Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt congratulate Turkiye’s Erdogan on presidential win
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt congratulate Turkiye’s Erdogan on presidential win /node/2311891/middle-east
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt congratulate Turkiye’s Erdogan on presidential win
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters following early exit poll results for the second round of the presidential election in Istanbul. (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt congratulate Turkiye’s Erdogan on presidential win
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also congratulated Erdogan
European leaders sent messages
Updated 29 May 2023
Arab News
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he was declared the victor in a historic runoff Turkish election.
The 69-year-old leader overcame Turkiye’s biggest economic crisis in generations and a powerful opposition alliance to take an unassailable lead.
The UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan also sent a message of congratulations to Erdogan after the declaration.
UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum sent a similar message to Erdogan, Emirates News Agency reported.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also congratulated Erdogan, as did French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin said the win was evidence the Turkish people appreciated Erdogan’s independent foreign policy.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was eyeing “very ambitious goals” in ties with Turkey after Erdogan’s win.
“When it comes to the implementation of joint Russian-Turkish projects there is already a fairly high dynamic. Of course, we expect that the dynamic will continue, because the goals are really very ambitious,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky also sent messages of congraulations.
‘The janjaweed are coming’: Sudanese recount atrocities in RSF attack on a Darfur camp
The RSF has repeatedly claimed Zamzam and nearby Abu Shouk Camp were used as bases by the military and its allied militias
The paramilitaries destroyed Zamzam’s only functioning medical center, killing nine workers from Relief International
Updated 5 sec ago
AP
CAIRO: Umm Al-Kheir Bakheit was 13 when she first came to Zamzam Camp in the early 2000s, fleeing the janjaweed, the infamous Arab militias terrorizing Sudan’s Darfur region. She grew up, married and had three children in the camp. Now 31, Bakheit fled Zamzam as the janjaweed’s descendants — a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces — stormed into the camp and went on a three-day rampage, killing at least 400 people, after months of starving its population with a siege. Bakheit and a dozen other residents and aid workers told The Associated Press that RSF fighters gunned down men and women in the streets, beat and tortured others and raped and sexually assaulted women and girls. The April 11 attack was the worst ever suffered by Zamzam, Sudan’s largest displacement camp, in its 20 years of existence. Once home to some 500,000 residents, the camp has been virtually emptied. The paramilitaries burned down large swaths of houses, markets and other buildings. “It’s a nightmare come true,” Bakheit said. “They attacked mercilessly.” The attack came after months of famine The attack on Zamzam underscored that atrocities have not ended in Sudan’s 2-year-old war, even as the RSF has suffered heavy setbacks, losing ground recently to the military in other parts of the country. Throughout the war, the RSF has been accused by residents and rights groups of mass killings and rapes in attacks on towns and cities, particularly in Darfur. Many of RSF’s fighters originated from the janjaweed, who became notorious for atrocities in the early 2000s against people identifying as East or Central African in Darfur. “Targeting civilians and using rape as a war weapon and destroying full villages and mass killing, all that has been the reality of the Sudan war for two years,” said Marion Ramstein, MSF emergency field coordinator in North Darfur. Zamzam Camp was established in 2004 to house people driven from their homes by janjaweed attacks. Located just south of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, it swelled over the years to cover an area 8 kilometers (5 miles) long by about 3 kilometers (2 miles) wide. In the spring of 2024, the RSF clamped a siege around Zamzam as it moved against el-Fasher, one of the last strongholds of the Sudanese military in Darfur. Many have died of starvation under the siege, Bakheit and others said. “For too long, there was no option but to eat grass and tree leaves,” she said. Famine was declared in the camp in August after RSF attacks forced the UN and aid groups to pull out of Zamzam. A comprehensive death toll from the famine is not known. Ahlam Al-Nour, a 44-year-old mother of five, said her youngest child, a 3-year-old, died of severe malnutrition in December. The RSF has repeatedly claimed Zamzam and nearby Abu Shouk Camp were used as bases by the military and its allied militias. It said in a statement that it took control of the camp on April 11 to “secure civilians and humanitarian workers.” It denied its fighters targeted civilians. The RSF did not reply to AP’s questions on the attack. ‘The janjaweed are coming’ Bakheit, who lived on the southern edge of Zamzam, said she heard loud explosions and heavy gunfire around 2 a.m. April 11. The RSF started with heavy shelling, and people panicked as the night sky lit up and houses burst into flames, Bakheit said. By sunrise, the RSF-led fighters broke into her area, storming houses, kicking residents out and seizing valuables, Bakheit and others said. They spoke of sexual harassment and rape of young women and girls by RSF fighters. “The children were screaming, ‘The janjaweed are coming’,” Bakheit said. About two dozen women who fled to the nearby town of Tawila reported that they were raped during the attack, said Ramstein, who was in Tawila at the time. She said the number is likely much higher