KABUL: New Delhi has temporarily evacuated staff from its consulate in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, where the Taliban have unleashed a series of attacks in recent weeks, official Afghan sources and India’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
“We were informed about this and told that as a precautionary move, India had to pull out the staff temporarily,” one of the sources from Kandahar, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media, told Arab News.
Officials from the Interior Ministry in Kabul refused to comment on the evacuation, which comes a week after New Delhi, Turkey, Pakistan and Russia had to either recall staff or halt operations at their consulates in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif due to the Taliban’s rapid territorial gains in the area.
However, Gran Hewad, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, told Arab News that the protection of diplomatic missions was “of high importance” for the government and that an “increase in the Taliban’s unprecedented attacks” had prompted some nations to take precautionary measures for security reasons.
New Delhi said on Sunday it was “closely monitoring the evolving security in Afghanistan.”
“The safety and security of our personnel is paramount. Due to the intense fighting near Kandahar city, India-based personnel have been brought back for the time being,” Arindam Bagchi, chief spokesman at India’s Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.
He added that India’s consulate in Kandahar was being run by local staff temporarily.
While the source in Kandahar had no further details about the evacuation, Indian media reports said that around 50 diplomats and security personnel had been pulled out due to the “deteriorating security situation” in the southern region, which is considered to be the group’s birthplace and its main stronghold.
The Taliban have widened control amid the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, which began on May 1 and is expected to be completed next month.
In recent weeks, the group has overrun several areas bordering five countries — Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China and Pakistan – and captured key border crossings through which Afghanistan conducts most of its trade with Iran and Turkmenistan.
The group said on Friday they had taken control of “85 percent of territory in Afghanistan,” a claim dismissed by Afghan government officials as foreign forces, including the US, withdraw from Afghanistan after almost 20 years of fighting.
According to sources privy to the Kandahar evacuation and as cited by the Indian media, a special Indian Air Force aircraft was sent on Saturday to bring back the staff.
India has remained a key regional player in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted from power in late 2001 and has invested nearly $3 billion in aid and reconstruction activities in the war-torn country.
New Delhi enjoys close ties with Kabul, while Pakistan has played a crucial role in facilitating the Afghan peace process since last year. Both accuse each other of running a proxy war in Afghanistan.
During the Taliban’s five-year rule, an Indian passenger plane was hijacked by a Pakistani militant outfit and brought to Kandahar. It was released days later after a ransom was paid to the group.
In recent years, the Indian mission and other establishments have come under the Taliban’s attack in Kabul and elsewhere.
The Taliban have repeatedly assured foreigners they will not be harmed, vowing to protect foreign missions and NGOs in its controlled and newly captured areas.
“No harm will come from our side to any foreign diplomatic mission. They can stay freely; it is essential. We pose no threat to them, but if any country decides to leave or shut operations, then it is their decision,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, told Arab News.
Experts, however, said other reasons could be at play for India’s decision to evacuate its consulate staff.
“New Delhi’s long skepticism about the Taliban, past attacks against its interests and fear of the presence of Pakistani militants among the Taliban who may harm India have prompted it to evacuate the staff from Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif,” Taj Mohammed, a Kabul-based analyst, told Arab News.
“Other countries have improved their ties with the Taliban, but not India. So, it will take time for India to be assured that the Taliban will not cause them any harm, and that shall happen when both sides engage in dialogue,” he added.
India pulls out staff from Kandahar consulate as Taliban widen control
https://arab.news/jcefv
India pulls out staff from Kandahar consulate as Taliban widen control
- Move follows spike in violence in southern Afghan city
- New Delhi says evacuation a temporary measure, operations to continue through local staff
Senegal heads to the polls amid fiscal crisis, threat of unrest
DAKAR: Senegal will vote in legislative elections on Sunday to determine whether the new president and government can gain control over the national assembly and push through their reform agenda.
The high stakes in the election threaten to spark renewed unrest following a period of calm.
