CAIRO: Sudan's army chief was among several people arrested in a coup plot, the country's military said Wednesday, shortly after reports emerged of at least a dozen high-ranking army officers and Islamists being taken into custody in the conspiracy.
This was the second coup plot reported this month in Sudan, where talks between the military and the country's pro-democracy movement have dragged out over the final and crucial part of a power-sharing deal for the nation's transitional period.
Earlier in July, the military council that took over the country after ousting longtime autocrat Omar Al-Bashir in April, said it arrested at least 16 active and retired military officers over an attempted coup.
Late Wednesday, a brief statement from the military said the county's chief-of-staff, Gen. Hashem Abdel-Muttalib Babakr, was among those arrested over the alleged plot. The statement said the plot aimed to sabotage the power-sharing deal between the military council and the protest movement.
Babakr was appointed chief-of-staff just days after Al-Bashir's ouster following months of street protests against the president's 30-year rule. Since April, Babakr had appeared loyal to Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of the ruling military council, and only last week visited Egypt with a top-level Sudanese delegation.
Earlier Wednesday, two military officials told The Associated Press that others among those newly arrested were officers working for Sudan's military and the national intelligence and security services.
The arrests all took place this week and several Islamists, including a former minister, loyal to Al-Bashir were also arrested over the same plot, the officials said. They refused to reveal further details and spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media.
Sudan's ruling generals and pro-democracy factions have yet to sign the second, final part of the power-sharing deal. They signed a political declaration that outlines the deal last week, after agreeing on a joint sovereign council that will rule for a little over three years while elections are organized.
Both sides say a diplomatic push by the US and its Arab allies was key to ending the weeks-long standoff between the military and the protesters that raised fears of all-out civil war.
The second, more contentious part of the power-sharing deal — the so-called constitutional agreement — is meant to specify the division of powers during the transitional period.
But that part has now stalled.
Leaders of the pro-democracy movement, known as the Forces for Declaration of Freedom and Change, have been meeting in Ethiopia with leaders of the Revolutionary Front, an alliance of Sudanese rebel groups who are also part of the movement. The Revolutionary Front had rejected the power-sharing deal, arguing it fails to meet their demands for peace.
For decades, Sudan has been convulsed by rebellions in the provinces by ethnic and religious minorities who felt marginalized or oppressed by the Khartoum government, which is dominated by northern Sudanese Arab Muslims.
The Revolutionary Front includes rebel groups from Darfur as well as Blue Nile and South Kordofan provinces.
Sudan military says coup attempt thwarted, senior officers arrested
Sudan military says coup attempt thwarted, senior officers arrested
- This was the second coup plot reported this month in Sudan
- Sudan's ruling generals and pro-democracy factions have yet to sign the second, final part of the power-sharing deal
Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’
- Medical charity warns of new threat from escalation in fighting in Sudan civil war
KHARTOUM: Civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan face mass atrocities and ethnic violence in the civil war between the regular army and its paramilitary rivals, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to consolidate their power in Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum in March. Their predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.
The paramilitaries have intensified attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state which they have besieged since May 2024 in an effort to push the army out of its final stronghold in the region.
“People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting ... but also actively targeted by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharite, Medecins Sans Frontieres’ head of emergencies. There were “threats of a full-blown assault,” on El-Fasher, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people largely cut off from food and water supplies and deprived of access to medical care, he said.
Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia moved on Thursday to reassure Egypt about its water supply after completing work on a controversial giant $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile.
“To our neighbors downstream, our message is clear: the dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.
“The energy and development it will generate stand to uplift not just Ethiopia. We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water. Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is 1.8 km wide and 145 meters high, and is Africa's largest hydroelectric project. It can hold 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power — more than double Ethiopia’s current output. It will begin full operations in September.
Egypt already suffers from severe water scarcity and sees the dam as an existential threat because the country relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan met last week and “stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile basin.” They were committed to safeguarding water security in the region, Sisi’s spokesman said.
Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says
- The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally,” the Irbil airport authority said
IRBIL, Iraq: An explosive drone was shot down near Irbil airport in northern Iraq on Thursday, the Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement.
There were no casualties reported, according to two security sources.
The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally and the airport was not affected by any damage,” the Irbil airport authority said in a statement.
The incident only caused a temporary delay in the landing of one aircraft, the statement added.
Jordanian and Vatican officials discuss promotion of Petra as destination for Christian pilgrims
- They say there is a strategic opportunity to integrate the UNESCO World Heritage Site into routes for Christian travelers
- Head of tourism authority says highlighting Petra’s significance to Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on global religious tourism map
LONDON: Officials from Jordan and the Vatican met on Thursday to discuss ways in which they can cooperate to advance religious tourism, including the promotion of the ancient city of Petra as a destination for Christian pilgrims.
Fares Braizat, who chairs the board of commissioners of the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority, said that highlighting the significance of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on the global religious tourism map.
The country has a number of important Christian sites, the most significant of which is the location on the eastern bank of the Jordan River where Jesus is said to have been baptized by John the Baptist. Several popes have visited it, including Francis and John Paul II.
Archbishop Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, the Vatican’s ambassador to Jordan, confirmed the interest in collaborating with Jordanian authorities, and praised the nation’s stability and its rich historical and religious heritage.
Both officials acknowledged the strategic opportunity that exists to integrate Petra into pilgrimage routes for Christian travelers, the Jordan News Agency reported.
The Petra tourism authority recently lit up the Colosseum in Rome with the signature colors of the historic Jordanian site to celebrate a twinning agreement as part of a marketing strategy to attract European visitors, and to raise Petra’s profile globally as a premier cultural and spiritual tourism destination.
The Vatican itself is also a major tourism destination, for Christian pilgrims in particular. In 2025 it is expected to welcome between 30 and 35 million visitors during its latest Jubilee Year, a significant ecclesiastical event that takes place every 25 years.
Last lifelines in Gaza are being cut, UN chief warns
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres again raises alarm over increasingly dire humanitarian crisis as restrictions on aid mount and civilians run out of safe places to shelter
- He expresses grave concern over series of attacks in recent days that hit locations in which Palestinians were seeking shelter or trying to obtain food
NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said he was “appalled” by the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, condemned recent deadly strikes against displaced people, and warned that the enclave is on the brink of total collapse as fuel supplies run out.
He expressed grave concern over a series of attacks in recent days that hit locations in which Palestinians sought shelter or were trying to access food.
Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, read a statement that said: “Multiple attacks (have) killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The secretary-general strongly condemns the loss of civilian life.”
Civilians in Gaza are running out of safe areas in which to shelter as Israeli evacuation orders continue to expand, Dujarric added as he warned of a dire humanitarian crisis amid mounting restrictions on the delivery of aid and rising casualties among relief workers.
Israeli authorities issued a new displacement order on Thursday targeting parts of Gaza City, citing as a reason rocket fire from Palestinian groups. It affected an estimated 40,000 people, including those living in a displacement site, a medical facility, and a neighborhood previously spared evacuation orders since a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas ended in March.
“As of earlier today, about 900 families are estimated to have fled,” Dujarric said, adding that approximately 78 percent of the Gaza Strip has now been affected by the cumulative effects of more than 50 such orders. When combined with the effects on areas designated as Israeli militarized zones, the figure rises to 85 percent, leaving just 15 percent of the territory available for civilians to live.
“Those areas are, of course, overcrowded,” Dujarric said. “They also severely lack basic services or proper infrastructure.”
He described the remaining habitable zones as fragmented and unsafe, and compared the humanitarian conditions there to having more than 2 million crammed into Manhattan but
“instead of buildings, the area is strewn with the rubble of demolished and burnt-out structures without any infrastructure or basic support.”
The UN Population Fund has reported that an estimated 700,000 women and girls in Gaza are experiencing “a nightmare” situation as a result of lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, water and privacy. It said it has nearly 170 truckloads of supplies ready for delivery but they remain blocked from entering Gaza.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that nine more aid workers from five organizations have died in Gaza since last Thursday, bringing the death toll among aid personnel to 107 in 2025, and 479 since the war began in October 2023; 326 members of UN staff are among the dead.
OCHA also highlighted the significant obstacles humanitarian operations faced in June. Out of nearly 400 attempts to coordinate with Israeli authorities, 44 percent were denied, and 10 percent were initially approved but later obstructed. Only a third of the missions were fully facilitated, while 12 percent were canceled due to logistical or security issues.
Four out of 16 humanitarian coordination efforts were denied on Thursday alone, Dujarric said, hindering efforts to relocate medical supplies and clear debris.
“The space left for civilians to stay is shrinking by the day,” he added.
In his statement, Guterres underscored the fact that international humanitarian law is “unambiguous” in its requirement for civilians to be protected and their basic needs met.
He warned that the continuing blockade on fuel deliveries, now entering an 18th week, threatens to bring remaining humanitarian operations to a halt.
“Without an urgent influx of fuel, incubators will shut down, ambulances will be unable to reach the injured and sick, and water cannot be purified,” he said, adding that the UN and its partners might soon be unable to deliver even the limited amount of aid that remains in Gaza.
Guterres repeated his call for “full, safe and sustained humanitarian access,” and said the UN has a ready, proven plan to deliver aid “safely and at scale” to civilians across the territory.
He also renewed his appeal for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” and stressed that all parties involved in the conflict must uphold their obligations under international law.
