United Nations, United States: A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council Wednesday, an official said.
Authorization for the aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border — at Bab Al-Salam, which leads to the Aleppo region, and Bab Al-Hawa, which serves the Idlib region — expires Friday.
Under its resolution, Moscow had wanted to abolish the first crossing point and put a time limit of six months on the second.
Russia needed nine votes and no veto from a permanent member of the Council to get its resolution passed — but received only four votes, announced the President of the Security Council, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen.
Seven countries voted against it and four abstained. “The draft resolution has not been adopted, having failed to obtain the required number of votes,” Heusgen said.
Diplomats said that Russia, along with China, Vietnam and South Africa, had voted for the resolution.
Against were the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Estonia and the Dominican Republic.
Tunisia, Niger, Indonesia and Saint Vincent abstained, the diplomats said.
The vote came after Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a draft resolution by Germany and Belgium providing for a one-year extension of the cross-border authorization and the maintenance of both crossing points.
In an interview with AFP on Wednesday, Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, said the US opposed any reduction.
“We know the right thing to do is to have both border crossings in the northwest remain open to reach the maximum amount of Syrians that are in need of humanitarian aid,” Craft told AFP.
When asked if the issue was a “red line,” she replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
Russia’s move “is just another attempt for them to politicize humanitarian assistance,” she said.
According to Craft, keeping only one border crossing open would cut off 1.3 million people living north of Aleppo from humanitarian aid.
The choice to be made between the Western position and that of Russia and China is “between good and evil, right and wrong,” said Craft, noting that Germany and Belgium “already have a new draft in mind and we are very supportive.”
The two European countries submitted their new draft Wednesday evening. In their latest draft text, obtained by AFP, Germany and Belgium asked for just a six-month extension of cross-border aid authorization, instead of one year.
But they have kept both border crossings open, and there is no indication that Moscow — in a position of strength on the subject, as it was six months ago — will be satisfied with the changes.
The result of a forthcoming vote on the new draft, which Russia could again block, is not expected until Friday, when the UN cross-border authorization expires.
Craft in 2019 visited one of the crossing points from the Turkish side near Bab Al-Hawa, an experience that made a lasting impression and made working with displaced Syrians “a personal issue,” she said.
Authorization for cross-border humanitarian aid has existed since 2014, with periodic extensions.
Tuesday’s vote was the 15th time that Russia has used its veto since the start of the Syrian war in 2011, and the ninth for China.
They argue that the UN authorization violates Syria’s sovereignty, and that aid can increasingly be channeled through Syrian authorities.
Moscow push to reduce UN cross-border aid to Syria fails
https://arab.news/y6y8h
Moscow push to reduce UN cross-border aid to Syria fails
- Moscow wanted to abolish the first crossing point and put a time limit of six months on the second
- The resolution received only four votes
While the world watches Gaza, here is what’s happening in the West Bank
- With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, Israeli military operations in the West Bank grew in size, frequency and intensity
- The army launched the stepped-up campaign to counter what it says is a growing militant threat
With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, Israeli military operations in the West Bank grew in size, frequency and intensity. The army launched the stepped-up campaign to counter what it says is a growing militant threat.
Here’s a look at where things stand, with data collected by the UN’s humanitarian office and Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement tracking group.
Palestinian deaths by Israeli fire have surged
Since the war in Gaza erupted, the majority of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank have been shot during military raids in villages and towns.
Israel says the operations are needed to stamp out militancy. Many of the dead were militants killed in clashes, or youths throwing stones or firebombs.
But Palestinians and rights groups say scores of uninvolved civilians have been caught in the crossfire.
Israeli offensives evicted 40,000 from refugee camps
Israel is staging a massive offensive across four major refugee camps in the north of the West Bank. The raids, at their height, pushed 40,000 people from their homes. Many are now sheltering with relatives in neighboring villages, others racking up debt renting apartments while they wait to return.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, have said those displaced will not be allowed to go back for at least a year.
Forces have ripped up roads, destroyed infrastructure and demolished hundreds of homes. Israel says it is dismantling terrorist infrastructure. But civilian homes have also been destroyed.
In another escalation, the military has resumed previously rare tactics, like drone strikes, in these densely populated areas.
Settler attacks on Palestinians occur almost daily.
