Ƶ

Escalating Sudan conflict likely to worsen humanitarian crisis

Children play on a street in Tokar in the Read Sea State on Thursday following recent heavy flooding in eastern Sudan. (AFP)
Children play on a street in Tokar in the Read Sea State on Thursday following recent heavy flooding in eastern Sudan. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 04 October 2024

Escalating Sudan conflict likely to worsen humanitarian crisis

Children play on a street in Tokar in the Read Sea State on Thursday following recent heavy flooding in eastern Sudan. (AFP)
  • Army has advanced across bridges in capital
  • RSF expected to benefit from the dry season

DUBAI: After almost 18 months of war, fighting in Sudan is escalating as seasonal rains end with the army using intensified airstrikes and allied fighters to shore up its position ahead of a likely surge by the rival Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

An uptick in fighting will aggravate an already dire humanitarian crisis in which famine has been confirmed and over 10 million people — one-fifth of the population — are displaced, more than anywhere else in the world.
UN agencies have often been unable to deliver aid.
“There won’t be a decisive breakthrough,” said a senior Western diplomat in the region.
“What we expect to come into the fall more and more is much more fragmentation, to see more armed groups getting involved ... And this will make the situation in general much more difficult.”

BACKGROUND

The RSF has had the upper hand during much of the conflict but last week the army launched its biggest offensive yet in Khartoum, advancing across a key bridge over the Nile.

The RSF has had the upper hand during much of the conflict but last week the army, after shunning US-led talks in Switzerland, launched its biggest offensive yet in Khartoum, advancing across a key bridge over the Nile.
In Darfur, former rebel groups and volunteers from displacement camps have rallied to defend the densely populated city of Al-Fasher, the army’s last holdout in the western region, against waves of RSF attacks.
Two army sources said the army had worked for months to replenish weaponry, including drones and warplanes, and train new volunteers to strengthen its position on the ground before any negotiations.
Three residents in the capital, which is made up of Khartoum and its adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri, said that in recent days, the army had been carrying out more air bombardments with more drones and fighter jets than before.
While the army has used its superior air power at the end of the rainy season to pound RSF-held territory in the capital, Darfur and El Gezira state, the RSF’s more effective ground troops are expected to regain an edge as the dry season starts and roads become more passable.
On Monday, the RSF released a video with its fighters promising a “hot winter” for its rivals in Sennar, where the rains had slowed its progress earlier.
Witnesses there and in the capital reported heavy fighting on Thursday.
Both sides have reinforced militarily as the conflict in Africa’s third largest country by land area has deepened, drawing on material support from foreign backers, diplomats and analysts say.
The war began in April 2023 as the army and the RSF jostled to protect their power and wealth ahead of a planned political transition toward civilian rule and free elections.
The RSF, which has its roots in the so-called Janjaweed militias that helped the government crush a rebellion in Darfur in the early 2000s, quickly occupied much of the capital before consolidating its grip on Darfur and seizing El Gezira state, south of Khartoum.
Earlier this year, the army gained ground in Omdurman after acquiring Iranian drones.
But it showed little sign of building on the advance before the surprise offensive it began last week on the day that its commander, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, told the UN that the RSF had to withdraw and lay down its arms for there to be peace.
The army now has control of the capital’s Halfaya bridge, allowing it to build a foothold in Bahri from its bases in Omdurman.
It has also weathered heavy clashes and sniper fire to advance across another Nile bridge that leads to the heart of the capital, military sources and witnesses said.
For months, the RSF has besieged Al-Fasher, which is crammed with some 1.8 million residents and displaced people. Activists and diplomats have warned of ethnically charged bloodletting if the city falls after similar violence that was blamed on the RSF and its allies elsewhere in Darfur.
Two witnesses in Al-Fasher said that the RSF had been shelling large areas of the city as the army responded with air strikes.
The battle has dragged on as non-Arab former rebel groups and volunteers from displacement camps who are better equipped for ground combat than the army fight to protect themselves and their families, the witnesses said.
A local group representing displaced people in Darfur said this week that the fighting had exacerbated the humanitarian situation in two dozen camps across the Darfur region, “all of which suffer from a lack of the most basic daily necessities,” and that disease and starvation were spreading.
Aid workers and human rights activists say there has been little increase in humanitarian relief despite pledges by both sides to improve access to aid.
Sudan, often overlooked amid armed conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere, received some diplomatic attention at the UN General Assembly last week.
But USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman said there had been little progress getting outside players to stop fueling the war.
“Both of the actors in this conflict, both sides of this, have outside support which they believe is going to tip the scales to their advantage,” she said.


Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C

Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C
Updated 57 min 33 sec ago

Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C

Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C
  • Iraq’s 46 million people face rising temperatures, chronic water shortages and year-on-year droughts, in a country intensely impacted by the effects of climate change

BAGHDAD: Iraqis grappled on Monday with searing heat in the capital Baghdad and parts of the country’s south, where the weather service said temperatures reached 51C in the shade.
Iraq’s 46 million people face rising temperatures, chronic water shortages and year-on-year droughts, in a country intensely impacted by the effects of climate change.
Summer temperatures often climb to 52C, especially in July and August.
On central Baghdad’s bustling streets on Monday, people sought respite from the sweltering heat in front of swirling mist fans set up near restaurants and shops.
Some pedestrians drenched their faces with cold water purchased from sidewalk vendors, while drivers had to pull over to the roadside to cool down their engines.
The national weather service said the temperature reached 51C in Baghdad and in areas to the capital’s southeast, from the central Wasit province to Dhi Qar, Missan and Basra in the south.
Another eight provinces hit 50C on Monday, with temperatures expected to drop slightly on Wednesday, according to the official Iraq News Agency.
In recent years, Iraqis rallied every summer to protest regular power cuts and water shortages that plague their daily lives.
Hundreds of people protested on Friday and Sunday near the cities of Hilla and Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, blocking roads and burning tires.
Iraq’s water resources ministry has said that “this year is one of the driest since 1933,” and that water reserve are down to only eight percent of their full capacity.
Authorities blame reduced river flows in part on upstream dams built in neighboring Iran and Turkiye, which Iraq says have dramatically shrunk the once-mighty Tigris and Euphrates whose waters have been crucial for irrigation for millennia.
Temperatures have risen significantly elsewhere in the region, with neighboring Turkiye registering on Saturday 50.5C in its southeast, a nationwide record.
Last week, a severe heatwave in Iran disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country.


