WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday implored Sudan’s authorities to let aid into the country, denouncing holdups as the war between rival generals leaves millions in need of help.
Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said that funding for Sudan’s crisis “remains shockingly low,” with around 25 million people, or more than half of the population, in need of assistance.
But she said that even the aid that arrives faces obstacles due to “ill-disciplined or rapacious” forces on the ground, and bureaucracy “mastered through decades of practice at being obstructionist.”
“Sudan continues to present some of the toughest conditions for humanitarian access in the entire world, and that is saying something,” she said at the US Institute of Peace.
“Unconscionably, supplies are actually there — stuck at the border or in the Port of Sudan as permits to move aid into the country continue to be denied,” she said.
“The fact that a permit could stand in the way of supplies reaching people with life-or-death needs and conditions is horrifying,” she said.
Power said that small-scale local and diaspora groups have filled the vacuum and acknowledged that USAID took “far too long” to channel assistance through them.
“If these relief networks were to collapse, millions of Sudanese civilians would be left with no assistance at all. To prevent that from happening, these groups need more resources,” she said.
The United States in September announced $130 million in new assistance to Sudan.
Violence broke out in April last year between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they failed to agree on merging as part of a now-derailed transition to democracy.
The war has killed at least 13,000 people, according to a conservative estimate by the Conflict Location and Event Data project, and displaced more than seven million people, according to the United Nations.
The United States and Saudi Arabia led negotiations between the two sides but to little avail, and Washington has increasingly turned to pressure to coax them.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday it was blocking any assets and criminalizing US transactions with the Alkhaleej Bank, which has been an “essential part” of funding for the RSF.
The bank allegedly received $50 million from the country’s central bank immediately before the war broke out.
Also targeted were the Zadna International Company for Development, allegedly used for money laundering and commercial operations of the army, and Al-Fakher Advanced Works, which the Treasury Department said has helped generate millions of dollars through gold exports for the RSF, allowing the paramilitary group to buy weapons.
“The United States will continue to use the tools at our disposal to end this devastating war, promote accountability and help the Sudanese people realize their demands for freedom, peace, and justice,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Earlier this week, the United States offered a reward of up to $5 million for the arrest of a former Sudanese official, Ahmed Harun, who escaped prison and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
US deplores holdups on aid into Sudan
https://arab.news/vhkpk
US deplores holdups on aid into Sudan
- Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said that funding for Sudan’s crisis “remains shockingly low"
- Even the aid that arrives faces obstacles due to “ill-disciplined or rapacious” forces on the ground
Gaza aid could grind to a halt within days, UN agencies warn
- Humanitarian workers have sounded the alarm this week over the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings for aid
LONDON: Dwindling food and fuel stocks could force aid operations to grind to a halt within days in Gaza as vital crossings remain shut, forcing hospitals to close down and leading to more malnutrition, United Nations aid agencies warned on Friday.
Humanitarian workers have sounded the alarm this week over the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings for aid and people as part of Israel’s military operation in Rafah, where around 1 million uprooted people have been sheltering.
The Israeli military said a limited operation in Rafah was meant to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, which governs the besieged Palestinian territory.
“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said the UNICEF Senior Emergency Coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Hamish Young.
“This is already a huge issue for the population and for all humanitarian actors but in a matter of days, if not corrected, the lack of fuel could grind humanitarian operations to a halt,” he told a virtual briefing.
More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in the last five days
More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in recent days, said Young.
Israel’s military on Monday called for Gazans to leave eastern Rafah, which triggered widespread international alarm.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said more than 100,000 had left, with the UN humanitarian agency OCHA putting the figure at more than 110,000.
All eyes have been on Rafah in recent weeks, where the population had swelled to around 1.5 million after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled fighting in other areas of Gaza.
Georgios Petropoulos, head of OCHA’s sub-office in Gaza, said the situation in the besieged Palestinian territory had reached “even more unprecedented levels of emergency.”
Countries around the world, including key Israeli backer the United States, have urged Israel not to extend its ground offensive into Rafah, citing fears of a large civilian toll.
Hamish Young, UNICEF’s senior emergency coordinator in the Gaza Strip, insisted Rafah “must not be invaded” and called for the immediate flow of fuel and aid into the Gaza Strip.
“Yesterday, I was walking around the Al-Mawasi zone, that people in Rafah are being told to move to,” he said, also speaking from Rafah.
“Shelters already lined Al-Mawasi’s sand dunes and it’s now becoming difficult to move between the mass of tents and tarpaulins.
AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip early Friday witnessed artillery strikes on Rafah on the territory’s southern border with Egypt.
Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has conducted a retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 34,900 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Turkiye says it killed 17 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Syria
ANKARA: Turkish forces have killed 17 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) across various regions of northern Iraq and northern Syria, the defense ministry said on Friday.
In a post on social media platform X, the ministry said its forces had “neutralized” 10 PKK insurgents found in the Gara and Hakurk regions of northern Iraq, and in an area where the Turkish military frequently mounts cross-border raids under its “Claw-Lock Operation.”
It said another seven militants were “neutralized” in two regions of northern Syria, where Turkiye has previously carried out cross-border incursions.
The ministry’s use of the term “neutralized” commonly means killed. The PKK, which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Turkiye’s cross-border attacks into northern Iraq have been a source of tension with its southeastern neighbor for years. Ankara has asked Iraq for more cooperation in combating the PKK, and Baghdad labelled the group a “banned organization” in March.
Last month, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held talks with officials in Baghdad and Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, about the continued presence of the PKK in northern Iraq, where it is based, and other issues. Erdogan later said he believed Iraq saw the need to eliminate the PKK as well.
Turkiye has also staged military incursions in Syria’s north against the YPG militia, which it regards as a wing of the PKK.
Erdogan and his ministers have repeatedly said that while Ankara is working on repairing ties with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government after years of animosity, it will mount a new offensive into northern Syria to push the YPG away from its border.
Israeli demonstrators torch part of UN compound in Jerusalem
- Compound closed until proper security was restored
- Thursday’s incident was the second in less than a week
JERUSALEM: The main United Nations aid agency for Palestinians closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem after local Israeli residents set fire to areas at the edge of the sprawling compound, the agency said.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said in a post on the social media platform X that he had decided to close the compound until proper security was restored. He said Thursday’s incident was the second in less than a week.
“This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of the State of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times,” he said.
This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 9, 2024
This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound.
While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage… pic.twitter.com/ZqHFDNkiWC
UNRWA, set up to deal with the Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes during the 1948 war around the time of Israel’s creation, has long been a target of Israeli hostility.
Since the start of the war with Gaza Israeli officials have called repeatedly for the agency to be shut down, accusing it of complicity with the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, a charge the United Nations strongly rejects.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its indivisible capital, including eastern parts it captured in a 1967 war, which Palestinians seek as the future capital of an independent state.
Lazzarini said staff were present at the time of the incident but there were no casualties. However outdoor areas were damaged by the blaze, which was put out by staff after emergency services took time to respond.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli police.
Lazzarini said groups of Israelis had been staging regular demonstrations outside the UNRWA compound for the past two months and said stones were thrown at staff and buildings in the compound this week.
In footage shared with Lazzarini’s post, smoke can be seen rising near buildings at the edge of the compound while the sound of chanting and singing can be heard.
A crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting “Burn down the United Nations,” Lazzarini said.
UKMTO reports hijacking attempt of vessel east of Yemen’s Aden
DUBAI: The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization said on Friday it had received a report of a failed hijacking attempt of a vessel 195 nautical miles east of Yemen’s Aden.
The vessel’s master reported being approached by a small craft carrying five or six armed people with ladders.
Houthi militants in Yemen have launched drone and missile attacks on shipping in and around the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to show support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.
Maritime sources say pirates may be encouraged by a relaxation of security or may be taking advantage of the chaos caused by attacks on shipping by the Iran-aligned Houthis.
After firing on the vessel, the people in the small craft were forced to abort their approach when the security team on the vessel returned fire, the UKMTO reported.
The vessel and its crew are reported to be safe, and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call, it said.
Hamas says ‘ball is completely’ in Israel’s hands in Gaza truce talks
GAZA STRIP: Palestinian militant group Hamas said early Friday that its delegation attending Gaza ceasefire negotiations in Cairo had left the city for Qatar, adding the “ball is now completely” in Israel’s hands.
“The negotiating delegation left Cairo heading to Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it on several central issues,” the group said in a message to other Palestinian factions, adding it stood by the proposal.
“Accordingly, the ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation.”
State-linked Egyptian outlet Al-Qahera News reported Thursday that representatives of both camps left Cairo after two days of negotiations aimed at finalizing a ceasefire deal in the seven-month war in the Gaza Strip.
Efforts by Egypt and other mediators, namely Qatar and the United States, “continue to bring the points of view of the two parties closer together,” the outlet added, citing a high-level Egyptian source.
Hamas said Monday that it had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators.
The deal, the group said, involved a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the war, and the exchange of hostages held by militants for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel, with the aim of a “permanent ceasefire.”
Netanyahu’s office at the time called the proposal “far from Israel’s essential demands,” but said the government would still send negotiators to Cairo.
Israel has long been resistant to the idea of a permanent ceasefire, insisting it must finish the job of dismantling Hamas.
