impact was caused by the Yemeni missile or by an interceptor.
The attack was claimed by Yemen’s Houthis, who say they act in support for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza.
“The missile force of the Yemeni armed forces carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport” with a “hypersonic ballistic missile,” the Houthis said in a statement, referring to their own forces.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated at least six people with light to moderate injuries.
An AFP journalist inside the airport at the time of the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am (0635 GMT), adding the “reverberation was very strong.”
“Security staff immediately asked hundreds of passengers to take shelter, some in bunkers,” the AFP journalist said.
“Many passengers are now waiting for their flights to take off, and others are trying to find alternative flights.”
An incoming Air India flight was diverted to Abu Dhabi, an airport official told AFP.
A passenger said the attack, which came shortly after air raid sirens sounded across parts of the country, caused panic.
“It is crazy to say but since October 7 we are used to this,” said the passenger, who did not want to be named, referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
“A missile might come at any time and life stops for some time. Today at the airport there was panic and even I was scared, because the blast was big.”

Israel’s airport authority said that “departures and arrivals have resumed” at Ben Gurion, a short while after they had been interrupted due to the missile fire.
The airport “is open and operational,” the aviation authority said in a statement.
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened a forceful response, saying: “Anyone who hits us, we will hit them seven times stronger.”

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas praised the missile attack on Israel's airport that was claimed by the Houthis.

“Yemen... escalates its attacks on the heart of the illegitimate Zionist entity, surpassing the most advanced defense systems in the world and striking its targets with precision,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement. 


Qatar rejects Netanyahu’s ‘inflammatory’ Gaza comments: foreign ministry

Qatar rejects Netanyahu’s ‘inflammatory’ Gaza comments: foreign ministry
Updated 04 May 2025
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Qatar rejects Netanyahu’s ‘inflammatory’ Gaza comments: foreign ministry

Qatar rejects Netanyahu’s ‘inflammatory’ Gaza comments: foreign ministry
  • Netanyahu's office earlier urged Qatar to stop its "double game" and "decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas”
  • Qatar ministry spokesman said the statement "fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility”

DOHA: Gaza mediator Qatar on Sunday rejected comments from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it needed to “stop playing both sides” in truce negotiations.
A statement released by Netanyahu's office on Saturday said Qatar needs to “decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas.”
Qatar “firmly rejects the inflammatory statements... which fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari responded in a post on X.

Gaza mediator Qatar on Sunday rejected comments from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it needed to “stop playing both sides” in truce negotiations. A statement released by Netanyahu's office on Saturday said Qatar needs to “decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas.” Qatar “firmly rejects the inflammatory statements... which fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari responded in a post on X.

Despite efforts by Egyptian and Qatari mediators to restore a ceasefire, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
Israel, which wants the return of 59 hostages still held in Gaza, has insisted Hamas must disarm and be excluded from any role in the future governance of the enclave, a condition that Hamas rejects.
It has insisted on agreeing a lasting end to the fighting and withdrawal of Israeli forces as a condition for a deal that would see a release of the hostages.
Al-Ansari criticized the portrayal of the Gaza conflict as a defense of civilization, likening it to historical regimes that used “false narratives to justify crimes against civilians.”
In his post, Al-Ansari questioned whether the release of 138 hostages was achieved through military operations or mediation efforts, which he said are being unjustly criticized and undermined.
He also cited the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza represented by what he called a suffocating blockade, systematic starvation, denial of medicine and shelter, and the use of humanitarian aid as a tool of political coercion. On Friday, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans for an expanded operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Friday, adding to signs that attempts to stop the fighting and return hostages held by Hamas have made no progress.
Israel’s campaign was triggered by the devastating Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw 251 taken hostage. It has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated Gaza where aid groups have warned the Israeli blockade risks a humanitarian disaster.


Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for Gaza offensive

Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for Gaza offensive
Updated 04 May 2025
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Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for Gaza offensive

Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for Gaza offensive
  • Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to proceed with a 2-month ceasefire
  • Security cabinet scheduled to meet on Sunday to approve the expansion of the military offensive, says public broadcaster

JERUSALEM: Israel was issuing orders to call up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of an expanded offensive in Gaza, Israeli media reported Saturday.
Several news outlets reported the military had begun sending the orders for reservists to replace conscripts and active-duty soldiers in Israel and the occupied West Bank so they can be redeployed to Gaza.
A military spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the reports, but relatives of AFP journalists were among those who received mobilization orders.
According to Israel’s public broadcaster, the security cabinet is scheduled to meet on Sunday to approve the expansion of the military offensive in Gaza.
Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack.

The Israeli prime minister, under pressure from his far-right supporters, without whom he would lose his governing coalition, has been increasingly vocal in his calls to continue the war since the restart of the Gaza offensive.
“Israel will win this just war with just means,” he added.
Israel has also blocked all aid deliveries to Gaza since March 2, prompting warnings from UN agencies of impending humanitarian disaster.

Hamas on Saturday released footage of an apparently wounded Israeli-Russian hostage held in Gaza as 11 Palestinians, including three infants, were killed in a strike on the territory, its civil defense agency said.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 2,396 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,495.
Gaza militants still hold 58 hostages, 34 of whom the army says are dead. Hamas is also holding the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous war in Gaza in 2014.
The militant group’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday showing a hostage AFP and Israeli media identified as Russian-Israeli Maxim Herkin.
In the undated four-minute video, Herkin, who turns 37 this month, was shown wearing bandages on his head and left arm.
Speaking in Hebrew in the video, which his family urged media to disseminate, he implied he had been wounded in a recent Israeli bombardment.
AFP was unable to determine the health of Herkin, who gave a similar message to other hostages shown in videos released by Hamas, urging pressure on the Israeli government to free the remaining captives.

Several thousand Israelis demonstrated outside the defense ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday, demanding action from the government to secure the hostages’ release.
“We’re here because we want the hostages home. We’re here because we don’t believe that the war in Gaza today, currently, is justified at all,” Arona Maskil, a 64-year-old demonstrator, told AFP.
The government says its renewed offensive is aimed at forcing Hamas to free its remaining captives, although critics charge that it puts them in mortal danger.
A statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum argued that “any escalation in the fighting will put the hostages... in immediate danger.”
In Gaza, the civil defense agency said on Saturday that an overnight Israeli strike on the Khan Yunis refugee camp killed at least 11 people, including three infants.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal say they were killed in the “bombardment of the Al-Bayram family home in Khan Yunis camp” at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT).
Bassal told AFP that eight of the dead had been identified and were all from the same extended family, including a boy and girl, both one, and a month-old baby.
An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed the strike, saying it targeted a “Hamas member.”
Rescue workers and residents combed the rubble for survivors with their bare hands, under the light of hand-held torches, an AFP journalist reported.
Neighbour Fayka Abu Hatab said she “saw a bright light, then there was an explosion, and dust covered the entire area.”
“We couldn’t see anything, it all went dark,” she said.