because many women are too ashamed to report rapes. “We’re talking about looting. We’re talking about beating. We’re talking about killing, but also about a lot of rape,” she said. The paramilitaries rounded up hundreds of people, including women and children. Bakheit said fighters whipped, beat, insulted and sexually harassed her in front of her children as they drove her family from their home. She said she saw houses burning and at least five bodies in the street, including two women and a boy, the ground around them soaked in blood. The fighters gathered Bakheit and about 200 other people in an open area and interrogated them, asking about anyone fighting for the military and its allied militias. “They tortured us,” said Al-Nour, who was among them. Al-Nour and Bakheit said they saw RSF fighters shoot two young men in the head during the interrogation. They shot a third man in the leg and he lay bleeding and screaming, they said. One video shared online by RSF paramilitaries showed fighters wearing RSF uniforms by nine bodies lying motionless on the ground. A fighter says he is inside Zamzam and that they would kill people “like this,” pointing to the bodies on the ground. Much of the camp was burned The RSF rampage, which also targeted Abu Shouk Camp north of el-Fasher, went on for days. The paramilitaries destroyed Zamzam’s only functioning medical center, killing nine workers from Relief International. They killed at least 23 people at a religious school, mostly young students studying the Qur’an, according to the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur. Much of the south and east of the camp was burned to the ground, the General Coordination said. Satellite imagery from April 16 showed thick black smoke rising from several active fires in the camp. At least 1.7 square kilometers (0.65 square miles) appeared to have been burned down between April 10-16, said a report by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which analyzed and published the imagery. That is about 10 percent of the camp’s area. The imagery showed vehicles around the camp and at its main access points, which HRL said were probably RSF checkpoints controlling entry and exit. By April 14, only about 2,100 people remained in the camp, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration. An arduous journey After being detained for three hours, Bakheit, Al-Nour and dozens of other women and children were released by the paramilitaries. They walked for hours under the burning summer sun. Bakheit and Al-Nour said that as they passed through the camp, they went by burning houses, the destroyed main market and bodies of men, women, children in the streets, some of them charred. They joined an exodus of others fleeing Zamzam and heading to the town of Tawila, 64 kilometers (40 miles) west of El Fasher. Al-Nour said she saw at least three people who died on the road, apparently from exhaustion and the effects of starvation and dehydration. “The janjaweed, once again, kill and torture us,” Bakheit said. “Like my mother did about 20 years ago, I had no option but to take my children and leave.”
Israel carries out strikes on two Syrian cities, Syrian state news agency says
Israel bombed Syria frequently when the country was governed by Assad, targeting a foothold established by his ally Iran during the civil war
Updated 03 May 2025
Reuters
CAIRO: Israeli strikes targeted the vicinity of Syria’s Damascus, Hama and Daraa countryside late on Friday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
The strikes on Damascus countryside killed one civilian and injured four others in Hama, SANA added.
Israel’s repeated strikes on Syria act as a warning to the new Islamist rulers in Damascus, which Israel views as a potential threat on its border.
The Israeli army confirmed the strikes on Syria on Friday, saying it targeted “a military site, anti-aircraft cannons, and surface-to-air missile infrastructure.”
The Israeli army has previously said it targeted Syria’s military infrastructure, including headquarters and sites containing weapons and equipment, since mainly Sunni Muslim Islamist fighters toppled President Bashar Assad in December.
Earlier on Friday, Israel bombed an area near the presidential palace in Damascus, in its clearest warning yet to Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities of its readiness to ramp up military action, which has included strikes it said were in support of the country’s Druze minority.
Israel bombed Syria frequently when the country was governed by Assad, targeting a foothold established by his ally Iran during the civil war.
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces claims to have seized strategic western town
RSF paramilitaries say they took key town of Al Nahud in West Kordofan state
Area is home to the headquarters of the 18th Infantry Brigade
Updated 02 May 2025
AP
CAIRO: Sudan’s notorious paramilitary group claimed a “sweeping victory” Friday saying it took control of the key town of Al Nahud in West Kordofan state in a fight that intensified a day earlier.
A victory there by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, would mark a strategic loss for Sudan’s military in its war with the paramilitary force as the territory is home to the headquarters of the 18th Infantry Brigade.
The Sudanese army didn’t immediately comment on its social media channels on whether it lost Al Nahud to its rival.
Sudan’s Culture and Information Minister Khalid Ali Aleisir said on his Facebook account on Friday the RSF committed crimes against defenseless citizens in the town, looting their properties and destroying public facilities.
The RSF said on its Telegram channel Friday that it destroyed vehicles belonging to the army and seized their weapons and ammunition during the battle for Al Nahud. The paramilitary group also claimed that it managed to secure the city’s facilities and markets after defeating the army.
The war erupted on April 15, 2023, with pitched battles between the military and the RSF in the streets of the capital Khartoum that quickly spread to other parts of the country.
