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The world continues to bear the loss of human lives and revenue amid coronavirus crisis

Above, a boarded up shop in San Francisco, California as the US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped 5,000 late on April, 1, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 03 April 2020
Arab News
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The world continues to bear the loss of human lives and revenue amid coronavirus crisis

  • US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped 5,000 late Wednesday
  • Arab airlines incurred over $8 billion in losses since the outbreak of coronavirus
Updated 03 April 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: The world continues to bear the burden of loved ones and revenue as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.

In the United States, the death toll topped 5,000 late Wednesday, lower than those of Spain and Italy but above China where the virus conflagration first emanated in December, and now leads the world in the number of coronavirus cases.

Middle East governments meanwhile continue to implement measures to contain the spread of coronavirus and mitigate its devastating effects to the private sector and its residents.

Thursday, April 2 (All times in GMT)

19:53 - Egypt reported 86 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday bringing the total number of cases to 865. Six people have also died of the virus, with 58 people dying in total.

18:43 - Qatar reported 114 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 949. 

18:09 - The World Bank on Thursday approved a plan to roll out $160 billion in emergency aid over 15 months to help countries deal with the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The board of the Washington-based development lender announced the first set of fast-track crisis funding, with an initial $1.9 billion going to projects in 25 countries, and operations moving forward in another 40 nations, the bank said in a statement.
India will be the largest beneficiary of the first wave of programs with a facility for $1 billion, followed by Pakistan with $200 million and Afghanistan with a little over $100 million, but funding is going to countries on nearly every continent, the bank said.

17:51 -  Britain is looking at issuing immunity certificates to people who have developed resistance to the coronavirus, but there needs to be more research into the science behind it, health minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday.
People who have had COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, develop antibodies to fight the virus, but it is unclear how long any immunity they develop lasts.
"(An immunity certificate) is an important thing that we will be doing and are looking at but it's too early in the science of the immunity that comes from having had the disease," Hancock said at a news conference.
"It's too early in that science to be able to put clarity around that. I wish that we could but the reason that we can't is because the science isn't yet advanced enough." 

17:45 - The number of cumulative known deaths from coronavirus in France surged to nearly 5,400 on Thursday as the country started including fatalities in nursing homes in its data.
Jerome Salomon, head of the public health authority, said the number of coronavirus-related deaths in hospitals rose 12% on Thursday to 4,503 from a day earlier.
He added that a provisional tally showed that a cumulative 884 people in total had died in nursing homes. This makes for a total of 5,387 lives lost to coronavirus in France.
Salomon said the number of known infections rose to 59,105 from 56,989 in France. The number of patients requiring life support rose to 6,399 from 6,017 on Wednesday.

17:19 -  Jordan reports 21 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 299.

17:15 -  Morocco reports 49 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 691. 

16:43 – Jordan imposes a complete curfew from midnight.

16:20 – Death toll from coronavirus in Italy has climbed by 760 to 13,915, slightly higher than the daily rise of 727 registered a day earlier.

15:47 – Tunisia records 33 more cases of coronavirus infections, bringing the tally to a total of 455.

15:30 – Egyptian Prime Minister says that while the country has 850 cases of coronavirus infections and they are "still far from the dangerous stage," while also announcing that a number of villages have been locked down.

15:20 – Iran’s parliament says speaker Ali Larijani has tested positive for the new coronavirus and is in quarantine.

14:06 – President Vladimir Putin ordered most Russians to stay off work until the end of April due to the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday.

14:00 – Four soldiers in West Africa have tested positive for coronavirus, the French army said on Thursday.
The army also said that three of the infected soldiers have been repatriated to France. 

13:09 – The United Kingdom's death toll from the coronavirus rose 24 percent to 2,921 as of April 1.
As of 0800 GMT on April 2, a total of 163,194 people had been tested of which 33,718 tested positive, the health ministry said.
"Of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 2,921 have sadly died," the health ministry said.

12:25 – The number of deaths caused by an infection with the new coronavirus in the Netherlands has increased by 166 to 1,339, health authorities said.

12:15 - Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior implemented a 24-hour curfew in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah on Thursday to limit the spread of coronavirus, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

11:21 – More than a half of Britons think Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government was too slow to order a lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, according an opinion poll published on Thursday. READ THE STORY

10:23 – Europe has recorded over 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. Over 95 percent who died in Europe due to coronavirus were over 60, the World Health Organization said.

