Sudan spirals into chaos as protesters demand civilian rule

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Pro-democracy activists have urged protesters to take to the streets Tuesday and to head to the presidential palace in Khartoum ‘until victory is achieved.’ (AP)
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Updated 05 January 2022
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Sudan spirals into chaos as protesters demand civilian rule

  • Security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters in several locations including the area around the presidential palace
  • Protesters were also seen in videos hurling stones and spent tear gas canisters at security forces

KHARTOUM/JEDDAH: Sudan descended further into chaos on Tuesday as protesters took to the streets again to demand an end to a military coup and the establishment of a civilian government.

Up to 60 people have died in a security crackdown on demonstrations that began after the Oct. 25 coup, and intensified this week after the resignation of Abdalla Hamdok as prime minister.

Thousands of protesters took part in marches on Tuesday in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. Young demonstrators sang, beat drums, waved Sudanese flags and set fire to tires.

They shouted “No, no to military rule” and called for the disbandment of Sudan’s ruling council headed by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, who led the coup.

Mobile internet access was blocked, and streets leading to the presidential palace and army headquarters were sealed off by troops, riot police and paramilitary units, who fired tear-gas grenades at the protesters.

Burhan had dismissed both Hamdok and the government in the October coup, dismantling a precarious power-sharing arrangement between the military and civilians that had been established in the wake of the April 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar-al-Bashir.

The military chief reinstated Hamdok on November 21, a deal the prime minister accepted partly on the promise of elections in mid-2023 — but the protest movement slammed the deal as a “betrayal” and kept up its rallies.




The demos were called by a local ‘resistance committee’ in khartoum’s twin city of omdurman in response to the killing of several protesters there on thursday and sunday. (AFP)

Hamdok then resigned on Sunday — six weeks after he was reappointed by Burhan — saying the country was at a “dangerous crossroads threatening its very survival.”

“Our three current terms after the coup are: No negotiations, no power-sharing and no compromise, in addition to the main demands of the revolution, which are freedom, peace and justice. That’s it, we have no other demands,” said protester Waddah Hussein.

Hamdok’s resignation has thrown the country into further uncertainty and “deprived the generals of the fig leaf” they used to continue their military rule, said Mohammed Yousef Al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which was the backbone of the uprising that deposed dictator Omar Bashir in 2019.

The protest movement insists on a fully civilian government to lead the transition, a demand rejected by the generals who say power will be handed over only to an elected government. Elections are planned in July 2023, in line with a constitutional document governing the transitional period.

Sudan’s largest Umma Party urged the military to relinquish leadership of the sovereign council. “This is the only way for the salvation of the nation, the integrity of the transitional period and the accomplishment of its tasks within the agreed-upon time frame,” the party said.

Talks have been underway to find an independent figure to lead a technocratic Cabinet through elections. Among names floated was that of former Finance Minister Ibrahim Elbadawi, who resigned in 2020.

Jibril Ibrahim, a rebel leader who joined Hamdok’s government last year following a peace deal with the transitional administration, called for a political compromise to resolve the crisis.

“Let us agree to work together for the sake of Sudan,” he said.

FASTFACT

Up to 60 people have died in a security crackdown on demonstrations that began after the Oct. 25 coup.

On Tuesday, the US, European Union, Britain and Norway warned the military against naming their own successor to Hamdok, saying it would “not support a prime minister or government appointed without the involvement of a broad range of civilian stakeholders.”

The four Western powers said that they still believed in the democratic transition of Sudan, but issued a veiled warning to the military if it does not move forward.

“In the absence of progress, we would look to accelerate efforts to hold those actors impeding the democratic process accountable,” the statement read.

“Unilateral action to appoint a new prime minister and cabinet would undermine those institutions’ credibility and risks plunging the nation into conflict,” it added.

UN chief Antonio Guterres “regrets that a political understanding on the way forward is not in place despite the gravity of the situation in Sudan,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.

On Tuesday, Burhan met with US Charge d’Affairs Brian Shukan, stressing the need to “continue dialogue between all sides to come up with a national consensus program,” according to a statement by Burhan’s office.

His office also said he had met with UN special representative Volker Perthes over “the current political situation” and discussed “speeding up the appointment of a new prime minister.”

