KHARTOUM: Sudanese protesters Sunday welcomed a breakthrough in talks with army rulers who agreed to form a joint civilian-military council, paving the way for a civilian administration as demanded by demonstrators.
Saturday’s agreement would replace the existing 10-member military council that took power after the army ousted veteran leader Omar Al-Bashir on April 11 amid massive protests.
“What happened yesterday is a step to have a civilian authority,” said Mohamed Amin, one of thousands of demonstrators who have been camped for weeks outside headquarters.
“We are happy by the progress in the talks, but we are still waiting for the composing of the council and the civilian government.”
The joint civilian-military council will be the overall ruling body, while a new transitional civilian government is expected to be formed to run the day to day affairs of the country, a key demand of protesters.
That civilian government will work toward having the first post-Bashir elections.
“When we have a civilian government, then we can say our country is on the right track,” said Amin.
The demonstrators said they will pursue their sit-in until a civilian administration is set up.
“Last night’s agreement is a step forward in the stability of our country. But I don’t think we will leave the sit-in until we achieve our demand of a civilian government,” said protester Sawsan Bashir.
Protest leader Ahmed Al-Rabia confirmed to AFP the decision of forming a joint council.
“We are now in consultation about what percentage of the council should be represented by civilians and how much by the military,” said Rabia, who is involved in talks.
Activists say the new council could be a 15-member body, with eight civilians and seven army generals.
The decision to have a joint council came after hours-long talks on Saturday, the first such by a joint committee representing the current ruling military leadership and protesters.
Bashir was ousted by the army after months of protests against his three-decade rule.
Thousands of demonstrators, braving volleys of tear gas fired by security forces, reached the sprawling military headquarters on April 6, demanding that the army support those opposing Bashir.
Five days later, the army toppled Bashir but then took power into its own hands through a 10-member transitional military council.
Protest leaders had previously held several rounds of inconclusive talks with the military council since Bashir was ousted.
The military council has so far insisted that it has assumed power for a two-year transitional period.
Western governments have expressed support for protesters’ demands, but Sudan’s key Gulf Arab lenders have backed the military council, while African states have called for more time for the army to hand over to civilians.
Buses bringing protesters kept arriving Saturday at the protest site, with hundreds of protesters coming from the eastern province of Kassala, an AFP photographer said.
As the joint committee met on Saturday, top opposition leader and former premier Sadiq Al-Mahdi told reporters Sudan should “immediately” join the International Criminal Court.
Bashir is wanted by The Hague-based tribunal for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the conflict in Darfur, but the 75-year-old has repeatedly denied the charges against him.
The war in Darfur erupted in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Khartoum’s Arab-dominated government, accusing it of social and political marginalization.
The United Nations says about 300,000 people have died in the conflict, with another 2.5 million displaced, many of them still living in miserable camps across the western region of the country.
Protest group spokesman Amjad Farid told reporters that Bashir and other regime figures could be tried in Sudan.
“We are not seeking retaliatory measures against them, but we want to rebuild our justice system to hold them accountable for their crimes,” he said.
Mahdi, who was forced from office by Bashir in a 1989 coup, said the army’s ouster of Bashir was “not a military coup.”
But he warned that Bashir cronies were still clinging on to power despite the upheaval.
“The toppled regime might still try to do a coup,” he said without elaborating.
Sudan army agree to share power with civilians
Sudan army agree to share power with civilians
- Activists say the new council could be a 15-member body, with eight civilians and seven army generals
- The joint civilian-military council will be the overall ruling body
UAE mediates exchange of 50 Russian, Ukrainian war captives
- UAE mediated the exchange of 2,583 captives since the Russian-Ukrainian war began in February 2022
- Foreign Ministry says successful exchange reflects both sides’ trust in Emirati leadership, diplomacy
LONDON: UAE mediation efforts resulted in a new exchange of 50 prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Moscow and Kyiv exchanged 25 Ukrainians and 25 Russians captured during the war between the neighboring states.
