Sudan government says foiled coup attempt linked to Bashir regime

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Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok addressing a cabinet meeting on Tuesday after "failed coup". (AFP)
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Above, Sudan information minister Hamza Baloul in an image grab from Sudan TV announces that the coup attempt was thwarted and those behind it ‘brought under control.’ (Sudan TV/AFP)
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A general view shows Sudanese people and traffic along a street in Khartoum, Sudan. (REUTERS)
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Updated 22 September 2021
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Sudan government says foiled coup attempt linked to Bashir regime

  • Tanks close bridge over Nile in Khartoum
  • Arrested plotters include 21 military officers

JEDDAH: 

Sudan’s transitional government thwarted an attempted Islamist coup on Tuesday by military officers and civilians linked to the regime of ousted dictator Omar Bashir.

 

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said the plotters had “made extensive preparations, which were represented by the security breakdown in cities ... blocking of national roads, closure of ports and persistent instigation against the civilian government.”

Information Minister Hamza Baloul said: “Order has been restored and the leaders of the attempted coup, both military and civilian, have been arrested. Authorities were “pursuing supporters of the defunct regime” who took part, he said.

The military said most of those involved, including 21 military officers, had been detained. “The army regained control over the sites that perpetrators sought to seize,” it said. “Searches and investigations are still ongoing for others involved.”

Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Sudan’s army commander and head of the ruling sovereign council, visited Al Shajara military camp in south Khartoum, where the attempted coup began. “Had it succeeded, the attempt could have had devastating consequences on the unity of the army, security forces, and the country,” he said.

“We want to take this country and hand it over to the public will, to free and fair elections.”

In an address to troops, powerful paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo said: “We will not allow a coup to take place. We want real democratic transition through free and fair elections, not like in the past.”

Early on Tuesday morning, military units loyal to the council used tanks to close the Nile bridge connecting Khartoum with Omdurman. A government source said the plotters had tried to take control of state radio in Omdurman. The streets of the capital were calm later on Tuesday, with people moving around normally.

Anti-coup demonstrations broke out in several other cities. At Port Sudan in the east, protesters raised Sudanese flags and chanted “No to military rule” and “No to coup.”

The US, Britain and Norway, which have led Western engagement with Sudan, stressed their support for democratic transition, as did the UN.

Bashir came to power in an Islamist military coup in 1989. He was deposed in 2019, and is in prison in Khartoum awaiting trial over the coup.

He also faces trial by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his persecution of ethnic minority rebels in Darfur.

Under an August 2019 power-sharing deal, Sudan is ruled by a transitional government with both civilian and military representatives, whose job is to oversee a return to full civilian rule.


Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

Updated 7 sec ago
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Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

GENEVA: More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday in a rare transfer out of the war-ravaged enclave, a World Health Organization official said.
“These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.
The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, he added, and then a portion will travel to Romania.

Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

  • In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security

DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.


Israeli airstrikes kill at least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

Updated 05 November 2024
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Israeli airstrikes kill at least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

  • Airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 30, Palestinian medics and media say
  • Israeli military says it ‘eliminated terrorists’ in latest operations

CAIRO: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 30 Palestinians since Monday night, Palestinian media and medics said on Tuesday, as the Israeli army tightened its siege on northern areas of the enclave.
An airstrike damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where the army has carried out new operations since Oct. 5, and killed at least 20 people late on Monday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.
The Gaza health ministry did not immediately confirm the toll. Four other people were killed in the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics said.
Palestinian health officials said six people had also been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the central area of the narrow enclave.
The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had “eliminated terrorists” in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where “terrorist infrastructure sites” had been eliminated, it said.
Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders for people to evacuate were aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to create buffer zones.
Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.
More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, the authorities in Gaza say, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.
The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.


Sudan paramilitaries kill 10 civilians: activists

Updated 05 November 2024
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Sudan paramilitaries kill 10 civilians: activists

PORT SUDAN: Ten civilians were killed in the central Sudanese state of Al-Jazira, pro-democracy activists said on Tuesday, in an attack they blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The Madani Resistance Committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across the country, said the RSF carried out the killings on Monday night in the village of Barborab, about 85 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the state capital Wad Madani.


Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Updated 05 November 2024
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Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

  • Washington told Israel on Oct. 13 it had 30 days to take steps to address humanitarian crisis in Gaza
  • Israel on Monday announced cancelling agreement with UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)

WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.