09:43 – Iran’s total number of infected people with coronavirus increases to 50,468, while deaths have risen 3,160.

WATCH: Our web-shooting super hero Spider-Man pays residents of Stockport in the UK a visit while they stay at home, and stay safe from coronavirus.

09:40 – Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose to 10,003 on Thursday from 9,053 on Wednesday, while total cases increased 110,238 from 102,136 a day earlier.

09:34 – The UAE council of ministers has decided to reduce the daily maximum limit for the decline of shares to 5 percent from 10 percent to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

09:16 – Kuwait has recorded 25 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infected patients to 342.

09:13 – Palestine has confirmed 21 new coronavirus cases.

09:12 – Belgium has reported 183  new coronavirus deaths bringing the total to 1,111.

09:00 – The Philippines’ health ministry on Thursday recorded 11 new deaths and 322 additional cases from the coronavirus outbreak.

08:58 – Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum has said the airline has received approval to resume a limited number of passenger flights starting April 6.

08:25 – The venture capital arm of Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala plans to launch a health care fund next year to tap into increased demand for investment in life sciences and digital health technology following the coronavirus outbreak. FOR THE STORY

08:25 – Russia has recorded six deaths and 771 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 30 deaths and 3,548 cases.

08:22 – Spain has shed close to 900,000 jobs, more than half of them temporary, since it went into lockdown in mid-March to fight the coronavirus outbreak, social security data showed on Thursday. READ TTHE STORY

08:02 – Kuwait’s central bank announced a stimulus package on Thursday to support vital sectors and small and medium enterprises amid the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic.

WATCH: Tennis world number one Novak Djokovic gets creative to pass the time and stay in shape as the coronavirus pandemic brought the tennis season to a halt.

08:00 – The Philippines’ ambassador to Lebanon Bernardita Catalla has died of coronavirus, the Philippine foreign affairs ministry said.

07:57 – Thailand will implement a nationwide curfew between 10p.m. and 4a.m. starting Friday, a government statement said.

07:48 – Morocco recorded 22 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total at 676.

07:17 – The head of Israel’s Mossad has been quarantined after being in contact with the health minister who tested positive for coronavirus. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will also remain in quarantine until next Wednesday.

07:12 – Bahrain has confirmed 241 new coronavirus cases; all patients arrived from Iran.




Hand sanitizers are packed at Dhaman Medical Company in Hidd, Bahrain in this March 25, 2020 photo. (Reuters)

06:59 – Oman has recorded 21 new coronavirus cases.

06:57 – China’s Foreign Ministry, asked about US doubting accuracy of China’s coronavirus data, said US officials have been making shameless comments and their actions are immoral.

06:20 – New York rushed to bring in an army of medical volunteers as the statewide death toll from the coronavirus doubled in 72 hours to more than 1,900, while the global number of people diagnosed with the illness edged closer to 1 million on Thursday. READ THE STORY

06:02 – Australia’s national science agency said on Thursday it has commenced the first stage of testing potential vaccines for COVID-19, as it joins a global race to halt the coronavirus pandemic. READ THE STORY

06:00 – British Airways has been in talks with its union about a plan to suspend around 32,000 staff in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a person familiar with the situation said.
The British flag carrier has cut flights and warned it will need to cut jobs to survive the outbreak as the battered aviation sector frantically seeks to cut costs.

05:55 – The US Navy is evacuating thousands of sailors from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam after its captain warned a coronavirus outbreak was threatening the lives of the crew.

05:55 – Kuwait confirmed one new coronavirus recovery, bringing total to 81. The country has reported 317 cases so far.

05:42 – Thailand reported 104 new coronavirus cases and three new deaths.




Medical staff dressed in protective gear test a woman for the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at a drive-through testing centre at Vibhavadi Hospital in Bangkok on March 25, 2020. (File/AFP)

05:29 – North Korea remains totally free of the coronavirus, a senior health official in Pyongyang has insisted, despite mounting skepticism overseas as confirmed global infections near one million.

05:09 – Israel’s coronavirus deaths reached 30, officials said.




Israeli police talk to a driver at a checkpoint in the city of Bnei Brak, a city near Tel Aviv with a largely ultra-Orthodox population, on March 31, 2020. (File/AFP)

04:56 – Australia announced free childcare for six months as part of a bid to keep businesses operating through the coronavirus pandemic, as data on new infections supported early signs of “flattening the curve.” READ THE STORY

04:56 – Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus and have undergone quarantine, his office said late Wednesday.

