KHARTOUM: Sudan’s military on Thursday warned of potential clashes with the country’s powerful paramilitary force, which it said deployed troops in the capital and other cities.
Tensions between the military and the Rapid Support Forces have escalated in recent months, forcing a delay of the signing of an internationally-backed deal with political parties to restore the country’s democratic transition. In a statement, the military said the buildup of the RSF in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country has come without “the approval of, or coordination with” the armed forces’ leadership.
It said the RSF measures “have stirred up panic and fear among people, exacerbated security risks and increased tensions between regular forces.”
The military said it has attempted to “find peaceful solutions to such violations” to prevent an armed conflict with the RSF.
The military’s statement came as the RSF deployed troops in the Northern Province on the border with Egypt. Local media reported that the paramilitary force has attempted to build a military base there.
The RSF said its deployment across the country aims at “achieving security and stability and fighting human trafficking and illegal migration.”
Recent tensions are rooted in the integration of the RSF into the military. The RSF, led by powerful Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, grew out of former militias that executed a brutal crackdown in Sudan’s Darfur region over the past two decades.
In a statement issued Thursday, Sudan’s National Umma Party — one of the country’s largest political groups — called for restraint and urged other political forces not to escalate the situation.
“All political forces must refrain from issuing any statements or support for one of the parties,” the group said. The groups have arranged an emergency meeting Thursday morning and invited leaders from both forces to attend.
Sudan has plunged into chaos since a 2021 military coup removed a western-backed, power-sharing administration and dashed Sudanese aspirations for democratic rule after three decades of autocracy and repression under Islamist President Omar Al-Bashir.
A monthslong popular uprising forced the military’s overthrow of Al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019. Since then, the former president, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court over the Darfur conflict, has been imprisoned in Khartoum.
Sudan’s military warns of conflict after rival force deploys
https://arab.news/nja8d
Sudan’s military warns of conflict after rival force deploys
- The military said it has attempted to “find peaceful solutions to such violations” to prevent an armed conflict with the RSF
Lebanese president calls for lifting Syria sanctions to facilitate refugee return
- Joseph Aoun warned that Lebanon has reached its limit in hosting the displaced
- He called on Washington to support Lebanese security institutions, particularly the army
DUBAI: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday urged the international community to lift sanctions on Syria.
This would revitalize Syria’s economy and create the necessary conditions for the return of displaced Syrians to their home country, he said.
In a meeting with a delegation from the Middle East Institute in Washington, led by retired US Gen. Joseph Votel, Aoun said that Lebanon has reached its limit in hosting the large number of displaced people residing in the country.
He added that the political and security conditions that once justified the presence of displaced people in Lebanon have significantly changed, making their return both possible and essential.
“We are committed to the return of these displaced persons to their country,” Aoun said, adding that many now remain in Lebanon purely as “economic migrants.”
He described the return of refugees as a humanitarian necessity and crucial for Lebanon’s long-term stability.
The Lebanese president said that removing sanctions on Syria would revitalize the country’s economy and create the necessary conditions for Syrian refugees to return.
This would help alleviate the pressures Lebanon faces, both economically and in terms of its strained infrastructure and resources, he said.
Aoun also called on Washington to support Lebanon’s security institutions, particularly the army, which he described as urgently needing assistance to maintain national stability and carry out its responsibilities under UN Resolution 1701.
On the broader issue of Lebanon’s economic recovery, Aoun discussed the reforms being carried out in the country.
Lebanon’s political unity and the consistent implementation of reforms are critical for restoring the country’s economic and financial health, he said.
“We must remain focused on the reform process, as only through internal unity and consistent progress will we be able to gain back the trust of the international community, and attract much-needed support,” Aoun added.
Lacking aid, Syrians do what they can to rebuild devastated Aleppo
- Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage site, was deeply scarred by more than a decade of war
- While Syria lobbies for sanctions relief, the grassroots reconstruction drive is gaining momentum and providing work opportunities
ALEPPO: Moussa Hajj Khalil is among many Syrians rebuilding their homes from the rubble of the historic and economically important city of Aleppo, as Syria’s new leaders struggle to kick-start large-scale reconstruction efforts.
Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage site, was deeply scarred by more than a decade of war between government and rebel forces, suffering battles, a siege, Russian air strikes and barrel bomb attacks.
Now, its people are trying to restore their lives with their own means, unwilling to wait and see if the efforts of Syria’s new Islamist-led government to secure international funding come to fruition.
“Nobody is helping us, no states, no organizations,” said Khalil, 65, who spent seven years in a displacement camp in Al-Haramain on the Syrian-Turkish border.
Impoverished residents have “come and tried to restore a room to stay in with their children, which is better than life in camps,” he said, as he observed workers repairing his destroyed home in Ratyan, a suburb in northwestern Aleppo.
Khalil returned alone a month ago to rebuild the house so he can bring his family back from the camp.
Aleppo was the first major city seized by the rebels when they launched an offensive to topple then-leader Bashar Assad in late November.
Assad was ousted less than two weeks later, ending a 14-year war that killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions and left much of Syria in ruins.
’Doing what we can’
While Syria lobbies for sanctions relief, the grassroots reconstruction drive is gaining momentum and providing work opportunities.
Contractors labor around the clock to meet the growing demand, salvaging materials like broken blocks and cement found between the rubble to repair homes.
“There is building activity now. We are working lots, thank God!” Syrian contractor Maher Rajoub said.
But the scale of the task is huge.
The United Nations Development Programme is hoping to deliver $1.3 billion over three years to support Syria, including by rebuilding infrastructure, its assistant secretary-general told Reuters earlier this month.
