Two Egyptian pilots killed in helicopter crash in Suez: army

Two Egyptian air force officers were killed on Tuesday when a helicopter crashed during a training exercise, the military said. (Reuters/ File)
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Updated 05 November 2024
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Two Egyptian pilots killed in helicopter crash in Suez: army

  • The Egyptian air force operates aircraft from various countries

CAIRO: Two Egyptian air force officers were killed on Tuesday when a helicopter crashed during a training exercise, the military said.
The helicopter went down near a key air base in the town of Shalufa, in Suez province, “due to a technical malfunction,” military spokesman Gharib Abdel Hafez said in a post on his official Facebook page.
He did not specify the manufacturer or model of the aircraft.
The Egyptian air force operates aircraft from various countries, including France, Russia and the United States.
In November 2022, the military said a fighter jet had crashed during a military exercise but it reported no casualties.
In December 2019, an aircraft crashed during a training exercise. The pilot ejected safely.


Blinken arrives in Jordan at start of Syria crisis tour

Updated 14 sec ago
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Blinken arrives in Jordan at start of Syria crisis tour

  • The outgoing top US diplomat will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II and the foreign minister Ayman Safadi
AQABA, Jordan: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Jordan on Thursday at the start of a crisis tour following the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar Assad, an AFP journalist on his plane said.
The outgoing top US diplomat will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II and the foreign minister in the Red Sea city of Aqaba as he presses for an “inclusive” process to choose Syria’s next government, US officials said.

Migrant workers in Lebanon are trying to return home after alleged abuses and then war

Updated 12 December 2024
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Migrant workers in Lebanon are trying to return home after alleged abuses and then war

  • Hundreds of migrant workers in Lebanon are waiting to be repatriated after the ceasefire ending the war between the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel went into effect last month