02:48 – The US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped 5,000 late Wednesday, according to a running tally from Johns Hopkins University.

At about 0235 GMT Thursday, 5,116 people had died, the tally showed, on the same day the United States set a one-day record of 884 people killed in 24 hours.

LOOK: The usually bustling streets of Saudi Arabia have gone silent as the Kingdom’s curfew measures remain in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

02:12 – A woman from the Kokama ethnic group in the Amazon rainforest is the first indigenous person in Brazil to test positive for the new coronavirus, authorities said.  The coronavirus pandemic has fueled fears about the possible impact for indigenous peoples in the Amazon, who are particularly vulnerable to imported diseases.

01:31 – IAG-owned British Airways is expected to announce a suspension of about 36,000 of its employees, BBC News reported.

The airline has reached a broad deal with Unite union that will include suspension of jobs of 80 percent of BA’s cabin crew, ground staff, engineers and those working at head office, the news agency reported, adding that no staff were expected to be made redundant.

01:04 – Singapore suffered its fourth coronavirus-related death on Thursday, a day after the city-state reported a record number of new cases that took the island-state’s total infections to 1,000.

00:00 – A British man accused of smuggling a phony coronavirus cure into the United States was charged Wednesday with a federal crime, prosecutors said. Frank Richard Ludlow, 59, of West Sussex was charged in Los Angeles federal court with introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and could face up to three years in federal prison if convicted, according to the US attorney’s office.

Wednesday, April 1 (All times in GMT)

23:00 – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has signed a declaration that Tahya Misr (Long Live) Egypt, a donation-based national fund, will take care of the expense of quarantine for Egyptians evacuated from abroad over the novel coronavirus. Sisi’s decision comes a day after many Egyptian nationals who arrived from Britain and Kuwait refused to be quarantined for 14 days at their expense.

16:00 – Arab airlines incurred over $8 billion in losses since the outbreak of coronavirus, the Arab Air Carriers’ Organization said. “In the Arab world, millions of reservations have been canceled so far with airlines and hotels in various countries, and the flow of pilgrims to the world’s leading Arab tourist destinations has stopped. Thousands of flights to Arab airlines have been canceled, and 800 aircraft belonging to them have been stopped at airports so far,” a statement said.

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Syria’s new leader says all weapons to come under ‘state control’

Updated 15 sec ago
AFP
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Syria’s new leader says all weapons to come under ‘state control’

  • The seizure of power by the Sunni Islamists of HTS — proscribed as a terrorist organization by many governments including the United States — has sparked concern, though the group has in recent years sought to moderate its image
Updated 15 sec ago
AFP

DAMASCUS: Two weeks after seizing power in a sweeping offensive, Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Sunday said weapons in the country, including those held by Kurdish-led forces, would come under state control.
Sharaa spoke alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, after earlier meeting with Lebanese Druze leaders and vowing to end “negative interference” in the neighboring country.
Ankara-backed rebels played a key role in supporting Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which headed a rebel alliance and seized Damascus on December 8, toppling longtime ruler Bashar Assad.
During a press conference with Fidan, Sharaa said Syria’s armed “factions will begin to announce their dissolution and enter” the army.
“We will absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control, whether from the revolutionary factions or the factions present in the SDF area,” he added, referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Sharaa — also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani — traded in the olive-green military shirt he sported just days ago for a suit and tie during his meetings on Sunday at the presidential palace.
He also said “we are working on protecting sects and minorities from any attacks that occur between them” and from “external” actors exploiting the situation “to cause sectarian discord.”
“Syria is a country for all and we can coexist together,” he added.
Fidan said sanctions on Syria must “be lifted as soon as possible.” He called for the international community to “mobilize to help Syria get back on its feet and for the displaced people to return.”
Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war killed more than half a million people and displaced more than half its population, with many of them fleeing to neighboring countries, including three million in Turkiye.
Turkiye has maintained strong ties with Syria’s new leaders, and Ankara’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin was in Damascus just four days after Assad fell.
Ankara has continued operations against Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria, with a Britain-based war monitor reporting on Saturday that Turkish drone strikes killed five civilians in the area.
A senior German diplomat, Tobias Tunkel, on Sunday said on X that he had spoken with SDF leader Mazloum Abdi about rising tensions in the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani “and urgent steps to diffuse them.”
On Friday a US diplomat in Damascus said Washington was urging a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around Kobani.
Ankara regards the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the SDF, as being connected to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) at home, which both Turkiye and Western allies deem a “terrorist” organization.

