ADEN: Yemen’s government accused its Houthi foes of covering up a big outbreak of coronavirus in areas they hold and the United Nations warned that the country could suffer a “catastrophic” food security situation due to the pandemic.
The Aden-based government also called for urgent global assistance to help Yemen’s war-ravaged health sector deal with the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the virus is spreading undetected among the population in the country, divided between the government in the south and the Iran-aligned Houthi militia based in the north.
The conflict between the Arab coalition, which includes Saudi Arabia. and the Houthis has already caused what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with about 80 percent of Yemen’s population reliant on aid and millions facing hunger.
The government has reported 128 infections and 20 deaths linked to the coronavirus across nine of Yemen’s 21 provinces. The Houthis, who hold most large population centers, have only announced four cases with one death, all in the capital Sanaa.
“Reports on the ground indicate a large number of coronavirus cases in areas under the Houthis’ control and hiding this information is completely unacceptable,” Minister of Local Administration Abdul Raqib Fath told a news conference on Sunday.
He urged the WHO and the international community to pressure the Houthis about declaring cases.
The Houthi movement, which ousted the internationally recognized government from Sanaa in late 2014, denies the charges. On Saturday, its health minister announced two more infections and said the ministry was following all suspected cases, without providing a number.
The WHO says it has been advising local authorities throughout Yemen, where testing capacity is limited, to report cases in order to secure resources, but that the decision to do so rests with a country’s leaders.
Sources had told Reuters that both sides have not fully disclosed the extent of the pandemic in a country already plagued by other diseases.
The Aden-based government’s health minister said Yemen urgently needed financial assistance and protective gear for health workers in addition to ventilators, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and swab test equipment.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday hunger could spread drastically due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“That situation could be really catastrophic if all the elements of worst case scenarios come to be but let’s hope not and the UN are working on avoiding that,” senior FAO regional official Abdessalam Ould Ahmed told Reuters.
The United States said on May 6 it would provide $225 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) for Yemen, including for reduced operations in the north.
The WFP had said it would halve aid in Houthi-held areas from mid-April over donor concerns that the group is hindering aid deliveries, a charge it denies.
The UN envoy to Yemen said on Thursday that significant progress has been made toward cementing a temporary truce prompted by the coronavirus pandemic and to pave the way for a resumption of stalled peace talks.
Yemen's government accuses Houthis of covering up coronavirus outbreak
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Yemen's government accuses Houthis of covering up coronavirus outbreak
- The government has reported 128 infections and 20 deaths linked to the coronavirus across nine of Yemen’s 21 provinces
Istanbul’s mayor still held as new rally called
Imamoglu is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival and his detention came just days before the party was expected to name him as its candidate for the 2028 presidential election.
Financial markets in Turkiye fell shortly afterwards in what analysts said indicates investors’ serious concerns that the move was politically motivated.
The leader of the main opposition CHP, of which the mayor is a member, is expected to address supporters outside Istanbul’s City Hall at 1730 GMT on Thursday, a party spokesman told AFP.
University students also planned several demonstrations in the city.
The governor has banned all protests in Istanbul for four days.
Hundreds of police joined the pre-dawn raid on Imamoglu’s home in Istanbul on Wednesday, he posted on X before being taken away, with the authorities then blocking access to social networks.
Access to the Internet and social media was still slow early Thursday.
Thousands of angry protesters gathered outside City Hall late on Wednesday, chanting slogans including “Erdogan, dictator!” and “Government, resign!“
Already facing an array of legal battles, the two-time Istanbul mayor is now under investigation for “aiding and abetting a terrorist organization” — namely the banned Kurdish militant group PKK.
He is also being probed for “bribery, extortion, corruption, aggravated fraud, and illegally obtaining personal data for profit as part of a criminal organization” along with around 100 other suspects.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel, who traveled from Ankara to Istanbul immediately after the mayor was held, branded it a “coup” as he attended Wednesday night’s protest.
“Imamoglu’s only crime was that he was taking the lead in opinion polls,” he said alongside Imamoglu’s wife Dilek.
“His only crime was that he won the hearts of the people. His only crime was he would be the next president,” he added.
Local media said the other suspects were being interrogated at police headquarters but that Imamoglu has not yet been questioned.
Hamish Kinnear, a senior analyst with Verisk Maplecroft, a risk consultancy, said the arrest had sparked “a heightened risk of civil unrest, which the government appears to have anticipated by introducing a four-day ban on protests in Istanbul.”
The analyst warned Imamoglu’s detention could spoil the government plans to change the constitution so that Erdogan can run another term.
“If Imamoglu’s arrest unites the opposition and provokes a political backlash, it could upset the government’s plan to push through constitutional change that would enable Erdogan to run for a third term,” he said.
Under the constitution, Erdogan — who has been president for more than a decade — cannot run again for the presidency. He already changed the constitution to introduce the presidential system after serving as prime minister for 11 years.
The Turkish lira fell sharply against the dollar after Imamoglu’s detention, trading at 37.99 on Thursday morning.
At least 70 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, health authorities say
- Medics say Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip
- Since Tuesday, airstrikes have killed 510 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children
GAZA/CAIRO: At least 70 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday, after Israel resumed its bombing campaign on the enclave, a Gaza health official said.
Medics said Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said its forces had resumed ground operations in central and southern Gaza, after a ceasefire that had broadly held since January collapsed.
The renewed ground operations came a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023.
Since Tuesday, airstrikes have killed 510 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children, the health official said.
The Israeli military said its operations extended Israel’s control over the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and were a “focused” maneuver aimed at creating a partial buffer zone between the north and the south of the enclave.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas said the ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim Corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the two-month-old ceasefire agreement. In a statement, the group reaffirmed its commitment to the deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities.”