The run-up to the presidential election in March saw some of the worst violence in the country’s recent history.
Campaigning has grown heated recently and comes at a precarious time for the new government.
It is navigating a spiraling fiscal crisis that could undermine its ability to deliver on promises to boost the economy and create jobs.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, known for his fiery rhetoric, said this week that his supporters had come under attack and urged them to take revenge.
He has also warned that restraint should not be mistaken for weakness.
“Let them not say that we’ve changed and that since we came, everyone can do as they please,” he said on Tuesday evening.
“We could have used our strength, but we didn’t.”
Top priorities for Senegalese voters are jobs and the economy, as inflation has squeezed livelihoods and the nation’s growing youth population struggles to find employment.
More than 7 million registered voters can vote for candidates for the 165-seat assembly, choosing between 41 registered parties or other entities. Polls open at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.
“We want a lower cost of living, affordable water, electricity, and transport, so everyone can work and live decently,” said Cheikh Diagne, a street seller in downtown Dakar.
Babacar Ndiaye, research director at the think tank WATHI, said that Senegalese have historically favored the president during previous parliamentary elections.
“When they choose a president, they give that president the means to work and govern,” he said.
“Every time a president has won, he has also gained an absolute majority in the National Assembly.”
The West African country is plunging toward a debt crisis after the new government said it had discovered the budget deficit was much wider than reported by the previous government.
A $1.9 billion IMF program is on hold while the government audit is reviewed.
The main threat to the ruling party Pastef’s ambitions is the unexpected alliance of two opposition parties, including the Republic party headed by former Prime Minister Macky Sall.
The race also includes two smaller opposition coalitions.
The one led by Dakar’s mayor, Barthelemy Dias, has clashed with supporters of Pastef.
Mariam Wane Ly, a former parliamentarian and trailblazer for women in politics in Senegal, said the campaign period had given leaders a chance to explain their agendas.
She expected Pastef to win the majority it seeks.
“I think it’s going to make up for all the unhappiness,” she said.
Brother of late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed also accused of sexual violence: BBC
- Three women say the late Salah Fayed assaulted them during the period when he jointly owned the department store with his brother, the broadcaster said
LONDON: Three women formerly employed by Harrods have accused the brother of its late boss Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual violence, following hundreds of similar claims against the former owner of the luxury London store, the BBC reported Thursday.
They say the late Salah Fayed assaulted them during the period when he jointly owned the department store with his brother, the broadcaster said.
The women alleged they were abused in London, the south of France and Monaco between 1989 and 1997.
The report follows a slew of claims in recent weeks by hundreds of women against the Egyptian former Harrods and Fulham Football Club owner Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual assault including rape.
Salah Fayed died in 2010 and Mohamed Al-Fayed died last year aged 94.
One of the three women behind the most recent accusations, named Helen, who waived her right to anonymity, told the BBC that she had been working for the retailer for two years when Mohamed Al-Fayed raped her in 1989 during a business trip in Dubai.
He then offered her a personal assistant job with his brother Salah, who she said went on to drug her and rape her while she was unconscious.
Mohamed Al-Fayed “shared me with his brother,” she said.
She said she had stayed silent about the experience, having signed a non-disclosure agreement, a document the BBC reported having seen.
The second woman said Salah Fayed abused her during a trip to Monaco, while the third woman, who was hired at the age of 19 in 1997, said she was sexually assaulted in his Monaco apartment.
Contacted by AFP, Harrods said it “supports the bravery of these women in coming forward” and encourages survivors “to come forward and make their claims” to the company, which is offering compensation and counselling support.
“We also hope that they are looking at every appropriate avenue to them in their pursuit of justice, whether that be Harrods, the police or the Fayed family and estate,” the company said.
On Tuesday, the New York Times published the claims of a victim accusing another brother of Mohamed Al-Fayed, Ali, aged 80, of knowing about the “trafficking” of women.