During his meeting with visiting Lebanese Druze chiefs Walid and Taymur Jumblatt, Sharaa said Syria would no longer engage in “negative interference in Lebanon at all.”
Syria “will stay at equal distance from all” in Lebanon, Sharaa added, acknowledging that Syria has been a “source of fear and anxiety” for its neighbor.
Walid Jumblatt, long a fierce critic of Assad and his father Hafez who ruled Syria before him, arrived in Damascus on Sunday at the head of a delegation of lawmakers from his parliamentary bloc and Druze religious figures.
The Druze religious minority is spread across Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan.
Walid Jumblatt accuses the former Syrian authorities of having assassinated his father in 1977 during Lebanon’s civil war.
The Syrian army entered Lebanon in 1976, only leaving in 2005 after enormous pressure and mass protests following the assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri, a killing attributed to Damascus and its ally, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Assad was an adherent of the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam and projected himself as a protector of the country’s religious and ethnic minorities.
The seizure of power by the Sunni Islamists of HTS — proscribed as a terrorist organization by many governments including the United States — has sparked concern, though the group has in recent years sought to moderate its image.
Despite worries over Syria’s future, global powers including the United States and the European Union have stepped up contacts with the war-ravaged country’s new leaders, urging them to guarantee protections for women and minorities.
The foreign leaders have also stressed the importance of combating “terrorism and extremism.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran — a major backer of Assad’s administration before it fell — on Sunday predicted “the emergence of a strong, honorable group” that would stand against “insecurity” in Syria.
Assad had long played a strategic role in Iran’s “axis of resistance,” a loose alliance of regional proxy forces aligned against Israel, particularly in facilitating the supply of weapons to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
That axis has suffered heavy blows over the past year with Israel’s devastation of the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Khamenei nonetheless denied that these armed groups acted as proxies, adding that: “If one day we want to take action, we do not need a proxy force.”
 

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Ahmed Al-Sharaa

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2024 Year in Review: Can Lebanon recover from the depredations of Israel-Hezbollah war?

Updated 5 min 38 sec ago
NAJIA HOUSSARI
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2024 Year in Review: Can Lebanon recover from the depredations of Israel-Hezbollah war?

  • Months-long conflict compounded the country’s economic and political crises, left thousands displaced from the south
  • With the Iran-backed militia weakened, now could be the moment when the state reasserts control over its security
Updated 5 min 38 sec ago
NAJIA HOUSSARI

BEIRUT: On the first day of 2024, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah received an Israeli ultimatum. If it did not immediately retreat from the Israeli-Lebanese border and cease its rocket attacks, a full-scale war was imminent. It was the threat that preceded the storm.

The following day, Israeli fire, previously confined to cross-border exchanges initiated by Hezbollah on Oct. 8, 2023, with the stated aim of supporting Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, was turned on the southern suburbs of Beirut for the first time.

An Israeli drone targeted a Hamas office in Haret Hreik, killing the group’s third-ranking leader, Saleh Al-Arouri. Simultaneously, the killings of Hezbollah leaders in southern Lebanon increased exponentially.

The war that Hezbollah launched against northern Israel compounded Lebanon’s existing crises. Already burdened by the financial collapse of 2019, Lebanon entered 2024 grappling with worsening economic and social turmoil.

The flare-up on the border initially displaced 80,000 people from their villages. (AFP)



A political crisis deepened the chaos, as a failure to appoint a president — caused by sharp divisions between Hezbollah and its allies on one side and their opponents on the other — has left the government paralyzed since October 2022.

The flare-up on the border initially displaced 80,000 people from their villages, further straining the country’s economy and increasing poverty. In mid-December 2023, donor countries informed Lebanon of plans to reduce aid for social protection at the start of 2024.

Military confrontations escalated quickly. Hezbollah maintained its “linked fronts” strategy, insisting it would continue its attacks until Israel withdrew from Gaza, while Israel insisted Hezbollah comply with Resolution 1701 and withdraw its forces north of the Litani River.

