PRISTINA: Kosovo and North Macedonia repatriated 34 of their citizens from Syria including men suspected of fighting for Daesh, government officials said on Monday.
Since the March 2019 fall of the group’s last stronghold in Syria, local Kurds have been calling for the repatriation of thousands of foreign women and children of extremists they hold in overcrowded camps.
But most countries are reluctant to take back their citizens.
North Macedonia estimates 156 citizens went to fight alongside the extremists, with more than 80 having returned.
Experts say around 400 people from Kosovo joined extremists in Iraq and Syria, police saying more than half have returned.
“These returns demonstrate Kosovo’s willingness to take responsibility for its citizens while setting an example for others,” the American Embassy in Pristina said on Twitter.
Six men, one woman and four children arrived in Kosovo on Saturday “with the help of the US,” the police ministry’s Xhelal Svecla said. North Macedonia’s government said in a statement that four men, five women and fourteen children had returned.
The four men have been detained and would be prosecuted for fighting with foreign units, the statement said. The women and children would be placed in a 14-day quarantine for medical checks while the authorities investigate if they were involved in any crimes.
“If no proof for crimes is found, then on their own will they will be included in the process of rehabilitation, resocialization and reintegration,” the Macedonian government added.
In Kosovo, all seven adults in the group, including one woman, suspected of “having gone to the conflict zone” have been detained for 48 hours due to their investigation, said police official Samedin Mehmeti.
Kosovo repatriates citizens from Syria camps
https://arab.news/p7raa
Kosovo repatriates citizens from Syria camps
- Experts say around 400 people from Kosovo joined extremists in Iraq and Syria, police saying more than half have returned
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