Allegations have mounted since the airing of a BBC documentary in September that detailed multiple claims of rape and sexual assault by Mohamed Al-Fayed.
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group said it had received more than 420 inquiries, mainly related to the store but also regarding Fulham Football Club, the Ritz Hotel in Paris and other Fayed entities.
London’s Metropolitan Police said earlier this month that it was “actively reviewing 21 allegations reported to the Metropolitan Police prior to Mohamed Al-Fayed’s passing... to determine if any additional investigative steps are available or there are things we could have done better.”
Democrats in Congress urge Biden to sanction Israelis over West Bank violence
- “We write to express our deep concern about the rise in settler violence, settlement expansion, and measures adopted to weaken the Palestinian Authority,” said the letter
- The letter, signed by 17 senators and 71 House members, said Israeli settlers have carried out over 1,270 recorded attacks against Palestinians
WASHINGTON: Nearly 90 Democratic lawmakers urged US President Joe Biden to sanction members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank, according to a letter released on Thursday.
Urging Biden to send a message to US partners before he leaves office, the members of Congress said Israeli cabinet members Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had incited violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied territory.
“We write to express our deep concern about the rise in settler violence, settlement expansion, and measures adopted to weaken the Palestinian Authority and otherwise destabilize the West Bank,” they said in the letter.
The letter, signed by 17 senators and 71 House members, said Israeli settlers have carried out over 1,270 recorded attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, averaging more than three violent attacks per day.
The letter was dated Oct. 29 but made public on Thursday because the lawmakers had not had a response from the White House, three of the members of Congress said.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen and Democratic House of Representatives members Rosa DeLauro and Sean Casten, who are leading the letter effort, told reporters that Biden has the authority to impose sanctions under an existing executive order.
Doing so would send a message not just to Israel and the Palestinians, but also to US allies elsewhere in the world, that the United States will push back on humanitarian issues, they said.
“We think it’s more important than ever that President Biden right now states that the United States is not going to be a rubber stamp to the Netanyahu government’s extreme actions,” Van Hollen said.
Spokespeople for the White House and Israeli embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The United States has for decades backed a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians and urged Israel not to expand settlements.
The West Bank is among territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and where Palestinians, with international support, seek statehood. Most world powers deem Israeli settlements in the area illegal. Israel disputes that, citing historical claims to the West Bank and describing it as a security bulwark.
Netanyahu and his allies celebrated the re-election this month of Donald Trump, a staunch but sometimes unpredictable ally of Israel. In his first term the Republican president-elect delivered major wins for the Israeli leader. Additionally, Smotrich, who also wields a defense ministry supervisory role for settlers as part of his coalition deal with Netanyahu, said this week he hoped Israel would extend sovereignty into the occupied West Bank in 2025 and that he would push the government to engage the incoming Trump administration to gain Washington’s support.
Measles cases surge 20 percent, global study shows
- “Measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other vaccine in the past 50 years,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
- “We must invest in immunization for every person, no matter where they live“
GENEVA: Measles infections soared by a fifth last year to over 10 million cases globally, revealing alarming gaps in vaccine coverage, a study showed Thursday.
Worldwide, there were an estimated 10.3 million measles cases in 2023, according to a joint publication by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That marked a 20-percent increase from 2022, the study showed, saying that “inadequate immunization coverage globally is driving the surge in cases.”
Measles is one of the world’s most infectious diseases. At least 95-percent coverage with two doses of the measles/rubella vaccine is needed to prevent outbreaks.
But in 2023, only 83 percent of children worldwide received their first dose of the measles vaccine through routine health services — the same level as in 2022 but down from 86 percent before the pandemic.
Only 74 percent received their second dose last year, the study showed.
“Measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other vaccine in the past 50 years,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a joint statement.
“To save even more lives and stop this deadly virus from harming the most vulnerable, we must invest in immunization for every person, no matter where they live.”
CDC director Mandy Cohen said: “The measles vaccine is our best protection against the virus, and we must continue to invest in efforts to increase access.”
