BAGHDAD: Iraq's election commission says the results of the first national vote since declaring victory over Daesh are expected within two days.
The vote Saturday saw a record low turnout, with 44 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. No election since 2003 has had turnout below 60 percent. More than 10 million Iraqis voted.
Polling station officials blamed the low turnout on a combination of tight security measures, voter apathy and irregularities linked to a new electronic voting system.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is running to keep his post. His chief rivals are political parties with closer ties to Iran, as well as the influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a staunch nationalist who campaigned against government corruption.
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Iraq's election results expected within 2 days
Iraq's election results expected within 2 days
Sudan army breaks siege on key southern city Kadugli: army sources
KHARTOUM: Sudanese army forces broke Tuesday a paramilitary siege on the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, two army sources told AFP.
“Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege,” one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.
The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.
The allies had also besieged the neighboring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.
“After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them,” another army source told AFP.
Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.
In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war’s fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
“Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege,” one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.
The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.
The allies had also besieged the neighboring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.
“After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them,” another army source told AFP.
Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.
In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war’s fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
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