On World Refugee Day, Sudan conflict seen as making global displacement crisis worse

Refugees from Sudan who crossed into Ethiopia carry their belongings in Metema on May 5, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 20 June 2023
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On World Refugee Day, Sudan conflict seen as making global displacement crisis worse

  • Some 108.4 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide in 2022, according to the UN refugee agency
  • Climate change and natural disasters may soon overtake conflict as the main drivers of displacement

DUBAI: When two extreme athletes decided to take on a grueling challenge to row across the Atlantic Ocean in solidarity with refugees, they did not expect to experience the same terror endured by the millions of displaced people who attempt such perilous crossings every year.

Omar Samra, an Egyptian adventurer and motivational speaker, along with his good friend and professional athlete Omar Nour, tell their story in the award-winning documentary “Beyond the Raging Sea.”

The film follows the duo as they fight for their lives on the high sea, stranded in open water for hours when their boat suddenly capsizes mid-storm during their journey from the Canary Islands to Antigua in 2017.

“I think the main lesson that we learnt through our experience is that while our journey bears some similarities to the plight of refugees, it’s very different, because we embarked on this journey by choice,” Samra told Arab News via a Zoom interview.




Omar Samra, Egyptian adventurer and motivational speaker, along with his good friend and professional athlete Omar Nour, rowing across the Atlantic. (Supplied)

“We had the best training and best equipment … but to think that someone would go through all of this to try and get to the other side to understand that their problems are only starting is something that is very daunting.”

To mark World Refugee Day on June 20, Samra and dozens of public figures and influencers have come forward on multiple online platforms to highlight the rapidly growing global displacement crisis.

In its latest report, “Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022,” the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, recorded the highest levels of displacement on record, with 108.4 million individuals forcibly displaced worldwide by conflict, violence, persecution, or human rights violations.

This year World Refugee Day is being observed in the shadow of yet another grinding conflict and massive displacement crisis — this time in Sudan.

Since the armed conflict erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in mid-April, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, both within the nation’s borders and into neighboring countries.




Sudanese drivers wait by their buses upon arrival at the Egyptian village of Wadi Karkar near Aswan on May 14, 2023 after fleeing war-torn Sudan. (AFP)

Rula Amin, spokesperson for the UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa regional bureau, believes the best and most effective way to stop these numbers increasing is to end the conflict and resolve the dispute through negotiations.

In the meantime, neighboring countries, including Egypt, Libya, Chad, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea, can help the people of Sudan by keeping their borders open to people escaping the conflict, she said.

“People fleeing, seeking protection, should have access to territory regardless of how they arrive,” Amin told Arab News.

“Neighboring countries can help by hosting people crossing the border and ensuring they receive support and access to services.”

However, in order for host countries to shoulder this responsibility successfully, Amin emphasizes the need for the international community to lend support.

While there are several countries around the world that are making changes to accommodate displaced communities, the influx of refugees places significant economic and social strain on host nations, said Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar, CEO of the Emirates-based Abdulla Al-Ghurair Foundation, which oversees the Abdul Aziz Refugee Education Fund.

Lebanon and Jordan have faced particular challenges in providing basic services, such as housing, healthcare, education and employment opportunities, for both their own populations and vast numbers of predominantly Syrian and Palestinian refugees, she said.




Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar, CEO of the Emirates-based Abdulla Al-Ghurair Foundation, which oversees the Abdul Aziz Refugee Education Fund. (Supplied)

“Insufficient financial support from the international community can limit the capacity of countries like Lebanon and Jordan, and exacerbate tensions within host communities, leading to further challenges and potential instability,” Ben Jaafar told Arab News.

She emphasized the need for massive, coordinated efforts to strengthen regional and international partnerships that can “facilitate burden-sharing and alignment of humanitarian efforts.”

Without viable and sustainable conflict resolution through diplomatic efforts, which Sudan lacks today, prolonged displacement is inevitable, she added.

Until recently, Sudan was home to the second-largest refugee population in Africa, with more than a million displaced people from South Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Chad and Yemen.