For Palestinians living in small Bedouin villages in areas under full Israeli control, the attacks have become a near-daily occurrence as settlers — emboldened by Israel’s pro-settler government— build new unauthorized outposts on nearby hilltops.
Israel says it opposes settler violence and blames it all on a small, extremist fringe. Palestinians say that the Israeli army does little to protect them, and that the attacks are part of a systematic attempt to expel them from their land.
Israeli outposts spring up across territory
Settlers have established about 80 new outposts since the war began. Rights groups say the outposts, often populated by extremist activists, are the main drivers of violence against Palestinians. The tiny unauthorized land grabs are tolerated and even encouraged by Israel, which over the years has converted many outposts into authorized settlements as it cements its hold on the territory and moves to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel’s government, dominated by settler leaders and supporters, has established 13 new settlements since the war began, at least five of which originally sprung up as outposts. That brings the total number of settlements to 140.
Most of the international community considers settlements illegal, though US President Donald Trump has supported them.
Checkpoints choke Palestinian movement
Meanwhile, movement between Palestinian towns and cities has only grown more difficult. New checkpoints have further divided the territory and created choke points the Israeli army can shut off on a whim.
Crossings that had been open 24/7 started closing during morning and evening rush hours, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and turning once-routine commutes into hours-long journeys.
As the war in Gaza continues and the West Bank seethes, Palestinians say life is only growing more difficult.
Sudan war destroys world’s only research center on skin disease mycetoma: director
- Mycetoma is a neglected tropical disease common among farmers
- It is caused by bacteria or fungus and usually enters the body through cuts
CAIRO: The world’s only research center on mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease common among farmers, has been destroyed in Sudan’s two-year war, its director and another expert say.
Mycetoma is caused by bacteria or fungus and usually enters the body through cuts. It is a progressively destructive infectious disease of the body tissue, affecting skin, muscle and even bone.
It is often characterised by swollen feet, but can also cause barnacle-like growths and club-like hands.
“The center and all its infrastructure were destroyed during the war in Sudan,” Ahmed Fahal, director of the Mycetoma Research Center (MRC), told AFP.
“We lost the entire contents of our biological banks, where there was data from more than 40 years,” said Fahal, whose center had treated thousands of patients from Sudan and other countries.
“It’s difficult to bear.”
Since April 15, 2023, Sudan’s army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces throughout the northeast African country.
The MRC is located in the Khartoum area, which the army last month reclaimed from the RSF during a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.
Sudan’s health care system has been left at the “breaking point,” according to the World Health Organization.
Among the conflict’s casualties is now the MRC, established in 1991 under the auspices of the University of Khartoum. It was a rare story of medical success in impoverished Sudan.
A video provided by the global Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) shows collapsed ceilings, shelves overturned, fridges open and documents scattered about.
AFP was not able to independently verify the MRC’s current condition.
The center had grown to include 50 researchers and treat 12,000 patients each year, Fahal said.
Mycetoma is listed as a neglected tropical disease by the WHO.
The organisms that cause mycetoma also occur in Sudan’s neighbors, including Chad and Ethiopia, as well as in other tropical and sub-tropical areas, among them Mexico and Thailand, WHO says.
For herders, farmers and other workers depending on manual labor to survive, crippling mycetoma infections can be a life sentence.
Drawing on the MRC’s expertise, in 2019 the WHO and Sudan’s government convened the First International Training Workshop on Mycetoma, in Khartoum.
“Today, Sudan, which was at the forefront of awareness of mycetomas, has gone 100 percent backwards,” said Dr. Borna Nyaoke-Anoke, DNDi’s head of mycetoma.
Sudan displacement camp ‘nearly emptied’ after RSF takeover: UN
- The agency reported hundreds of thousands of people fleeing famine-hit Zamzam arriving in nearby areas, including El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur state that remains under army control
CAIRO: Western Sudan’s Zamzam displacement camp has been “nearly emptied” of its inhabitants, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA warned Thursday, less than two weeks after it was taken by paramilitary forces locked in a two-year war against the army.
The agency reported hundreds of thousands of people fleeing famine-hit Zamzam arriving in nearby areas, including El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur state that remains under army control.
