KHARTOUM: Sudanese police fired tear gas at protesters in the capital Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman after midday prayers on Friday as organizers urged nationwide demonstrations over the next week against President Omar Al-Bashir.
Crowds chanting “freedom, peace, justice” demonstrated in two areas of Khartoum and in Omdurman just across the Nile, witnesses said.
They were quickly confronted by volleys of tear gas from riot police.
Friday’s protests came after organizers called for nationwide demonstrations over the next week demanding Bashir resign.
The demonstrations that first erupted on December 19 over a government decision to triple the price of bread have swiftly escalated into broader protests that are widely seen as the biggest threat to Bashir’s rule in three decades in power.
“We will launch a week of uprising with demonstrations in every Sudanese town and village,” the Sudanese Professionals’ Association said.
The group called for a major rally in Khartoum North on Sunday, to be followed by further demonstrations in the capital during the week.
The association, which has mobilized its membership to keep up the momentum of the protests, has also called for a rally later on Friday in the eastern town of Atbara, where the demonstrations first began.
At least 22 people have been killed during the protests, including two security personnel, according to the authorities.
Human rights groups have put the death toll much higher. Human Rights Watch said on Monday that at least 40 people had been killed, including children and medical staff.
Analysts say the challenge now for organizers is to get protesters onto the street in numbers.
“Right now, some of the opposition groups and trade unions are trying to mobilize more protests, and probably they are thinking of how to escalate,” said Matt Ward, senior Africa analyst at Oxford Analytica.
“But so far there hasn’t been an escalation, they are persistent but they haven’t risen in intensity in a significant way.”
Although the immediate trigger for the protests was the price of bread, Sudan has been facing a mounting economic crisis over the past year, led by an acute shortage of foreign currency.
Repeated shortages of food and fuel have been reported in several cities, including the capital Khartoum, while the cost of food and medicine has more than doubled.
Bashir and other officials have blamed Washington for Sudan’s economic woes.
Washington imposed a trade embargo on Khartoum in 1997 that was lifted only in October 2017. It restricted Sudan from conducting international business and financial transactions.
The foreign currency shortages began with the 2011 secession of South Sudan, which took with it the bulk of oil revenues.
But critics of Bashir say his government’s mismanagement of key sectors and its huge spending on fighting ethnic minority rebellions in the western region of Darfur and in areas near the South Sudan border has been stoking economic trouble for years.
The president has remained defiant telling thousands of loyalists at a Khartoum rally on Wednesday that his government would not give in to economic pressure.
“Those who tried to destroy Sudan... put conditions on us to solve our problems, I tell them that our dignity is more than the price of dollars,” Bashir said, brandishing his trademark cane.
Across the Nile in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, hundreds of anti-government protesters blocked a main highway hours later, before riot police moved in.
Three demonstrators were killed as police fired tear gas to disperse the protest, the authorities said.
Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been arrested since the protests began, including opposition leaders, activists and journalists as well as demonstrators.
The crackdown has drawn international criticism with Britain, Canada, Norway and the United States warning Khartoum that its actions would “have an impact” on its relations with their governments.
Sudan has dismissed their concerns as “biased” and has insisted it is “committed to freedom of expression and peaceful demonstrations.”
Police tear gas Sudanese protesters calling for government to resign
Police tear gas Sudanese protesters calling for government to resign
- Crowds chanting “freedom, peace, justice” demonstrated in two areas of Khartoum and in Omdurman
- Organizers called for nationwide demonstrations over the next week
Morocco’s ambassador to UK meets his 400-year-old predecessor
- Envoy views famous portrait of Moroccan emissary sent to Britain to meet Queen Elizabeth I in 1600
- Painting, displayed at Birmingham University gallery, considered a powerful symbol of historic ties
LONDON: Morocco’s ambassador to the UK has come face to face with his predecessor — from 400 years ago.
During a visit to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham this week, Hakim Hajoui took time to reflect on how the job he does has changed over the centuries when he viewed a historic portrait of the Moroccan ambassador Abd El-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun. The masterpiece is thought to be the earliest known surviving British painting of a Muslim.
The ambassador led a diplomatic mission to London in 1600, to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, with the aim of enhancing trade and diplomatic ties between Britain and Morocco. He also hoped to forge an alliance against Spain, which had launched a failed attempt to invade Britain with the Spanish Armada in 1588.