However, Sudan’s own descent into violence has disrupted whole communities caught in the crossfire, including 3.5 million Sudanese already internally displaced and the 1.1 million refugees who had taken shelter there, according to the UN.

“If fighting continues, the number of people forced to flee their homes looking for safety will increase,” said Amin.

An estimated 1.2 million people were newly displaced within Sudan and a further 378,300 had fled to neighboring countries as of the end of May. The number of food-insecure people in the country, which the UN expects to increase by more than 2 million in the next three to six months, further compounds the humanitarian emergency.

“The parties fighting on the ground must adhere to international principles and avoid targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure,” said Amin, who added that the widely-reported human rights violations in the country “must stop immediately.”

Several other regions of the world are witnessing a massive spike in the number of refugees, including Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, and parts of Central Asia owing to the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.

According to the UN report, more than half of all refugees and other people in need of international protection come from just three countries — Syria (6.5 million), Afghanistan (5.7 million), and Ukraine (5.7 million).

“Countries within the Eastern Mediterranean Region, such as Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen and Sudan, to name a few, are home to about three-quarters of those internally displaced, creating a dire need for expanding access to basic services to migrants to tackle inequalities,” said Ben Jaafar.

And with each passing year of displacement, issues like food and water security, sanitation, healthcare, personal safety, housing and education are becoming worse as host-nation resources become strained, she said.

“Education, in particular, is a critical area that offers significant potential for solutions amidst these challenges as the lack of educational opportunities for displaced children can lead to severe ramifications at personal, national and regional scales,” said Ben Jaafar.

Indeed, early marriage, barriers to mobility, financial constraints and child labor — to name but a few — can all be prevented by providing young refugees with education and training, she said.

However, millions of refugees who are either stateless or of undetermined nationality are unable to access essential services and basic rights, including education, healthcare, formal employment, or even the right to travel.

The UN report shows that an estimated 4.4 million people worldwide were either stateless or of undetermined nationality in 2022 — 90,800 more than at the end of 2021.




People evacuated from the Belgorod region’s zones bordering Ukraine, including those from the town of Shebekino, receive humanitarian aid in Belgorod on June 3, 2023. (AFP)

The crisis in Ukraine last year contributed significantly to the upward trajectory of the global displacement crisis. In February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine alone created the largest displacement crisis since the Second World War.

In the early days of the war, more than 200,000 refugees per day were crossing borders in search of sanctuary, initially in countries adjacent to Ukraine. By the end of 2022, 11.6 million Ukrainians had been displaced, including 5.9 million internally displaced persons and 5.7 million who had fled to neighboring countries and beyond.

While millions of Ukrainian refugees received temporary protection, granted by EU member states and other countries, the highest number of new asylum applications ever recorded, at 2.6 million, were registered by more than 140 nationalities in 155 countries during 2022.

A large number of refugees were also reported to have returned to their homes, many due to a lack of alternative options.

UN data shows that both Syria and Afghanistan reported the largest numbers of returnees, with 51,300 Syrians returning to their country in 2022, up by 14,800 on 2021 figures, and some 236,200 returning to Afghanistan — 21 percent of them women and 57 percent children.

There have been some positive developments. The UN report also found that a cessation of fighting in northern Ethiopia, agreed in November 2022, resulted in 1.9 million internally displaced persons returning that year.




Afghan internally displaced refugee women walk with their children to the bus as they return home to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the outskirts of Kabul on July 28, 2022. (AFP)

Similarly, in Yemen, a UN-coordinated ceasefire, which expired in October 2022 but continued to be broadly adhered to, brought hope to a country in which half of the population are food insecure.

“The challenge before us, therefore, is to work together towards a world that respects diversity and will empower refugees and facilitate their preparedness for economic participation,” said Ben Jaafar.

Globally, Turkiye, Iran, Colombia, Germany and Pakistan hosted the largest refugee populations at the end of 2022, including people in refugee-like situations and other people in need of international protection.

