Algeria president sets presidential election for Sept 7

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune speaks at the Martyr’s Memorial in Algiers. (File/AFP)
Short Url
Updated 22 March 2024
Follow

Algeria president sets presidential election for Sept 7

ALGIERS: Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has decided to hold presidential election on Sept. 7, the presidency said on Thursday.

The announcement to hold the elections in September comes three months ahead of schedule, a statement from the president’s office said, without providing further details.

“It was decided to hold early presidential elections on Sept. 7, 2024,” read the statement released following a meeting chaired by Tebboune and attended by lawmakers and the army’s chief of staff.

Tebboune was elected in December 2019 for a five-year term and can run for a second and final term, according to the Algerian constitution. Last year, parliament members urged him to do so.

He has not officially announced his candidacy yet. 

The announcement took the nation by surprise as elections in Algeria had been expected to take place in December 2024, raising speculation among observers about the rationale for the change.

The ballot in September will be the first since the 78-year-old military-backed leader ascended to power in 2019. He emerged the winner in a low-turnout election that December in the aftermath of a popular movement that led to his predecessor’s resignation.

(With Reuters, AFP and AP)


US condemns RSF drone attack on World Food Programme convoy in Sudan’s North Kordofan

Updated 9 sec ago
Follow

US condemns RSF drone attack on World Food Programme convoy in Sudan’s North Kordofan

WASHINGTON: The US has condemned a drone attack on a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy in Sudan’s North Kordofan state that killed one person and injured three others.

“The United States condemns the recent drone attack on a World Food Program convoy in North Kordofan transporting food to famine-stricken people which killed one and wounded many others,” US Senior Adviser for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos wrote on X.

“Destroying food intended for people in need and killing humanitarian workers is sickening,” the US envoy wrote.

“The Trump Administration has zero tolerance for this destruction of life and of U.S.-funded assistance; we demand accountability and extend our condolences to all those affected by these inexcusable events and terrible war,” he added.

 

 

Since April 2023, the conflict between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and which the UN has described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

An alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), confirmed famine conditions in El-Fasher and Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, about 800 kilometers to the east.

The IPC said that 20 more areas in Sudan’s Darfur and neighboring Kordofan were at risk of famine.

The Sudan Doctors Network said the convoy was struck by RSF drones in the Allah Karim area as it headed toward displaced people in El-Obeid, the state capital, Anadolu Agency reported.

The network described the attack as a “clear violation of international humanitarian law,” warning that it undermines efforts to deliver life-saving aid to civilians amid worsening humanitarian conditions across the country.

There was no immediate comment from the rebel group.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states in the western Darfur region, except for parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army holds most areas of the remaining 13 states across the south, north, east and center of the country, including the capital, Khartoum.

The conflict between the army and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023, has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.