The subject of the painting is believed by some historians to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Othello,” which the playwright began working on within a year of the ambassador’s arrival in Britain.
“This portrait is a powerful symbol of the deep historical ties between Morocco and the United Kingdom, dating back over eight centuries,” Hajoui said.
“Seeing it here at the Barber Institute at the University of Birmingham underscores the vital role academic and cultural institutions play in preserving and celebrating our shared history.”
The portrait was painted by an unknown artist during the ambassador’s stay in London, which lasted almost a year. He was sent by the ruler of Morocco, Ahmad Al-Mansur, who was also keen to garner support for an invasion of Algerian territories held by the Ottoman Empire.
Historians say that despite his efforts and the attention his party attracted in London, the ambassador failed to secure the British support his country sought. Both the Moroccan and British rulers died just a few years later, in 1603.
Still, the portrait presents a powerful image of the ambassador, with his stern gaze, flowing robes, turban and ornamental sword, from a time when relations between Britain and Muslim regions were growing.
“Abd El-Ouahed’s visit to the court of Queen Elizabeth I represented a major event in the history of diplomatic and cultural exchanges between Europe and the Islamic world,” said Clare Mullett, Birmingham University’s head of research and cultural collections.
“His arrival highlighted a shift in foreign policy and demonstrated England’s willingness to engage with nations outside Europe.”
She described the paining as one of the most vivid souvenirs of British history at the turn of the 17th Century.
Hajoui viewed the painting on Tuesday during a visit to the university to learn about its connections with Morocco and the wider Middle East and North Africa region. It opened a campus in Dubai in 2018.
Patients dying in corridors as UK hospital standards ‘collapse’
LONDON: UK patients are “coming to harm” with hospitals so overwhelmed people are dying in corridors awaiting treatment amid a “collapse in care standards,” a report said Thursday.
In the latest indictment of Britain’s beleaguered state-funded National Health Service, nine in 10 NHS nurses surveyed by the country’s nurses union said “patient safety is being compromised.”
Nearly seven in 10 (66.8 percent) said they were delivering care in “overcrowded or unsuitable places” on a “daily basis,” including in corridors, converted cupboards, car parks and even bereavement rooms.
“The experiences of over 5,000 nursing staff across the UK highlight a devastating collapse in care standards, with patients routinely coming to harm,” said the Royal College of Nursing.
The report condemned the “normalization” of so-called “corridor care,” with nurses unable to access lifesaving equipment in cramped spaces.
One nurse in east England said corridor care in their hospital trust was “not an exception, it’s the rule.”
FASTFACT
The report condemned the ‘normalization’ of so-called ‘corridor care,’ with nurses unable to access lifesaving equipment in cramped spaces.
Last month, some 54,000 patients in emergency departments in England had to wait over 12 hours until a hospital bed was available, up 23 percent from December 2023.
The report is a result of a Royal College of Nursing request at the end of December, asking members to fill out a short survey.
The report includes “the raw, unedited and often heart-breaking comments” of the thousands of nursing staff working across the UK who responded, the RCN said.
There are some 7.5 million people on the NHS waiting list, with more than 3 million having faced delays longer than 18 weeks for treatment.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was elected in July on a ticket which included fixing the NHS, rolled out a plan at the start of the year which included expanding community health centers to reduce pressure on hospitals.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday said corridor care was “unsafe” and “undignified” but it would “take time to undo the damage” to the NHS.
German Christmas market attack suspect held ‘anti-Islam, far-right’ views
- Suspect was “massively Islamophobic and close to right-wing extremist ideologies,” German interior minister said
- Lack of oversight was among factors that kept authorities from intervening early to stop the attack, she said
BERLIN: The suspect in a deadly car ramming attack on a German Christmas market was mentally unwell, “massively Islamophobic and close to right-wing extremist ideologies,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Thursday.
His erratic behavior over the years had come to the attention of law enforcement on at least 105 occasions without triggering a response, Faeser added.
The figure, compiled after the December 20 attack, showed the need for “better data management by the federal and state security authorities,” Faeser said.