Between Oct. 8, 2023, and September 2024, Hezbollah launched 1,900 cross-border military attacks, while Israel responded with 8,300 attacks on southern Lebanon. These hostilities caused hundreds of fatalities and displaced entire communities in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

Despite intensive diplomatic efforts — primarily by France and the US — no ceasefire was reached during this period. The confrontations intensified, with the Israeli army expanding its targets to the Baalbek region, while Hezbollah extended its strikes to deep Israeli military positions.

Daily clashes revealed Hezbollah’s entrenched military presence in southern Lebanon, including arms depots, artillery emplacements and tunnels, despite the monitoring role of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon under Resolution 1701.

The devastation affected not only Hezbollah but also Lebanon’s Shiite community. (AFP)



Resolution 1701 mandates the establishment of a weapons-free zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River, except for Lebanese government and international forces. It also prohibits the unauthorized sale or supply of arms to Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah, the slain secretary-general of Hezbollah, asserted in 2021 that the group’s fighting force was 100,000 strong.

Funded by Iran and trained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah boasted a significant arsenal, predominantly Iranian-made and locally manufactured weapons.

After monopolizing resistance operations in the 1980s, Hezbollah morphed into what many analysts considered an Iranian proxy beyond the control of the Lebanese state.

This year’s confrontations broke traditional rules of engagement, imposing new dynamics.

UNIFIL troops in forward positions were not spared from the crossfire, with incidents escalating after Israeli forces entered UNIFIL’s operational zones.

Israeli airstrikes deepened across southern Lebanon. (AFP)



By mid-July, Western embassies in Lebanon were urging their nationals to leave, aware of Israel’s threat to expand the conflict into an all-out war on Lebanon.

Israeli strikes on Hezbollah’s leadership intensified, culminating in the July killing of Radwan Division commander Fouad Shukr in southern Beirut. The following day, Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was targeted in Tehran, heightening tensions between Israel and Iran.

Israeli airstrikes deepened across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, while Hezbollah extended its attacks to Kiryat Shmona, Meron and the outskirts of Haifa and Safed.

Then, on Sept. 17-18, Israel mounted a coordinated attack on thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies, causing explosions that resulted in 42 deaths and more than 3,500 injuries. Although Israel has not claimed responsibility, the attack marked a significant escalation.

By Sept. 27, the killing of Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah figures in Haret Hreik signaled the start of a wider war. Israeli forces used precision concussion rockets to strike deep into buildings and bunkers, killing Hezbollah commanders and forcing mass evacuations from Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The war that Hezbollah launched against northern Israel compounded Lebanon’s existing crises. (AFP)



In response, Hezbollah reaffirmed its commitment to linking any ceasefire in Lebanon to one in Gaza. However, by Oct. 1, Israel had intensified its raids, leveling residential buildings and even threatening archaeological sites in Tyre and Baalbek.

The Israeli army also initiated a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, destroying border villages and severing land crossings with Syria to disrupt Hezbollah’s supply lines. Satellite imagery revealed the total destruction of towns like Ayta Al-Shaab and Aitaroun, rendering them uninhabitable.

The devastation affected not only Hezbollah but also Lebanon’s Shiite community, which had invested heavily in the group over decades.

On Nov. 26, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, with US mediation, finalized a ceasefire agreement. However, the deal was preceded by a massive Israeli escalation in Beirut.



As the ceasefire came into effect, questions arose in Hezbollah strongholds about its decision to separate the Lebanon and Gaza peace tracks. Critics also questioned its commitment to dismantling military installations and cooperating with US-led monitoring efforts.

Despite the ceasefire, violations continued. Meanwhile, the war’s economic toll was becoming apparent.

Amin Salam, Lebanon’s minister of economy, estimated initial losses at $15-20 billion, with 500,000 jobs lost, widespread business closures, and agricultural devastation affecting 900,000 dunams of farmland.

Farmers, industrialists and displaced communities were left without support, deepening Lebanon’s economic paralysis. Municipalities began assessing damages, while Hezbollah sought to distribute Iranian-funded aid to those affected.

Although its leadership and its once mighty arsenal have been badly diminished, and the war in Gaza continues, the fact that Hezbollah has survived the past year of conflict is being projected by the group as a victory in itself.