“There is definitely a challenge here (for host countries), but the conversation should be ‘how do we solve the challenge?’ rather than ‘do we take in people or not?’” said the Egyptian athlete, Samra.

While conflict and violence are some of the main factors behind the refugee crisis, Samra also pointed out that natural disasters and climate change are increasingly contributing to displacement.

“Research has predicted that the highest number of refugees is going to come from climate-change issues in the next decade,” he said.

The latest UN report shows that around 32.6 million new displacements were due to natural disasters, with 21 percent occurring in the least developed countries and small island developing states.

As a result of climate change, these countries have experienced disproportionately high economic losses in relation to the size of their economies.

“This is the very thing that threatens the existence of a country or a region,” said Samra.

Those with a public platform, including athletes, celebrities and public figures, have a responsibility to raise awareness, foster dialogue, and shift public perceptions on refugees, he added.

“I think the refugee crisis, along with the climate crisis, are the biggest issues that the world faces today, and the way we choose to deal with it, whether it’s in a humane way or otherwise, will dictate the face of our planet for years.”


A settler accused of killing a Palestinian activist is to be freed, as Israel still holds the body

Updated 54 min 49 sec ago
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A settler accused of killing a Palestinian activist is to be freed, as Israel still holds the body

  • Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three
  • The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen’s body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city

TEL AVIV: An Israeli settler accused of killing a prominent Palestinian activist during a confrontation captured on video in the occupied West Bank will be released from house arrest, an Israeli court ruled Friday.

The video shot by a Palestinian witness shows Yinon Levi brandishing a pistol and tussling with a group of unarmed Palestinians. He can be seen firing two shots, but the video does not show where the bullets hit.

Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three, who was uninvolved and was standing nearby.

The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen’s body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city. It said the measure was being taken to “prevent public disorder.”

The confrontation occurred on Monday in the village of Umm Al-Khair, in an area of the West Bank featured in “No Other Land,” an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule.

In a court decision obtained by The Associated Press, Judge Havi Toker wrote that there was “no dispute” that Levi shot his gun in the village that day, but she said he may have been acting in self-defense and that the court could not establish that the shots killed Hathaleen.

Israel’s military and police did not respond to a request for comment on whether anyone else may have fired shots that day. Multiple calls placed to Levi and his lawyer have not been answered.

The judge said Levi did not pose such a danger as to justify his continued house arrest but barred him from contact with the villagers for a month.

Levi has been sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of past violence toward Palestinians. President Donald Trump lifted the US sanctions on Levi and other radical settlers shortly after returning to office.

A total of 18 Palestinians from the village were arrested after the incident. Six remain in detention.

Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer who has lobbied for sanctions against radical settlers, including Levi, said the court ruling did not come as a surprise.

“Automatically, Palestinian victims are considered suspects, while Jewish suspects are considered victims,” he said.

Levi helped establish an settler outpost near Umm Al-Khair that anti-settlement activists say is a bastion for violent settlers who have displaced hundreds since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence, which has surged since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, along with attacks by Palestinians.

In a 2024 interview, Levi said he was protecting his own land and denied using violence.

Some 70 women in Umm Al-Khair said they were beginning a hunger strike on Friday to call for Hathaleen’s body to be returned and for the right of his family to bury him in the village.

Israel’s military said in a statement to the AP that it would return the body if the family agrees to bury him in the “nearest authorized cemetery.”

Hathaleen, 31, had written and spoke out against settler violence, and had helped produce the Oscar-winning film. Supporters have erected murals in his honor in Rome, held vigils in New York and have held signs bearing his name at anti-war protests in Tel Aviv.


Family of Palestinian-American boy held by Israel ask US govt for help securing his release

Updated 01 August 2025
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Family of Palestinian-American boy held by Israel ask US govt for help securing his release

  • Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim, 16, was detained 5 months ago on charges of rock-throwing
  • He has yet to see a courtroom, has lost significant weight and developed scabies in jail

LONDON: A Palestinian-American family is trying to secure the release of a 16-year-old detained by Israel for more than five months, The Guardian reported

Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim was detained at the family’s home in the occupied West Bank in February when he was 15, accused by Israel of throwing rocks at soldiers.