BEIRUT: Isatta Bah wakes up from a nap in a crowded shelter on the outskirts of Beirut, clutching her baby, Blessing.
The 24-year-old from Sierra Leone spends her days waiting for an exit visa that could put her and her 1-year-old on a plane back to the West African nation. She wants to reunite with her family after what she called exploitative work conditions and sexual violence, along with the recent horrors of war in Lebanon.
“My experience in Lebanon is not good for me. I am really tired,” Bah said. “I want to go home.”
Hundreds of migrant workers in Lebanon are waiting to be repatriated after the ceasefire ending the 14-month war between the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel went into effect last month.
Lebanon has long drawn migrant workers dreaming of building better lives for their families. Enticed by promises of stable jobs and decent pay, they enter Lebanon via recruitment agencies under a sponsorship-based labor system known as Kafala — only to find themselves often trapped with confiscated passports, long hours, withheld wages and, for many, abuse.
The Kafala system has long been criticized by human rights groups, but the government rarely if ever addresses the criticism. But Bah knew little of that when she came to Lebanon in 2022. She was promised a job at a supermarket with a $200 monthly salary, she said. Instead, she was sent to care for an older woman once she arrived.
Within a month of her arrival, her 3-year-old son back home fell ill and died. She said she was not given the time to grieve and fled her employer’s house. Since her employer held her passport and other documents, Bah said she had to leave them behind.
Her experience in Lebanon then took a darker turn. One day she and five housemates were picked up by a taxi driver who said he would take them home. Instead, she said, the driver dropped them at the wrong spot. As they tried and failed to find another cab, a group of men chased them and raped them.
“Men were coming and they were cheering for us,” said Bah, who gave her consent to be named. “They beat us and they had sex with us.” She said it took her about two weeks to recover and resume work at two hotels. Without documents, migrants can hesitate to go to police.
Two months later, she and another friend found out they were pregnant.
Bah recounted the experience as she watched her baby’s wobbly footsteps.
With war, their lives became more precarious. When Israel intensified its bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs in September, Bah fled the area with her baby and friends on foot.
Not every migrant worker escaped the attacks. An estimated 37 have been killed and 150 wounded since October 2023, said Joelle Mhanna with the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
There were few places to turn. Most government-run shelters refused to take in displaced people who were not Lebanese, said activist Dea Hajj Shaheen. After supporting migrant women during previous crises in Lebanon, she stepped in again along with other volunteers.
To house over 200 women from Sierra Leone including Bah, they repurposed an abandoned space owned by her family — a former car dealership that was later a venue for pop-up events and named The Shelter.
The kitchen was alive with activity as women cooked, some dancing to Nigerian music. In another area, rows of thin mattresses lay in the dim light from broken windows. Despite the modest conditions, the women set up a Christmas tree crafted from sticks.
While some migrants have been accepted at government-run shelters, there were regular reports of others being evicted or denied access, the IOM said.
Some migrants hesitate to approach the government shelters for fear of detention or deportation, Mhanna said. “As a result, most are being hosted by embassies, NGOs and community-based organizations including churches, monasteries and other religious groups.”
The Lebanese government has not directly addressed the issue of migrant workers being rejected from government-run shelters, despite repeated calls for action from rights organizations and the United Nations.
Moving on from the shelters they found posed another challenge for migrants like Bah, as many had passports and other documents confiscated by former employers.
“We had to secure exit permits, immigration clearances and even child travel documents for the five children in this group,” said Shaheen, who coordinated the repatriation last month of 120 women and their children with the support of IOM, who chartered the flight.
IOM said it has received requests from around 10,000 migrants seeking to be repatriated, a small fraction of the over 175,000 in Lebanon.
As of Nov. 26, the IOM had supported over 400 migrants to return home. That included two charter flights for people from Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. It wasn’t clear how many more flights are planned. or to where.
Laughter and cheer filled Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Nov. 19. The women from Sierra Leone arrived in groups, dragging suitcases and sharing hugs. Some danced in celebration for their long-awaited flight.
“It wasn’t easy in Lebanon,” said Amanata Thullah after four years. “I am happy to be going back to my country.”
Mariam Sesay, who described herself as the head of Sierra Leone’s community in Lebanon, said there had been “a lot of distress and trauma” in recent months.
Bah was not among those leaving, but she said she and others at the shelter were happy to see friends return home.
She now awaits her turn, along with over 50 others.
At first she was told she needed official documents for her baby and the father’s consent to travel. But a lawyer waived the requirement due to her circumstances, Shaheen said.
“I wish to go back home to continue my education,” Bah said. “Since I was little, I always wanted to be a computer science student, because I’m good at that.”
She looked down at Blessing. “Now I have something to take care of,” she said. “When I watch her walk or laugh, that gives me joy.”


Deadly attacks in Sudan’s Darfur ‘shocking’: WHO chief

Updated 12 December 2024
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Deadly attacks in Sudan’s Darfur ‘shocking’: WHO chief

  • The World Health Organization voiced alarm Thursday at recent attacks in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, which it said had killed dozens of people and injured many more

GENEVA: The World Health Organization voiced alarm Thursday at recent attacks in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, which it said had killed dozens of people and injured many more.
“The most recent attacks in Kabkabiya, North Darfur, that claimed at least 80 lives and injured hundreds of people are shocking,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, adding “our sympathies go out to the affected communities in Sudan.”
The pro-democracy Emergency Lawyers group had given an even higher toll from Monday’s strike on Kabkabiya, a town about 180 kilometers (112 miles) west of El-Fasher, the state capital that has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since May.
The lawyers group, which has been documenting human rights abuses during the conflict, said an air strike “took place on the town’s weekly market day, where residents from various nearby villages had gathered to shop, resulting in the death of more than 100 people and injury of hundreds, including women and children.”
They were among at least 176 people killed in two days of army and paramilitary strikes across Sudan this week, according to an AFP tally of tolls provided by officials, activists and lawyers.
Both the army and the RSF, who have been at war since April 2023, have been accused of indiscriminately targeting civilians and deliberately bombing residential areas.
Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 12 million.
Nearly nine million of those are displaced within Sudan, most in areas with devastated infrastructure and facing the threat of mass starvation.
Across the country, nearly 26 million people — around half the population — are facing acute hunger, according to the United Nations.
Darfur, a region the size of France, is home to around a quarter of Sudan’s population but more than half its displaced people.
Nearly all of it is now controlled by the RSF, which has also taken over swathes of the southern Kordofan region and central Sudan, while the army holds the country’s north and east.
Tedros warned Thursday that “health facilities in Darfur are barely managing to meet health needs with non-functional equipment and limitations of medical supplies.”
The UN health agency, he said, had “managed to deliver trauma and surgery supplies earlier this month, which can help to treat the injured and prevent further loss of life.”