Lebanon now faces an unprecedented challenge, recovering from a conflict it was ill-equipped to withstand. (AFP)



What is certain is that Lebanon now faces an unprecedented challenge, recovering from a conflict it was ill-equipped to withstand and watching a friendly government in neighboring Syria crumble under an onslaught by opposition forces.

By the same token, now may be the moment many Lebanese had been eagerly waiting for, when the state is in a position to assert its control over internal and external security.

 

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UN investigator says possible to find ‘enough’ proof for Syria prosecutions

Updated 50 min 11 sec ago
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UN investigator says possible to find ‘enough’ proof for Syria prosecutions

  • Since Assad’s fall, Petit has been able to visit the country but his team still require authorization to begin their work inside Syria which they have requested
Updated 50 min 11 sec ago
AFP

DAMASCUS: The visiting head of a UN investigative body for Syria said Sunday it was possible to find “more than enough” evidence to convict people of crimes against international law, but there was an immediate need to secure and preserve it.
The doors of Syria’s prisons were flung open after an Islamist-led rebel alliance ousted longtime ruler Bashar Assad this month, more than 13 years after his brutal repression of anti-government protests triggered a war that would kill more than 500,000 people.
With families rushing to former prisons, detention centers and alleged mass graves to find any trace of disappeared relatives, many have expressed concern about safeguarding documents and other evidence.
“We have the possibility here to find more than enough evidence left behind to convict those we should prosecute,” said Robert Petit, who heads the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) set up by the UN in 2016 to prepare prosecutions for major international crimes in Syria.
But he noted that preserving evidence would “need a lot of coordination between all the different actors.”
“We can all understand the human impulse to go in and try and find your loved ones,” Petit said. “The fact is, though, that there needs to be a control put in place to restrict access to all these different centers... It needs to be a concerted effort by everyone who has the resources and the powers to do that to freeze that access, preserve it.”
The organization, known as the Mechanism, was not permitted to work in Syria under Assad’s government but was able to document many crimes from abroad.
Since Assad’s fall, Petit has been able to visit the country but his team still require authorization to begin their work inside Syria which they have requested.
He said his team had “documented hundreds of detention centers... Every security center, every military base, every prison had their own either detention or mass graves attached to it.”
“We’re just now beginning to scratch that surface and I think it’s going to be a long time before we know the full extent of it,” he told AFP.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, more than 100,000 people died in Syria’s jails and detention centers from 2011.
The Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomised the atrocities committed against Assad’s opponents.
Petit compared Saydnaya to the S-21 prison in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, which came to stand for the Khmer Rouge’s wider atrocities and now houses the country’s genocide museum.
The Saydnaya facility will become “an emblematic example of inhumanity,” he said.
Petit said his team had reached out to the new authorities “to get permission to come here and start discussing a framework by which we can conduct our mandate.”
“We had a productive meeting and we’ve asked formally now, according to their instructions, to be able to come back and start the work. So we’re waiting for that response,” he said.
Even without setting foot in Syria, Petit’s 82-member team has gathered huge amounts of evidence of the worst breaches of international law committed during the war.
The hope is that there could now be a national accountability process in Syria and that steps could be taken to finally grant the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed in the country.
 

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria

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Tunisian women herb harvesters struggle with drought

Updated 22 December 2024
AFP
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Tunisian women herb harvesters struggle with drought

  • Tunisia produces around 10,000 tonnes of aromatic and medicinal herbs each year, according to official figures
Updated 22 December 2024
AFP

TUNIS: On a hillside in Tunisia’s northwestern highlands, women scour a sun-scorched field for the wild herbs they rely on for their livelihoods, but droughts are making it ever harder to find the precious plants.
Yet the harvesters say they have little choice but to struggle on, as there are few opportunities in a country hit hard by unemployment, inflation and high living costs.
“There is a huge difference between the situation in the past and what we are living now,” said Mabrouka Athimni, who heads a local collective of women herb harvesters named “Al-Baraka.”

Mabrouka Athimni, who heads a local collective of women herb harvesters named "Al Baraka" ("Blessing") shows oil extracted from plants in a laboratory in Tbainia village near the city of Ain Drahem, in the north west of Tunisia on November 6, 2024. (AFP)

“We’re earning half, sometimes just a third, of what we used to.”

SPEEDREAD

Yet the harvesters say they have little choice but to struggle on, as there are few opportunities in a country hit hard by unemployment and high living costs.