It brings the total number of captives exchanged through UAE mediation efforts to 2,583 since the war began in February 2022.
The UAE has long supported diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv, Emirates News Agency reported.
The UAE Foreign Ministry said that the success of the eleventh captive exchange since 2024 reflects Russia and Ukraine’s trust in the Emirati leadership and diplomacy.
Abu Dhabi is committed to a peaceful resolution to the war in Eastern Europe and addressing its humanitarian impacts on refugees and captives, the ministry added.
Additionally, the UAE successfully facilitated the exchange of two prisoners between the US and Russia in December 2022.
More than 19.5m Yemenis in need as crisis worsens: UN
- “People in Yemen continue to face a severe humanitarian and protection crisis,” said Joyce Msuya, interim chief of the United Nations’ humanitarian agency
- Around 17 million people — nearly half the country’s population — cannot meet their basic food needs
UNITED NATIONS: More than 19.5 million people in Yemen will need assistance in 2025, a senior UN official said Wednesday, expressing concern over a worsening humanitarian crisis and for children suffering from malnutrition.
“People in Yemen continue to face a severe humanitarian and protection crisis,” said Joyce Msuya, interim chief of the United Nations’ humanitarian agency (OCHA).
And the crisis will only get worse, she added, citing the organization’s forthcoming consolidated humanitarian appeal for 2025.
Around 17 million people — nearly half the country’s population — cannot meet their basic food needs, Msuya said.
“At least 19.5 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance and protection this year — 1.3 million more than in 2024,” she said.
On top of this, an estimated 4.8 million people remain internally displaced, the majority of whom are women and children.
Nearly half of children under five years old suffer from moderate to severe stunting caused by malnutrition, while the country’s stressed health system is overburdened by “appalling levels” of cholera.
Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, who just visited the capital Sanaa that is controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militants, stressed the need for “immediate de-escalation and genuine engagement for peace.”
“The need to address Yemen’s crisis becomes ever more urgent as regional stability requires, in part, achieving peace in Yemen,” he said.
Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Houthis forced the internationally recognized government out of Sanaa. The militants have also seized population centers in the north.
A UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 calmed fighting and in December 2023 the warring parties committed to a peace process.
But tensions have surged during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as the Houthis struck Israeli targets and international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in a campaign the militants say is in solidarity with Palestinians.
Joy mixed with fear for Israelis awaiting Gaza hostage release
- “On one hand, of course, I’m very happy, but I’m also preoccupied because I want to see the deal continue until the last hostage is back at home ,” Ornit Barak, said
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the deal was the “right move” to bring back hostages
TEL AVIV: Israelis expressed both joy and apprehension at the announcement of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange deal on Wednesday, fearing that not all those held captive would come home.
“On one hand, of course, I’m very happy, but I’m also preoccupied because I want to see the deal continue until the last hostage is back at home, in his bed, the living and the dead,” Ornit Barak, 59, told AFP.
“We are very preoccupied that at some point it will, for some reason, stop and we will continue back to war,” she said at a protest calling for an end to the war and a release of all hostages.
Qatar’s prime minister announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed Wednesday to a ceasefire after over 15 months of war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, cautioned that some issues in the framework remained “unresolved,” though it hoped the “details will be finalized tonight.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said the deal was the “right move” to bring back hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.
Arnon Cohen, a chef from Nahal Oz kibbutz — one of the Gaza border communities hardest hit by the attack — said he would not be satisfied until all the hostages were freed.
“For us, it’s only the beginning, we want them all here. It doesn’t end, it’s not enough if just some of them come back,” said the chef, noting that two people from the kibbutz were still being held in Gaza.
“We want them here, with all the other hostages, dead and alive.”
Ifat Kalderon, the cousin of the hostage Ofer Kalderon, said: “I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s joy, (but) mixed with terrible anxiety that it will, actually, happen.”
“If the deal does happen, I don’t know how Ofer will return — whether he is alive or not — but I do believe he is alive,” she said, hoping her relative is among those released.