He was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to Megiddo Prison in Israel where, his family say, he has lost a significant amount of weight while awaiting trial.

The family splits its time between their home in the West Bank town of Silwad and the city of Palm Bay, Florida.

His father Zaher Ibrahim wrote to his local Congressman Mike Haridopolos asking for help in securing his son’s release.

“The Megiddo Prison is notorious for brutality and suffering,” Zaher Ibrahim wrote to Haridopolos on a form seen by The Guardian. “We are kindly asking for some support in this matter. We have exhausted all efforts locally here in Israel and have no other option than to ask our local Florida office officials to reach out on our behalf.”

Haridopolos’s office said it had been informed by the State Department that the US Embassy in Israel is “following standard procedures” on the matter.

A spokesperson for the department said it has “no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens.”

Muhammad Ibrahim’s detention first came to prominence after his cousin Sayfollah Musallet was allegedly killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank in July.

Musallet, 20, who was also a US citizen, had been visiting relatives when he was beaten to death.

There are hundreds of Palestinian children in detention in Israeli jails, many without charge or contact with their families.

According to Defense for Children International-Palestine, as of March this year that figure was 323 aged 12-17 years.

Between 2005 and 2010, 835 Palestinian children in that age bracket were tried for stone-throwing by Israeli military courts. Only one was acquitted.

Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the West Bank-based accountability program director at Defense for Children International-Palestine, told The Guardian: “Palestinian children in Israeli prisons are totally disconnected from the outside world. They (Israel) will not recognize whether you are American, Somalian or whatever your citizenship.”

Abu Eqtaish said since Oct. 7, 2023, conditions in Israeli jails for Palestinians have worsened, adding: “Now they are stricter in punishment and sentences. We encounter problems knowing about living conditions inside prisons. There’s no family presence. Lawyer visits are very restricted.”

A State Department official told the Ibrahim family via email that embassy staff had visited him in prison but faced contact restrictions put in place by Israel.

During one welfare check, he was found to have lost 12 kg in weight. In another, staff reported that he was receiving treatment for scabies contracted in jail.

In a statement, a State Department spokesperson told The Guardian that it “works to provide consular assistance which may include visiting detained US citizens to ensure they have access to necessary medication or medical attention and facilitating authorized communications with their family or others.”


Hamas armed wing publishes video of Gaza hostage

Updated 17 sec ago
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Hamas armed wing publishes video of Gaza hostage

  • The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades video showed an emaciated and bearded man
  • Israeli media identified as Evyatar David, seized on Oct.7, 2023

JERUSALEM: The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas released a minute-long video Friday of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza looking weak and malnourished, inside a narrow concrete tunnel.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades video showed an emaciated and bearded man that AFP and Israeli media identified as Evyatar David, seized on October 7, 2023.

AFP could not independently verify the video’s authenticity.

David, who turned 24 in captivity, was abducted during the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war along with his friend Gal Gilboa-Dalal. Both had been attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel.

They were among 44 festival-goers seized. Palestinian militants killed 370.

In late February, Hamas released a video showing David and Gilboa-Dalal inside a vehicle, watching a hostage release ceremony a few meters (yards) away.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza have led to severe shortages of food and other essential goods, triggering international demands for a ceasefire.

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Israeli writer Grossman denounces Gaza ‘genocide’

Updated 01 August 2025
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Israeli writer Grossman denounces Gaza ‘genocide’

  • “For many years, I refused to use that term: ‘genocide’,” Grossman told La Repubblica
  • He told the paper he was using the word “with immense pain and with a broken heart“

ROME: : Award-winning Israeli author David Grossman called his country’s campaign in Gaza “genocide” and said he was using the term with a “broken heart.”

This came days after a major Israeli rights group also used the same term, amid growing global alarm over starvation in the besieged territory.

“For many years, I refused to use that term: ‘genocide’,” the prominent writer and peace activist told Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview published on Friday.