Tunisia produces around 10,000 tonnes of aromatic and medicinal herbs each year, according to official figures.
Rosemary accounts for more than 40 percent of essential oil exports, mainly destined for French and American markets.
For the past 20 years, Athimni’s collective has supported numerous families in Tbainia, a village near the city of Ain Draham in a region with much higher poverty rates than the national average.
Women, who make up around 70 percent of the agricultural workforce, are the main breadwinners for their households in Tbainia.
Tunisia is in its sixth year of drought and has seen its water reserves dwindle, as temperatures have soared past 50 degrees Celsius in some areas during the summer.
The country has 36 dams, mostly in the northwest, but they are currently just 20 percent full — a record low in recent decades.
The Tbainia women said they usually harvested plants like eucalyptus, rosemary and mastic year-round, but shrinking water resources and rare rainfall have siphoned oil output.
“The mountain springs are drying up, and without snow or rain to replenish them, the herbs yield less oil,” said Athimni.
Mongia Soudani, a 58-year-old harvester and mother of three, said her work was her household’s only income. She joined the collective five years ago.

“We used to gather three or four large sacks of herbs per harvest,” she said. “Now, we’re lucky to fill just one.”

Forests in Tunisia cover 1.25 million hectares, about 10 percent of them in the northwestern region.

Wildfires fueled by drought and rising temperatures have ravaged these woodlands, further diminishing the natural resources that women like Soudani depend on.

In the summer of last year, wildfires destroyed around 1,120 hectares near Tbainia.

“Parts of the mountain were consumed by flames, and other women lost everything,” Soudani recalled.

To adapt to some climate-driven challenges, the women received training from international organizations, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, to preserve forest resources.

Still, Athimni struggles to secure a viable income.

“I can’t fulfil my clients’ orders anymore because the harvest has been insufficient,” she said.

The collective has lost a number of its customers as a result, she said.

 

Topics: Tunis Tunisia women

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Civilians suffer as rival forces seek foothold in wider Darfur region

Updated 57 min 50 sec ago
Reuters
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Civilians suffer as rival forces seek foothold in wider Darfur region

  • Rapid Support Forces seize back control of key logistical base
Updated 57 min 50 sec ago
Reuters

DUBAI/CAIRO: Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized back control of a key logistical base in North Darfur on Sunday, the paramilitary group said, a day after it was taken by rival forces allied with Sudan’s army.
The conflict between the RSF and the army erupted in April 2023, and some of the fiercest fighting has taken place in North Darfur as the army and allied Joint Forces — a collection of former rebel groups — battle to maintain a last foothold in the wider Darfur region.
The Joint Forces and the army said in statements they had taken control on Saturday of the Al-Zurug base, which the RSF has used during the 20-month war as a logistical base to channel supplies from over the nearby borders with Chad and Libya.

BACKGROUND

• The conflict between the RSF and the army erupted in April 2023, and some of the fiercest fighting has taken place in North Darfur.

• Since fighting picked up in Al-Fashir in mid-April, at least 782 civilians have been killed, according to a UN human rights report.

Dozens of RSF soldiers were killed, vehicles destroyed and supplies captured as they captured the base, they said.
The incident could inflame ethnic tensions between the Arab tribes that form the base of the RSF and the Zaghawa tribe that forms most of the Joint Forces, analysts say.
The RSF accused Joint Forces fighters of killing civilians and burning down nearby homes and public amenities during the raid.
“The Joint Forces carried out ethnic cleansing against innocent civilians in Al-Zurug and intentionally killed children, women, and the elderly and burnt and destroyed wells and markets and homes and the health center and schools,” it said in a statement on Sunday.
The Joint Forces said the base had been used by the RSF as a “launching point for barbaric operations against civilians” in areas including Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur state and one of the most active frontlines in the fighting.
Since fighting picked up in Al-Fashir in mid-April, at least 782 civilians have been killed, according to a UN human rights report, the result of attacks via “intense” heavy artillery and suicide drones from the RSF and airstrikes and artillery strikes by the army.
On Sunday, activists from the Al-Fashir Resistance Committee reported an onslaught of at least 30 missiles fired on different parts of the city.
Seizing control of the city would bolster the RSF’s attempt to install a parallel government to the national government in Port Sudan, analysts say.

 

Topics: Sudan conflict Sudan army Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF)

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