As a result of global gaps in vaccination coverage, 57 countries experienced large and disruptive measles outbreaks in 2023, up from 36 countries a year earlier, the study showed.
All regions except the Americas were impacted, it said, with nearly half of all large and disruptive outbreaks occurring in the African region.
The virus that can cause a rash, fever and flu-like symptoms but also particularly severe complications in young children is estimated to have killed 107,500 people in 2023, most of them under the age of five.
This marks an eight-percent decrease from the previous year.
The agencies explained that the decline was mainly due to the fact that the surge in cases occurred in countries and regions where children with measles were less likely to die, due to better nutritional status and access to health services.
“Far too many children are still dying from this preventable disease,” they said.
The agencies cautioned that a global target of eliminating measles as an endemic threat by 2030 was “under threat.”
By the end of last year, 82 countries had achieved or maintained measles elimination.
After Brazil this week reverified having eliminated measles, WHO’s Americas region is once again considered free of endemic measles.
All regions, with the exception of Africa, meanwhile count at least one country that has eliminated the disease.
The agencies called for urgent and targeted efforts to ensure all children are reached with two vaccine doses, especially in the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions and in fragile and conflict-affected areas.
“This requires achieving and maintaining high-performing routine immunization programs and delivering high-quality, high-coverage campaigns when those programs are not yet sufficient to protect every child,” they said.
NATO and the EU press China to help stop North Korea’s support for the war on Ukraine
- NATO says Russia is sending missile technology to North Korea in return
- NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that “China bears particular responsibility here, to use its influence in Pyongyang and Moscow to ensure they cease these actions”
BRUSSELS: NATO and the European Union are ramping up efforts to persuade China to help get North Korea to stop sending troops and other support to Russia to back its war on Ukraine.
Up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia’s Kursk border region to help beat back Ukrainian forces there, according to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments. NATO says Russia is sending missile technology to North Korea in return.
With Russia exploiting its military advantage in Ukraine, the United States wants its allies to exert political pressure on China to rein in North Korea. Since Pyongyang and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 1949, their relationship has been described as being “as close as lips and teeth.”
One political lever is the threat of any increased Western activity in China’s backyard, the Asia-Pacific region. Just last week, the EU sealed security pacts with regional powers Japan and South Korea.
In an opinion piece for Politico last week, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that “China bears particular responsibility here, to use its influence in Pyongyang and Moscow to ensure they cease these actions. Beijing cannot pretend to promote peace while turning a blind eye to increasing aggression.”
On a visit to Latvia on Thursday, Rutte warned that the exchanges of missile technology in particular pose “a direct threat, not only to Europe, but also to Japan, South Korea and the US mainland.” Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand now regularly attend NATO meetings.
On Wednesday, after talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he also said that “the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific really have to be seen as one theater, and not as two separate ones,” and that “our security, therefore, now more and more is global, and we have to look at this as a global issue.”
While North Korea and Russia have moved significantly closer, many observers say China is reluctant to form a three-way, anti-West alliance with them as it prefers a stable security environment to tackle economic challenges and maintain relationships with Europe and its Asian neighbors.
In a blog published on Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell detailed his recent trip to Japan and South Korea, where North Korea’s troop deployment and other assistance to Russia was on the agenda.
“This marks an escalation of the utmost seriousness, which was of course at the heart of our discussions with the Japanese and South Korean leaders,” wrote Borrell, who also held talks with Blinken on Wednesday.
Borrell hailed the conclusion during his trip of new security and defense partnerships with Japan and South Korea, “the first ones outside Europe.”
“The EU was certainly not born as a military alliance but, in the current geopolitical context, it can and must also become a global security provider and partner,” he wrote.
Blinken said this week that the Biden administration is determined in its final months to help ensure that Ukraine can keep fighting off the full-scale invasion next year by sending as much aid as possible to hold Russian forces at bay or strengthen its hand in any peace negotiations.
