PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Shelling by Sudanese paramilitary forces on Saturday killed at least 12 people in the north of the vast Darfur region that is almost completely under their control, activists said.
Five people were also wounded in the bombardment by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting the regular army since April last year, according to the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across the country.
RSF fighters took three people captive after the bombardment north of the town of Kutum, the committee added.
The region’s governor, former rebel leader Mini Minawi, who is close to the regular army, said the paramilitaries had torched some 20 villages in the area.
The army has largely been confined to the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher since the paramilitaries swept through the rest of the region last year.
RSF fighters have laid siege to the city of some two million people since May and famine has already been declared in the Zamzam camp for the displaced to its south.
UN officials have voiced mounting concern about the dire conditions in Darfur and across Sudan.
“The people of Sudan are living through a nightmare of violence — with thousands of civilians killed, and countless others facing unspeakable atrocities, including widespread rape and sexual assaults,” UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Security Council late last month.
Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists
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Shelling kills 12 in Sudan’s Darfur: activists
- UN officials have voiced mounting concern about the dire conditions in Darfur and across Sudan
Lebanon foreign minister declines Tehran visit, proposes talks in neutral country
- Lebanon’s foreign minister Youssef Raji cited ‘current conditions’ for the decision not to go to Iran
Lebanon’s foreign minister Youssef Raji said on Wednesday he had declined an invitation to visit Tehran for now, proposing instead talks with Iran in a mutually agreed neutral third country, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.
Raji cited “current conditions” for the decision not to go to Iran, without elaborating, and stressed that the move did not mean rejection of dialogue with Iran. He did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for additional comment.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had extended the invitation last week, seeking talks on bilateral ties.
Raji said Lebanon stood ready to open a new phase of constructive relations with Iran, on the condition that ties be based strictly on mutual respect, full recognition of each country’s independence and sovereignty, and non-interference in internal affairs under any pretext.
In an apparent reference to calls to disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed movement allied for decades to Iran, Raji added that no strong state could be built unless the government held the exclusive right to hold weapons.
Hezbollah, once a dominant political force with wide influence over the Lebanese state, was severely weakened by Israeli strikes last year that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire. It has been under mounting domestic and international pressure to surrender its weapons and place all arms under state control.
In August, Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani visited Beirut, warning Lebanon not to “confuse its enemies with its friends.” In June, Foreign Minister Araqchi said Tehran sought a
“new page” in ties.