“Police data must be centrally and securely bundled” to identify threats, she told journalists at an event to commemorate the victims in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
The suspect, 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, who lived in Germany, was arrested at the scene of the ramming, which left six people dead and over 200 wounded.
Investigators had pieced together the profile of a perpetrator who suffered “psychological issues” and was “influenced by incoherent conspiracy theories,” Faeser said.
The suspect was “massively Islamophobic and close to right-wing extremist ideologies,” she added, and “His hatred is directed against both the German state and against individuals.”
A large amount of information on the suspect had been available before the attack, including a slew of social media posts, Faeser said.
However, “no one had all of the facts,” she said.
The lack of oversight was among the factors that kept authorities from intervening early to stop the attack, she said.
As well as centralising data from different federal and regional authorities, “large amounts of data must also be able to be analyzed using AI” in future, she said.
“We also need new, more precise criteria and action plans to assess the danger posed by people who do not fit the existing mold.”
The attack in Magdeburg came almost eight years to the day after another at a Christmas market in 2016, when a lorry plowed into a crowd in Berlin.
The previous attack, which left 13 people dead, was carried out by an extremist Tunisian and claimed by Daesh.
Pope Francis hurts his right arm after falling for the second time in just over a month
- Francis didn’t break his arm, but a sling was put on as a precaution
- On Dec. 7, the pope whacked his chin on his nightstand in an apparent fall
ROME: Pope Francis fell Thursday and hurt his right arm, the Vatican said, just weeks after another apparent fall resulted in a bad bruise on his chin.
Francis didn’t break his arm, but a sling was put on as a precaution, the Vatican spokesman said in a statement
On Dec. 7, the pope whacked his chin on his nightstand in an apparent fall that resulted in a bad bruise.
The 88-year-old pope, who has battled health problems including long bouts of bronchitis, often has to use a wheelchair because of bad knees. He uses a walker or cane when moving around his apartment in the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel.
The Vatican said that Thursday’s fall also occurred at Santa Marta, and the pope was later seen in audiences with his right arm in a sling. At one of the meetings, Francis apologetically offered his left hand for a handshake when he greeted the head of the UN fund for agricultural development, Alvaro Lario.
“This morning, due to a fall at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis suffered a contusion to his right forearm, without fracture. The arm was immobilized as a precautionary measure,” the statement said.
Speculation about Francis’ health is a constant in Vatican circles, especially after Pope Benedict XVI broke 600 years of tradition and resigned from the papacy in 2013. Benedict’s aides have attributed the decision to a nighttime fall that he suffered during a 2012 trip to Mexico, after which he determined he couldn’t keep up with the globe-trotting demands of the papacy.
Francis has said that he has no plans to resign anytime soon, even if Benedict “opened the door” to the possibility. In his autobiography “Hope” released this week, Francis said that he hadn’t considered resigning even when he had major intestinal surgery.
WHO appeals for $1.5 billion to tackle ‘unprecedented’ global health crisis
- The UN health agency estimated that health crises would leave 305 million people in need
- “WHO is seeking $1.5 billion to support our life-saving work for the emergencies,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
GENEVA: The World Health Organization appealed Thursday for $1.5 billion for emergency operations this year, warning that conflict, climate change, epidemics and displacement had converged to create an “unprecedented global health crisis.”
The UN health agency estimated that health crises would leave 305 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance this year.
“WHO is seeking $1.5 billion to support our life-saving work for the emergencies we know about and to react swiftly to new crises,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as he launched the appeal.
The agency’s emergency request, which was for the same amount as last year’s ask, outlined the critical priorities and resources needed to address 42 ongoing health emergencies.
“Conflicts, outbreaks, climate-related disasters and other health emergencies are no longer isolated or occasional — they are relentless, overlapping and intensifying,” Tedros said in a statement.
He pointed to the emergency health assistance provided in conflict zones ranging from the occupied Palestinian territories to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan, as well as its work conducting vaccination campaigns, treating malnutrition and helping control outbreaks of diseases like cholera.
“Without adequate and sustainable funding, we face the impossible task of deciding who will receive care and who will not this year,” Tedros said at Thursday’s event.
“Your support helps to ensure that WHO remains a lifeline, bridging the gap between sickness and health, despair and hope, life and death for millions of people worldwide.”