“But now, after the images I have seen and after talking to people who were there, I can’t help using it.”

Grossman told the paper he was using the word “with immense pain and with a broken heart.”

“This word is an avalanche: once you say it, it just gets bigger, like an avalanche. And it adds even more destruction and suffering,” he said.

Grossman’s works, which have been translated into dozens of languages, have won many international prizes.

He also won Israel’s top literary prize in 2018, the Israel Prize for Literature, for his work spanning more than three decades.

He said it was “devastating” to “put the words ‘Israel’ and ‘famine’ together” because of the Holocaust and our “supposed sensitivity to the suffering of humanity.”

The celebrated author has long been a critic of the Israeli government.


US envoy visits distribution site in Gaza as humanitarian crisis worsens

Updated 01 August 2025
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US envoy visits distribution site in Gaza as humanitarian crisis worsens

  • Witkoff and Huckabee toured one of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution sites in Rafah
  • All four of the group’s sites are in zones controlled by the Israeli military and have become flashpoints of desperation

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff visited southern Gaza on Friday amid international outrage over starvation, shortages and deadly chaos near aid distribution sites.

With food scarce and parcels being airdropped, Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee toured one of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution sites in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Chapin Fay, the group’s spokesperson, said the visit reflected Trump’s understanding of the stakes and that “feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority.”

All four of the group’s sites are in zones controlled by the Israeli military and have become flashpoints of desperation during their months of operation, with starving people scrambling for scarce aid. Hundreds have been killed by either gunfire or trampling.

The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.

Witkoff’s visit comes a week after US officials walked away from ceasefire talks in Qatar, blaming Hamas and pledging to seek other ways to rescue Israeli hostages and make Gaza safe.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Witkoff was sent to craft a plan to boost food and aid deliveries, while Trump wrote on social media that the fastest way to end the crisis would be for Hamas to surrender and release hostages.

Officials at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said they have received the bodies of 25 people, including 13 who were killed while trying to get aid, including near the site that US officials visited. GHF denied anyone was killed at their sites on Friday and said most recent incidents had taken place near United Nations aid convoys.

The remaining 12 were killed in airstrikes, the officials said. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.

Human Rights Watch: ‘Near impossible’

International organizations have said Gaza has been on the brink of famine for the past two years. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on food crises, said recent developments, including a complete blockade on aid for 2 1/2 months, mean the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza.”

Though the flow of aid has resumed, including via airdrops, the amount getting into Gaza remains far lower than what aid organizations say is needed. A security breakdown in the territory has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians, much of the limited aid entering is hoarded and later sold at exorbitant prices.

At a Friday press conference in Gaza City, representatives of the territory’s influential tribes accused Israel of empowering factions that loot aid sites and implored Witkoff to stay several hours in Gaza to witness life firsthand.

“We want the American envoy to come and live among us in these tents where there is no water, no food and no light,” they said. “Our children are hungry in the streets.”

In a report issued Friday, Human Rights Watch called the current setup “a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.”

“It would be near impossible for Palestinians to follow the instructions issued by GHF, stay safe, and receive aid, particularly in the context of ongoing military operations, Israeli military sanctioned curfews, and frequent GHF messages saying that people should not travel to the sites before the distribution window opens,” the report said. It cited doctors, aid seekers and at least one security contractor.

Since the group’s operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials. The Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds.

Responding to the report, Israel’s military blamed Hamas for sabotaging the aid distribution system but said it was working to make the routes under its control safer for those traveling to aid sites. GHF did not immediately respond to questions about the report.

The group has never allowed journalists to visit their sites and Israel’s military has barred reporters from independently entering Gaza throughout the war.

International condemnations have mounted as such reports trickle out of Gaza, including from aid organizations that previously oversaw distribution.

A July 30 video published Thursday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs showed an aid convoy driving past a border crossing as gunfire ricocheted off the ground near where crowds congregated.

“We were met on the road by tens of thousands of hungry and desperate people who directly offloaded everything from the backs of our trucks,” said Olga Cherevko, an OCHA staff member.