RSF attacks in Al Nahud have killed more than 300 unarmed civilians, the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors’ Trade Union said on Facebook on Friday. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify that figure.
The Resistance Committees of Al Nahud condemned the RSF attacks, which it said began Thursday morning.
“They invaded the city, stormed residential neighborhoods, terrorized unarmed civilians, and committed cold-blooded murders against innocent civilians whose only crime was to cling to their dignity and refuse to leave their homes to the machine of killing and terror,” the Resistance Committees said Thursday on Facebook.
An army loss of Al Nahud would impact its operational capabilities in Northern Kordofan state, according to the Sudan War Monitor, an open source collaborative project that has been documenting the two-year-war. Al Nahud is a strategic town because it’s located along a main road that the army could use to advance into the Darfur region, which the RSF mostly controls.
Al Nahud also shelters displaced people fleeing from Al-Obeid, Umm Kadada, Khartoum and El-Fasher — the provincial capital of North Darfur province, according to the Darfur Victims Support Organization.
Meanwhile, in North Darfur, the fighting has killed at least 542 people in the last three weeks, though the actual death toll is likely higher, according to UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. This figure includes the recent RSF attacks on El Fasher and Abu Shouk displacement camp, which killed at least 40 civilians.
“The horror unfolding in Sudan knows no bounds,” said Türk i n a statement on Thursday.
Türk also mentioned “extremely disturbing” reports of extrajudicial killings committed by RSF, with at least 30 men in civilian clothing executed by the paramilitary fighters in Al Salha in southern Omdurman.
“I have personally alerted both leaders of the RSF and SAF to the catastrophic human rights consequences of this war. These harrowing consequences are a daily, lived reality for millions of Sudanese. It is well past time for this conflict to stop,” said Türk.
The war in Sudan has killed at least 20,000 people, but the real toll is probably far higher. Nearly 13 million people have fled their homes, 4 million of them streaming into neighboring countries.
Half the population of 50 million faces hunger. The World Food Program has confirmed famine in 10 locations and warns it could spread further, putting millions at risk of starvation.
Tunisia court jails former officials including former PM Larayedh
The sentences are for 18 to 36 years, and apply to eight people
Updated 02 May 2025
Reuters
TUNIS: A Tunisian court on Friday handed down lengthy prison sentences against former officials, including former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, a senior figure in the opposition Ennahda party, on charges of facilitating the departure of militants to Syria over the past decade.
TAP state news agency quoted a judicial official as saying that the sentences are for 18 to 36 years, and apply to eight people.
West Bank residents losing hope 100 days into military assault
Israel’s military in late February deployed tanks in Jenin for the first time in the West Bank since the end of the second intifada
Updated 02 May 2025
AFP
JENIN: On a torn-up road near the refugee camp where she once lived, Saja Bawaqneh said she struggled to find hope 100 days after an Israeli offensive in the occupied West Bank forced her to flee.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced in the north of the territory since Israel began a major “anti-terrorist operation” dubbed “Iron Wall” on Jan. 21.
Bawaqneh said life was challenging and uncertain since she was forced to leave Jenin refugee camp — one of three targeted by the offensive, along with Tulkarm and Nur Shams.
“We try to hold on to hope, but unfortunately, reality offers none,” she said.
“Nothing is clear in Jenin camp even after 100 days — we still don’t know whether we will return to our homes, or whether those homes have been damaged or destroyed.”
Bawaqneh said residents were banned from entering the camp and that “no one knows ... what happened inside.”
Israel’s military in late February deployed tanks in Jenin for the first time in the West Bank since the end of the second intifada.
In early March, it said it had expanded its offensive to more city areas.
AFP footage this week showed power lines dangling above Jenin’s streets blocked with barriers made of churned-up earth.
Wastewater pooled in the road outside the Jenin Governmental Hospital.
Farha Abu Al-Hija, a member of the Popular Committee for Services in Jenin camp, said families living in the vicinity of the camp were being removed by Israeli forces daily.
“A hundred days have passed like a hundred years for the displaced people of Jenin camp,” she said.
“Their situation is dire, the conditions are harsh, and they are enduring pain unlike anything they have ever known.”
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders in March denounced the “extremely precarious” situation of Palestinians displaced by the military assault, saying they were going “without proper shelter, essential services, and access to health care.”
It said the scale of forced displacement and destruction of camps “has not been seen in decades” in the West Bank.
The UN says about 40,000 residents have been displaced since Jan. 21.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said the offensive would last several months and ordered troops to stop residents from returning.
Israeli forces put up barriers at several entrances of the Jenin camp in late April, AFP footage showed.
The Israeli offensive began two days after a truce came into effect in the Gaza Strip between the Israeli military and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Two months later, that truce collapsed and Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza, a Palestinian territory separate from the West Bank.
Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, violence has soared in the West Bank.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 925 Palestinians in the territory since then, according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry.