ALGIERS: Algeria on Wednesday buried army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah, who had been the country’s de facto strongman in recent months and guardian of the ruling system challenged by a massive protest movement.
The veteran head of the armed forces died suddenly of a heart attack on Monday aged 79, days after overseeing the installation of a replacement for former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who resigned under pressure from huge street protests in April.
The military high command wields low-key but major influence in a ruling system in place since Algeria’s 1962 independence from France, and Gaid Salah’s death threatens to deepen the country’s political crisis at the end of a turbulent year.
His funeral was worthy of a national leader and came days after newly sworn-in President Abdelmadjid Tebboune presented him with the National Order of Merit, an award usually reserved for heads of state.
Tebboune had announced three days of national mourning but protesters defied that on Tuesday, hitting the streets with the same mass protests that have rocked the country since February.
The new president, along with senior political and military officials, held a ceremony Wednesday at the People’s Palace in central Algiers to pay their respects to Gaid Salah, who served a record 15 years as military chief of staff.
Military officers carried the coffin, draped in an Algerian flag, to the 18th century Ottoman building where it was received by the deceased general’s interim successor Said Chengriha.
Gaid Salah’s body lay in state for four hours as dignitaries and small groups of civilians entered the palace complex to pay their respects.
The funeral procession then set off on the 10-kilometer (six-mile) journey to the capital’s Al-Alia cemetary, state TV showed.
While only a few civilians entered the complex, thousands of people thronged outside the palace, along the procession route and at the gates of the cemetery, in numbers rarely seen for an official funeral.
The coffin was then placed on a gun carriage, pulled by an armored personnel carrier to cries of “Allahu akbar” (God is Greatest) and ululations from the crowd.
The convoy was led through vast crowds by officers in ceremonial uniforms on the back of a lorry, flanked by police motorcycle outriders.
While many paid tribute to Gaid Salah on Wednesday, he had been met with fierce criticism by the protest movement.
The mass demonstrations were sparked by veteran president Bouteflika’s February announcement that he would seek a fifth term in office.
Despite his departure in April, protesters have pressed on ever since, demanding an overhaul of the ruling system and the departure of establishment figures — including Gaid Salah.
The general had been instrumental in pushing through a December 12 election for Bouteflika’s successor, despite massive pushback from protesters who wanted to see deep-rooted reforms before any poll.
But crowd at the palace on Wednesday morning chanted a modified version of a protest slogan that called Gaid Salah a traitor, instead crying: “Army and people are brothers and Gaid Salah is a martyr!“
His wooden coffin was lowered into the ground at Al-Alia cemetery, where former presidents and other prominent Algerian figures are laid to rest, to a rendition of “The Last Post” and a gun salute, as senior political and military officials stood by.
The ceremony was broadcast live on state TV, with an image of Gaid Salah in a corner of the screen bearing the words “Farewell Lion of Algeria.”
In a eulogy at the graveside, defense ministry communications chief General Boualem Madi hailed Gaid Salah as “a hero” of Algeria.
“Not a drop of blood was shed and he steered Algeria back to safe harbor,” he said, referring to the army’s handling of the protest movement and of recent elections.
“God preserved his life until his mission was accomplished.
Hundreds of thousands turn out to mourn Algeria’s powerful army chief
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Hundreds of thousands turn out to mourn Algeria’s powerful army chief
- Gaid Salah, who masterminded the state’s response to mass protests this year, died of a heart attack aged 79
- Mourners gave him credit for the army’s largely restrained response to mass demonstrations that rocked cities across the country
Sudan’s war is ‘deepening and widening’ a famine crisis, hunger monitoring report says
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said it detected famine in five areas, including in Sudan’s largest displacement camp, Zamzam, in North Darfur province, where famine was found for the first time in August.
“This marks an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis, driven by the devastating conflict and poor humanitarian access,” an IPC report said.
As well as in the Zamzam camp, which hosts more than 400,000 people, famine was also detected in two other camps for displaced people, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam in North Darfur, and the Western Nuba Mountains, IPC’s report said.
Five other areas in North Darfur are projected “with reasonable evidence” to experience famine in the next six months, including el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur, it said. Seventeen areas in the Nuba Mountains and the northern and southern areas of Darfur are at risk of famine, it added.
The report said some areas in Khartoum and the east-central province of Gezira “may be experiencing” famine-like conditions. It said experts were unable to confirm whether famine threshold has been surpassed due to lack of data.
Ahead of the IPC’s report, Sudan’s government said it had suspended its participation in the global system, according to a senior United Nations official with knowledge of the move.
In a letter dated Dec. 23, Agriculture Minister Abu Baker Al-Beshri accused the IPC of “issuing unreliable reports that undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and dignity,” said the UN official, who spoke in condition of anonymity.
Sudan has been roiled by a 20-month war that has killed more than than 24,000 people and driven over 14 million people — about 30 percent of the population — from their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have crossed into neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
The war began in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading to other urban areas and the western Darfur region. The conflict has been marked by atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to to the UN and rights groups. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
There is widespread hunger, with food in markets now scarce and prices have spiked. Aid groups also say they’re struggling to reach the most vulnerable as warring parties limit access, especially in North Darfur province.
Dervla Cleary, a senior emergency and rehabilitation officer at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said 638,000 people are experiencing famine.
“The situation in Sudan is just awful. It is unacceptable in a world like today,” she said. “We need the violence to stop so people can access food, water, health, nutrition and agriculture.”
According to the IPC report, a total of 24.6 million Sudanese — half of the population — faces high levels of acute food insecurity.
Sudan is the third country where famine was declared in the past 15 years, along with South Sudan and Somalia, where a 2011 major famine was estimated to have killed a quarter of a million people — half of them children under 5 years old.
The IPC comprises more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups, and governments that use its monitoring as a global reference for analysis of food and nutrition crises.
The organization has also warned that large parts of Gaza’s Palestinian population face the threat of famine.
Qatar says sanctions on Syria must be lifted quickly
DOHA: Qatar called on Tuesday for the quick removal of sanctions on Syria following the ousting of president Bashar Assad by Islamist-led rebels.
“We call for intensified efforts to expedite the lifting of international sanctions on Syria,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a regular briefing.
Qatar’s call came a day after a high-level delegation visited Damascus. The Qatari embassy there reopened on Sunday, ending a 13-year rift between the two countries.
“Qatar’s position is clear,” Ansari said. “It’s necessary to lift the sanctions quickly, given that what led to these sanctions is no longer there and that what led to these sanctions were the crimes of the former regime.”
Doha was one of the main backers of the armed rebellion that erupted after Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011.
Unlike several of its neighbors, Qatar had remained a stern critic of Assad and did not renew ties with Syria despite its return to the Arab diplomatic fold last year.
The international community has not rushed to lift sanctions on Syria, waiting to see how the new authorities exercise their power.
Israeli forces kill one Palestinian in West Bank refugee camp
- Palestinian news agency WAFA said Fathi Saeed Odeh Salem died after snipers shot him and fired on the ambulance crew
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in a dawn raid on Tuesday on a refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
The Israeli military said the man was killed in a “counter-terrorism” operation that resulted in 18 arrests, while the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Fathi Saeed Odeh Salem died after snipers shot him and fired on ambulance crew.
Hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel triggered the current war in Gaza and a wider conflict on several fronts.
WAFA said Israeli bulldozers demolished infrastructure in the camp, including homes, shops, part of the walls of Al-Salam mosque, which they barricaded off, and part of the camp’s water network.
Israeli army forces patients out of a north Gaza hospital
CAIRO: Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and many patients, some of them on foot, arrived at another hospital miles away in Gaza City, the territory’s health ministry said on Tuesday.
The Indonesian Hospital is one of the Gaza Strip’s few still partially functioning hospitals, on its northern edge, an area that has been under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months.
Israel says its operation around the three northern Gaza communities surrounding the hospital — Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia — is targeting Hamas militants.
Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.
Munir Al-Bursh, director of the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, said the Israeli army had ordered hospital officials to evacuate it on Monday, before storming it in the early hours of Tuesday and forcing those inside to leave.
He said two other medical facilities in northern Gaza, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan Hospitals, were also subject to frequent assaults by Israeli troops operating in the area.
“Occupation forces have taken the three hospitals out of medical service because of the repeated attacks that undermined them and destroyed parts of them,” Bursh said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Officials at the three hospitals have so far refused orders by Israel to evacuate their facilities or leave patients unattended since the new military offensive began on Oct. 5.
Israel says it has been facilitating the delivery of medical supplies, fuel and the transfer of patients to other hospitals in the enclave during that period in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said they resisted a new order by the army to evacuate hundreds of patients, their companions and staff, adding that the hospital has been under constant Israeli fire that damaged generators, oxygen pumps and parts of the building.
Israeli forces have operated in the vicinity of the hospital since Monday, medics said.
NEW STRIKES
Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment continued elsewhere in the enclave and medics said at least nine Palestinians, including a member of the civil emergency service, were killed in four separate military strikes across the enclave on Tuesday.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
A fresh bid by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages has gained momentum this month, though no breakthrough has yet been reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said progress had been made in hostage negotiations with Hamas but that he did not know how much longer it would take to see the results.
Gaps between Israel and Hamas over a possible Gaza ceasefire have narrowed, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials’ remarks on Monday, though crucial differences have yet to be resolved.
Syrian ex-rebel factions agree to merge under defense ministry
DAMASCUS: Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa reached an agreement on Tuesday with former rebel faction chiefs to dissolve all groups and consolidate them under the defense ministry, according to a statement from the new administration.
Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Bashir had said last week that the ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Bashar Assad’s army.
Sharaa will face the daunting task of trying to avoid clashes between the myriad groups.
The country’s new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Bashar Assad, as defense minister in the interim government.
Syria’s historic ethnic and religious minorities include Muslim Kurds and Shiites — who feared during the civil war that any future Sunni Islamist rule would imperil their way of life — as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.
Sharaa has told Western officials visiting him that the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group he heads, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, will neither seek revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