“Zamzam IDP (internally displaced persons) camp, which housed at least 400,000 people prior to the exodus, has been nearly emptied,” OCHA said in a statement, adding satellite images showed widespread fires there, with paramilitary forces reportedly preventing some from leaving.
“The displacement from Zamzam is now spreading to multiple locations... About 150,000 displaced people have arrived in Al Fasher locality and another 181,000 people moved to Tawila.”
The war in Sudan erupted on April 15, 2023 between the regular army, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
It has killed tens of thousands of people and triggered what aid agencies describe as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.
Famine was first declared in Zamzam in August and has since spread to two more displacement camps near El-Fasher.
The RSF holds sway over much of western and southern Sudan while the army has consolidated its grip on the east and north.
After the army recaptured the capital Khartoum in March, the paramilitaries have intensified their offensives in the vast Darfur region, which is almost entirely under their control.
Tunisia burns sub-Saharan African migrant tents in latest clearance effort
- Many migrants arrived in Tunisia after crossing the deserts of Algeria and Mali, hoping to reach Italy
- For nearly two years, El Amra town served as informal camps for thousands of the migrants
EL AMRA: Tunisian authorities on Thursday set fire to tents housing sub-Saharan African migrants, an AFP correspondent said, in a new drive to clear their informal camps.
Many migrants arrived in Tunisia after crossing the deserts of Algeria and Mali, hoping to reach Italy. But tighter controls on the sea route have left them stranded.
For nearly two years, olive groves around El Amra, a town near the city of Sfax, served as informal camps for thousands of the migrants but on April 4 authorities began dismantling the camps.
Around 3,300 more migrants had to leave the olive groves on Thursday, said Houcem Eddine Jebabli, spokesman for the National Guard, which said around 4,000 had left in the earlier operation.
“It’s the strategy of the State that Tunisia not be a place of settlement or transit for illegal migrants. Tunisia is coordinating with the countries of departure, of welcome as well as the international NGOs to ensure voluntary repatriation,” Jebabli told reporters.
The makeshift shelters located a few kilometers from Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast have grown as a source of tension. Local residents complain about the camps and demand that the land be cleared.
Last year, Tunisia signed a 255-million-euro ($290-million) deal with the European Union, nearly half of which is earmarked for tackling irregular migration.
Tunisian President Kais Saied on March 25 called on the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) to accelerate voluntary returns for irregular migrants to their home countries.
Among those told to leave the camps on Thursday was a Guinean, known as Mac, who has been in Tunisia for two years.
“It’s very hard here,” he said.
Like many migrants, he has registered with IOM to return to his homeland.
The IOM said Thursday it had facilitated the voluntary return of more than 2,300 migrants from Tunisia, after nearly 7,000 throughout 2024, which was well above the combined total for 2023 and 2022.
Lebanon media says 8 wounded in drone strike at Syrian border
- Eight Syrian refugees were wounded and taken to hospital in the northeast area of Hermel
- The Lebanese army sent reinforcements “after gunfire was heard,” the report added
BEIRUT: Lebanese official media said eight people were wounded by in a drone attack in a border village, as Syrian Arab Republic said it responded to artillery fire from Lebanon.
Eight Syrian refugees were wounded and taken to hospital in the northeast area of Hermel after an “explosives-laden drone blew up” in the border village of Hawsh Al-Sayyed Ali, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The Lebanese army sent reinforcements “after gunfire was heard,” the report added.
Syrian state news agency SANA, carrying a statement from an unnamed defense ministry source, said Lebanon’s Hezbollah group had launched artillery shells at Syrian army positions in the Qusayr area of Homs province, near the Lebanese border.
“Our forces immediately targeted the sources of the fire,” the statement said.
“We are in contact with the Lebanese army to evaluate the incident and stopped targeting the sources of fire” at the Lebanese army’s request, the statement added.
Lebanon and Syria’s defense ministers signed an agreement last month to address border security threats after clashes left 10 dead.
Earlier in March, Syria’s new authorities accused Hezbollah of abducting three soldiers into Lebanese territory and killing them.
The Iran-backed group, which fought with the forces of toppled Syrian president Bashar Assad, denied involvement, but the ensuing cross-border clashes left seven Lebanese dead.
Lebanon and Syria share a porous 330 kilometer (205 mile) frontier that is notorious for the smuggling of goods, people and weapons.