Israeli strikes kill at least 34 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions are eased

Israeli strikes kill at least 34 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions are eased
Updated 28 July 2025

Israeli strikes kill at least 34 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions are eased

Israeli strikes kill at least 34 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions are eased
  • Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures
  • Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes killed at least 34 Palestinians in multiple locations across Gaza on Monday, local health officials said, a day after Israel eased aid restrictions in the face of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the territory.

Israel announced Sunday that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir Al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day until further notice to allow for the improved flow of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where concern over hunger has grown, and designate secure routes for aid delivery.

Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the pause Israel declared would be held between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Aid agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but said they were not enough to counter the rising hunger in the Palestinian territory.

Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel’s close allies. US President Donald Trump on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza “terrible.”

Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine to pressure Hamas to free hostages.

Israel partially lifted those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new US-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. Traditional aid providers also have encountered a similar breakdown in law and order surrounding their aid deliveries.

Most of Gaza’s population now relies on aid. Accessing food has become a challenge that some Palestinians have risked their lives for.

The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site.

Elsewhere, a woman who was seven months pregnant was killed along with 11 others after their house was struck in the Muwasi area, west of the southern city of Khan Younis. The woman’s fetus survived after a complex surgery, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

One strike hit a two-story house in the western Japanese neighborhood of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, said the Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties.

The Israeli military and GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those strikes.

In its Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. It still holds 50, more than half Israel believes to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says over half of the dead are women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.


Israeli settlers attack West Bank Christian village: PA

Israeli settlers attack West Bank Christian village: PA
Updated 28 July 2025

Israeli settlers attack West Bank Christian village: PA

Israeli settlers attack West Bank Christian village: PA
  • Israeli settlers attacked the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank, torching cars and spray-painting threatening graffiti, the Palestinian Authority said Monday

JERUSALEM: Israeli settlers attacked the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank, torching cars and spray-painting threatening graffiti, the Palestinian Authority said Monday.
“Israeli colonial settlers launched a terror attack tonight on the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh (Ramallah), setting fire to Palestinian vehicles and spray-painting racist threats in Hebrew on homes and property,” the Ramallah-based authority wrote on X.
A Taybeh resident, speaking anonymously for safety reasons, told AFP the attack occurred at about 2:00 am (2300 GMT), with at least two vehicles burned.
They said one vehicle belonged to a journalist, while noting the damage appeared to target Palestinian property broadly.
A photo shared by a Palestinian government agency on X showed graffiti on a Taybeh wall that read: “Al-Mughayyir, you will regret,” referring to a nearby village that was also attacked by settlers earlier this year.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, calling it “settler terrorism.”
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also condemned it, writing on X: “These extremist settlers may claim that God gave them the land. But they are nothing but criminals abhorrent to any faith.”
Taybeh and its surroundings have experienced several bouts of settler violence in recent months, including an arson attack at an ancient Byzantine church.
The village — home to about 1,300 mostly Christian Palestinians, many holding US dual citizenship — is known for its brewery, the oldest in the Palestinian territories.
Settlers have attacked neighboring communities in recent months, resulting in three deaths, damage to Palestinian water wells and the displacement of at least one rural herding community.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The territory is home to about three million Palestinians and around 700,000 Israeli settlers, including about 200,000 in east Jerusalem.
Last week, 71 members of Israel’s 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, passed a motion calling on the government to annex the West Bank.


IAEA will visit Iran in next two weeks, Iranian foreign ministry says

IAEA will visit Iran in next two weeks, Iranian foreign ministry says
Updated 28 July 2025

IAEA will visit Iran in next two weeks, Iranian foreign ministry says

IAEA will visit Iran in next two weeks, Iranian foreign ministry says
  • A manual regarding the future of Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will be presented, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said

DUBAI: The United Nations nuclear watchdog will make a visit to Iran within the next two weeks, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, a few days after the watchdog’s director said Tehran is ready to restart technical conversations.
Baghaei added that a manual regarding the future of Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will be presented, based on a recent parliamentary bill restricting such cooperation.


Israel says Gaza got 120 trucks of aid on day one of pause

Israel says Gaza got 120 trucks of aid on day one of pause
Updated 28 July 2025

Israel says Gaza got 120 trucks of aid on day one of pause

Israel says Gaza got 120 trucks of aid on day one of pause
  • Israel said Monday that more than 120 truckloads of food aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies in the Gaza Strip on the first day of a partial pause in fighting

JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday that more than 120 truckloads of food aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies in the Gaza Strip on the first day of a partial pause in fighting.
On Sunday, Israel declared a “tactical” pause in military operations in part of Gaza and promised to open secure routes for aid, urging humanitarian groups to step up food distribution.
“Over 120 trucks were collected and distributed yesterday by the UN and international organizations,” COGAT, an Israeli defense ministry agency overseeing civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said in a post on X on Monday.