“I truly, truly hope it won’t end with just the 33 hostages returning home, but that everyone will return.”
The Qatari PM said the deal agreed by Israel and Hamas involves a first stage in which 33 hostages will be released, beginning with women and children, in exchange for a thousand Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
A second stage, requiring further negotiation, is expected to follow.
Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during Hamas’s surprise October 7 attack, of whom 94 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
“The pain is very great, I can’t imagine what the families (of the hostages) are going through,” said Tamar, a 38-year-old from Jerusalem.
“We need to do everything to get them home.”
Biden nods to Trump team in Israel-Hamas ceasefire announcement
- Deal reached after months of negotiations by the Biden team
- Agreement terms will be mostly implemented by the incoming Trump administration
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire-and-hostage deal that will end fighting in Gaza, and added it was reached by working alongside the incoming Donald Trump administration.
“I can announce a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said at the White House. The deal was reached after 15 months of suffering, he said, and will be followed by a surge of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“Fighting in Gaza will stop, and soon the hostages return home to their families,” Biden said.
The deal was reached after months of negotiations by the Biden administration, Biden noted as he thanked his national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other officials.
However, its terms will be mostly implemented by the incoming Trump administration, Biden said.
“In these past few days, we have been speaking as one team,” he said.
Asked by a reporter whether he or Trump deserved more credit for getting the deal done, Biden quipped, “Is that a joke?“
Trump, in a statement on social media, said the deal would not have happened if he had not been elected.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” he wrote.
Biden did not provide specifics outside the broad outlines of the deal that were already known, but indicated he thought it could set the stage for an independent Palestinian state.
“For the Palestinian people, a credible, credible pathway to a state of their own. And for the region, a future of normalization, integration of Israel and all its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia,” he said.
In a separate statement, the White House quoted Biden as saying: “Today, after many months of intensive diplomacy by the United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire and hostage deal. This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity.”
Spain pledges 10 million euros for Lebanon army
- Jose Manuel Albares: The 10 million euros will contribute to ‘supplement the salaries of the Lebanese Armed Forces’ as well as finance ‘solar panels and logistical aspects’ of the army
- Under the Nov. 27 ceasefire accord, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws
BEIRUT: Spain’s top diplomat announced Wednesday a €10 million aid package for Lebanon’s army, in a boost for the armed forces who have a crucial role in implementing a fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
“This announcement of 10 million euros for the United Nations Development Programme” will contribute to “supplement the salaries of the Lebanese Armed Forces” as well as finance “solar panels and logistical aspects” of the army, Jose Manuel Albares said during a visit to Beirut.
Lebanon has struggled for years to finance its public institutions including the army following a 2019 economic crisis.
It now also faces the challenge of rebuilding the country after more than two months of war between Hezbollah and Israel that the group had initiated over the Gaza conflict and ended in November.
“Aid for... the reconstruction especially of south of Lebanon, will be necessary to stabilize the country,” Albares told reporters after meeting Lebanon’s new president, former army chief Joseph Aoun.
Spain has contributed more than 650 personnel to the UN peacekeeping force in the country’s south (UNIFIL) with force chief Aroldo Lazaro hailing from Spain.
A committee composed of Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates, alongside a representative from UNIFIL, has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire deal.
On Wednesday, the US army official on the committee said the Israeli army was on a “very positive path” to withdraw from Lebanon’s south ahead of the deadline for implementing the truce later this month.
Lebanese army “checkpoints and patrols operate effectively throughout south-west Lebanon, and the soldiers are dedicated to their mission as Lebanon’s sole security guarantors,” said Major General Jasper Jeffers during a visit to the checkpoints.
“We are on a very positive path to continue the withdrawal of the IDF as planned, and the LAF is providing for the security and stability of Lebanon,” he added.
Under the November 27 ceasefire accord, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws.
At the same time, Hezbollah is required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in the country’s south.