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday that he “respects” Hamdok’s decision and called for “urgent action” to resolve the crisis.

Activists online have urged demonstrators to keep heading to the presidential palace “until victory is achieved,” according to the Sudanese Professionals Association, an alliance of independent trade unions that was instrumental in the anti-Bashir protests.

The coup — one of several in Sudan’s post-independence history — has triggered mass demonstrations and a bloody crackdown that has left at least 57 people dead and hundreds wounded, according to the independent Doctors’ Committee.

On Tuesday, security forces fired tear gas near the palace, as well as at rallies in suburbs north of Khartoum and in the eastern city of Port Sudan.

Protesters also gathered in Khartoum’s twin city Omdurman and the South Darfur state capital Nyala, taking the total on the streets across the country into the thousands.

Emad Mohamed, a witness in Wad Madani, south of Khartoum, said protesters carried the Sudanese flag and were beating drums as they chanted “civilian rule is the people’s choice.”

Demonstrators in east Khartoum “burnt car tires and built brick barricades on the streets,” witness Sawsan Salah said. Other protesters urged the military “to go back to the barracks.”

Protests calmed later on Tuesday evening. 

(With Agencies)


2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

Updated 3 sec ago
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night
Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Updated 18 min 30 sec ago
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.


HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

Updated 42 min 12 sec ago
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HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Monday an Israeli air strike that killed three journalists in Lebanon last month was an “apparent war crime” and used a bomb equipped with a US-made guidance kit.
The October 25 strike hit a tourism complex in the Druze-majority south Lebanon town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists working for Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.
The Israeli army has said it targeted Hezbollah militants and that the strike was “under review.”
HRW said the strike, relatively far from the Israel-Hezbollah war’s main flashpoints, “was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime.”
“Information Human Rights Watch reviewed indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building,” the watchdog said in a statement.
HRW “found no evidence of fighting, military forces, or military activity in the immediate area at the time of the attack,” it added.
The strike killed cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda from pro-Iran, Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen and video journalist Wissam Qassem from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
The watchdog said it verified images of Najjar’s casket wrapped in a Hezbollah flag and buried in a cemetery alongside fighters from the militant group.
But a spokesperson for the militant group said he “had no involvement whatsoever in any military activities.”
HRW said the bomb dropped by Israeli forces was equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit.
The JDAM is “affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates,” the statement said.
It said remnants from the site were consistent with a JDAM kit “assembled and sold by the US company Boeing.”
One remnant “bore a numerical code identifying it as having been manufactured by Woodard, a US company that makes components for guidance systems on munitions,” it added.
The watchdog said it contacted Boeing and Woodard but received no response.
In October last year, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while he was covering southern Lebanon, and six other journalists were wounded, including AFP’s Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated.
In November last year, Israeli bombardment killed Al-Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari, the channel said.
Lebanese rights groups have said five more journalists and photographers working for local media have been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs.


Boat carrying 31 tourists sinks near Egypt’s Marsa Alam: reports

Updated 53 min 21 sec ago
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Boat carrying 31 tourists sinks near Egypt’s Marsa Alam: reports

CAIRO: A boat carrying 31 tourists sank near Egypt's Marsa Alam, located on the western shore of the Red Sea, local media reported Monday. 

Red Sea Governor Major General Amr Hanafy said that an aircraft and naval units were able to transport several tourists to receive the necessary medical care.

Hanfy pointed out that the search operations are underway to save others. 

 

 


Iraq’s population reaches 45.4 million in first census in over 30 years

Updated 25 November 2024
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Iraq’s population reaches 45.4 million in first census in over 30 years

  • Prior to the census, the planning ministry estimated the population at 43 million
  • The last census, conducted in 1997, did not include the Iraqi Kurdistan region

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s population has risen to 45.4 million, according to preliminary results from a national census, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Monday.
The census, conducted on Nov. 20, was Iraq’s first nationwide survey in more than three decades, marking a crucial step for future planning and development.
Prior to the census, the planning ministry estimated the population at 43 million.
The last census, conducted in 1997, did not include the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which has been under Kurdish administration since the 1991 Gulf War.
It counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north, according to official statistics.