Other financial institutions and Gulf countries like Qatar have made pledges to help Syria, but are hampered by US sanctions.
The United States and other Western countries have set conditions for lifting sanctions, insisting that Syria’s new rulers, led by a faction formerly affiliated to Al-Qaeda, demonstrate a commitment to peaceful and inclusive rule.
A temporary suspension of some US sanctions to encourage aid has had limited effect, leaving Aleppo’s residents largely fending for themselves.
“We lived in the camps under the sun and the heat,” said Mustafa Marouch, a 50-year-old vegetable shop owner. “We returned and are doing what we can to fix our situation.”
Syrian Druze leaders slam ‘unjustified armed attack’ near Damascus
- The clashes reportedly left at least four Druze fighters dead
DAMASCUS: Syrian Druze leaders on Tuesday condemned an “unjustified armed attack” overnight on the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, after clashes with security forces that a war monitor said killed at least four Druze fighters.
Jaramana’s Druze religious leadership in a statement condemned “the unjustified armed attack” that “targeted innocent civilians and terrorized” residents, adding that the Syrian authorities bore “full responsibility for the incident and for any further developments or worsening of the crisis.”
Tunisia’s Saied slams ‘blatant interference’ after international criticism
- Tunisian President Kais Saied rejected foreign criticism of opposition trials, calling it unacceptable interference in internal affairs
TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday lashed out at “comments and statements by foreign parties” following sharp international criticism of a mass trial targeting opposition figures.
“The comments and statements by foreign parties are unacceptable... and constitute blatant interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs,” he said in a statement posted on the presidency’s Facebook page.
“While some have expressed regret over the exclusion of international observers, Tunisia could also send observers to these parties, who have expressed their concerns... and also demand that they change their legislation and amend their procedures,” he added.
Earlier this month, a Tunisian court handed down sentences of between 13 and 66 years to defendants accused of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group.”
The trial involved about 40 defendants, including well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people, with some already in prison for two years and others in exile or still free.
Those abroad were tried in absentia, including French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy who received a 33-year jail term, lawyers said.
The United Nations and Western countries including France and Germany criticized the trial.
“The process was marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights, raising serious concerns about political motivations,” said the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.
In a statement on Thursday, Turk urged “Tunisia to refrain from using broad national security and counterterrorism legislation to silence dissent and curb civic space.”
Germany meanwhile said it regretted the “exclusion of international observers from the final day of the trial,” including representatives from the German embassy in Tunis.
Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings began.
France tries Syrian Islamist rebel ex-spokesman on war crime charges
- French authorities arrested Majdi Nema in the southern city of Marseille in 2020
- He was spokesman for a Syrian Islamist rebel group called Jaish Al-Islam
PARIS: A Syrian Islamist rebel ex-spokesman is to go on trial in France on Tuesday under the principle of universal jurisdiction, accused of complicity in war crimes during Syria’s civil war.
French authorities arrested Majdi Nema, now 36, in the southern city of Marseille in 2020, after he traveled to the country on a student exchange program.
He was detained and charged under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute suspects accused of serious crimes regardless of where they were committed.
This is the first time that crimes committed in Syria’s civil war have been tried in France under the universal jurisdiction.
Nema – better known by his nom-de-guerre of Islam Alloush – has been charged with complicity in war crimes between 2013 and 2016, when he was spokesman for a Syrian Islamist rebel group called Jaish Al-Islam.
However, Nema has said he only had a “limited role” in the armed opposition group that held sway in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus during that period.
Jaish Al-Islam was one of the main opposition groups fighting Bashar Assad’s government before Islamist-led fighters toppled him in December but it has also been accused of terrorizing civilians in areas it controlled.
Nema, who faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty, has in particular been accused of helping recruit children and teenagers to fight for the group.
His arrest came after rights groups, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), filed a criminal complaint in France in 2019 against members of Jaish Al-Islam for their alleged crimes.
It was the FIDH that discovered Nema was in France during research into Jaish Al-Islam’s hierarchy and informed the French authorities.
Marc Bailly, a lawyer for the FIDH and some civil parties in the trial that runs to May 27, said the case would be “the opportunity to shed light on all the complexity of the Syrian conflict, which did not just involve regime crimes.”
Born in 1988, Nema was a captain in the Syrian armed forces before defecting in 2012 and joining the group that would in 2013 become known as Jaish Al-Islam.
He told investigators that he left Eastern Ghouta in May 2013 and crossed the border to Turkiye, where he worked as the group’s spokesman, before leaving the group in 2016.
He has cited his presence in Turkiye as part of his defense.
Nema traveled to France in November 2019 under a university exchange program and was arrested in January 2020.
The defendant was initially indicted for complicity in the enforced disappearances of four activists in Eastern Ghouta in late 2013 – including prominent rights defender Razan Zaitouneh – but those charges have since been dropped on procedural grounds.
Jaish Al-Islam has been accused of involvement in the abduction, though it has denied this.
France has since 2010 been able to try cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which argues some crimes are so serious that all states have the obligation to prosecute offenders.
The country’s highest court upheld this principle in 2023, allowing for the investigation into Nema to continue.
A previous trial in May of Syrians charged over their actions in the war took place because French nationals were the victims, rather than under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
A Paris court in that trial ordered life sentences for three top Syrian security officials linked to the former Assad government for their role in the torture and disappearance of a French-Syrian father and son in Syria in 2013.
They were tried in absentia.
Syria’s conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more from their homes since it erupted in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