Speaking to Reuters on Thursday, a Hamas official said mediators had stepped up their efforts with the two warring sides but added that “no breakthrough has yet been made.”
The group has made no clear threats to retaliate.
The war started after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities, with the enclave reduced to rubble.
Sudan army close to taking control of Presidential Palace from RSF, state TV says
- Marks a significant shift in the two-year-old conflict that threatens to fracture the country
- The war has led to what the UN calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis
Sudan’s army is close to taking control of the Presidential Palace in Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, state TV reported on Thursday, in a significant milestone in a two-year-old conflict that threatens to fracture the country.
The RSF quickly took the palace and most of the capital at the outbreak of war in April 2023, but the Sudanese Armed Forces have in recent months staged a comeback and inched toward the palace along the River Nile.
The RSF, which earlier this year began establishing a parallel government, maintains control of parts of Khartoum and neighboring Omdurman, as well as western Sudan, where it is fighting to take control of the army’s last stronghold in Darfur, Al-Fashir.
The taking of the capital could hasten the army’s full takeover of central Sudan, and harden the east-west territorial division of the country between the two forces.
Both sides have vowed to continue fighting for the remainder of the country, and no efforts at peace talks have materialized.
The war erupted amid a power struggle between Sudan’s army and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.
World’s largest humanitarian crisis
The conflict has led to what the UN calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, causing famine in several locations and disease across the country. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, while the RSF has also been charged with genocide. Both forces deny the charges.
The fight for the Presidential Palace has raged over the past several weeks, with the RSF fighting fiercely to maintain control, including via snipers placed around surrounding downtown buildings. Its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, instructed troops earlier this week not to give up the palace.
Late on Wednesday into Thursday morning, explosions could be heard from airstrikes and drone attacks by the army targeting central Khartoum, witnesses and military sources told Reuters. The army has long maintained the advantage of air power over the RSF, though the paramilitary group has shown evidence of increased drone capabilities recently.
On the Telegram messenger app, the RSF said its forces were making advances toward the Army General Command, also in central Khartoum, and eyewitnesses said the force was attacking from southern Khartoum.
The army’s advance in central Sudan since late last year has been welcomed by many people, who had been displaced by the RSF, which has been accused of widespread looting and arbitrary killings, and of occupying homes and neighborhoods.
The RSF denies the charges and says individual perpetrators will be brought to justice.
Hundreds of thousands of people have returned to their homes in Central Sudan, though late on Wednesday activists in Omdurman warned that some soldiers have engaged in robbery. The military has routinely denied such allegations.
Israel launches a ground operation to retake part of a key corridor in northern Gaza
- Israel used the Netzarim corridor as a military zone which bisected northern Gaza from the south.
DEIR AL-BALAH: Israel said Wednesday it launched a “limited ground operation” in northern Gaza to retake part of a corridor that bisects the territory, and the country’s defense minister warned that the army plans to step up the attacks that shattered a two-month ceasefire “with an intensity that you have not seen.”
The military said it had retaken part of the Netzarim corridor, which bisects northern Gaza from the south and from where it had withdrawn as part of the ceasefire with Hamas that began in January.
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Palestinians in Gaza that the army would again order evacuations from combat zones soon, and that its attacks against Hamas would become more fierce if dozens of hostages held for more than 17 months weren’t freed.
The move appeared to deepen a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza, which shattered a ceasefire with Hamas.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 436 people, including 183 children and 94 women, have been killed since Israel launched the strikes early Tuesday. It said another 678 people have been wounded.
The military says it only strikes militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas. Gaza’s Health Ministry records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The military said in a statement that as part of the new offensive, it struck dozens of militants and militant sites on Wednesday, including the command center of a Hamas battalion.
The war in Gaza, which was paused in January by an internationally-mediated ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, has been among the deadliest conflicts ever for humanitarian workers, according to the UN.
The resumption of fighting launched by Israel early Tuesday risks plunging the region back into all-out war. It came weeks after the end of the first phase of the ceasefire, during which Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages for prisoners and were set to negotiate an extension to the truce that was meant to bring about an eventual end to the war.
But those negotiations never got off the ground. Hamas has demanded that Israel stick to the terms of the initial ceasefire deal, including a full withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war. Israel, which has vowed to defeat Hamas, has put forward a new proposal that would extend the truce and free more hostages held by Hamas, without a commitment to end the war.
Israel says it intercepted missile launched from Yemen
- Israel’s ambulance service said no serious injuries were reported
Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen early on Thursday as hostilities with the Houthis intensified, amid US President Donald Trump’s threats to punish Iran over its perceived support for the Yemeni militant group.
Sirens sounded across several areas in Israel after the projectile was fired, the military said. The Israeli police said sirens were heard in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
“A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF prior to crossing into Israeli territory. Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” the Israeli military said in a statement, referring to its air force.
Israel’s ambulance service said no serious injuries were reported.
Yemen’s Houthi militants, undeterred by waves of US strikes since Saturday, fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group’s military spokesperson said in a televised statement.
The group has recently vowed to escalate their attacks, including those targeting Israel, in response to the US campaign.
US strikes which began on Saturday over the Houthis’ attacks against Red Sea shipping are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. The US attacks have killed at least 31 people.
Trump also threatened on Monday to hold Iran accountable for any future Houthi attacks, warning of severe consequences. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Houthis were independent and took their own strategic and operational decisions.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they had fired a ballistic missile toward Israel and would expand their range of targets in that country in coming days in retaliation for renewed Israeli airstrikes in Gaza after weeks of relative calm.
The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
The attacks have disrupted global commerce and prompted the US military to launch a costly campaign to intercept missiles.
The Houthis are part of what has been called the “Axis of Resistance” — an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran.