Saudi Arabia among Syrian people’s ‘strongest’ supporters, says latter’s UN representative

Updated 12 December 2024
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Saudi Arabia among Syrian people’s ‘strongest’ supporters, says latter’s UN representative

  • Qusay Al-Dahhak rejects Israel’s attacks on Syrian soil
  • New leaders ‘working hard’ to defend nation’s interests

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia was one of several Arab countries which showed the “strongest support” for Syria’s people after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government.

This is according to Qusay Al-Dahhak, permanent representative of Syria to the UN, who made the comments in an interview with AlHadath on Tuesday.

“The strongest support came from the Arab countries, especially from Saudi Arabia. We received many messages of support that reiterated their support for the Syrian people and the rejection of any Israeli aggression on the land and people,” he explained.

Assad fled Syria after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group and its allies, which brought to a spectacular end more than five decades of rule by his clan.

Syrians across the country and around the world erupted in celebration, after enduring a stifling era during which anyone suspected of dissent could be thrown into jail or killed.

With Assad’s overthrow plunging Syria into the unknown, its new leaders have sought to assure members of the country’s religious minorities that they will not repress them.

“Changing the Syrian flag at the UN headquarters has a protocol which involves the government and requires the Syrian government to officially implement the new flag in order to raise it in the building,” said Al-Dahhak.

“Through different embassies, Syrian representatives are working hard to defend the interests of Syria and follow all the orders of officials coming from Damascus,” explained Al-Dahhak.

“Prime Minister Mohammad Al-Bashir ordered embassies and Syrian diplomats to protect Syria’s interests. At the UN we spread Syria’s message that is currently going through a historical change while the new regime is being put into place,” he said.


54 journalists killed in 2024, a third by Israel — Reporters Without Borders

Updated 12 December 2024
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54 journalists killed in 2024, a third by Israel — Reporters Without Borders

  • Israeli armed forces were responsible for deaths of 18 journalists this year, 16 in Gaza, two in Lebanon
  • RSF has filed four complaints with ICC for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army”

PARIS: Fifty-four journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their work or because of their profession in 2024, a third of them by the Israeli army, according to an annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published Thursday.
According to the press freedom NGO, Israeli armed forces were responsible for the deaths of 18 journalists this year — 16 in Gaza and two in Lebanon.
“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” RSF said in its annual report, which covers data up to December 1.
The organization has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army.”
It said that in total “more than 145” journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths, RSF said.
It described the number of killings as “an unprecedented bloodbath.”
In a separate report published Tuesday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.
The figures differ between the IFJ and RSF due to two different methodologies used in calculating the toll.
RSF only includes journalists whose deaths have been “proven to be directly related to their professional activity.”
Israel denies that it intentionally harms journalists but admits that some have been killed in air strikes on military targets.
“We don’t accept these figures. We don’t believe they are correct,” Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference on Wednesday.
After Gaza, the deadliest places for journalists in 2024 were Pakistan with seven deaths, followed by Bangladesh and Mexico with five each.
In 2023, the number of journalists killed worldwide stood at 45 in the same January-December period.
As of December 1, there were 550 journalists imprisoned worldwide, compared to 513 last year, according to RSF figures.
The three countries with the highest numbers of detained journalists are China (124, including 11 in Hong Kong), Myanmar (61), and Israel (41).
Furthermore, 55 journalists are currently being held hostage, including two abducted in 2024. Nearly half — 25 in total — are in the hands of the Daesh group.
In addition, 95 journalists are reported missing, including four new cases reported in 2024.