CAIRO: Libyan authorities said Saturday they found at least 15 migrants dead in the desert on the borders with Sudan, the latest tragedy involving migrants seeking a better life in Europe via perilous journeys through the conflict-wrecked nation.
The Department for Combating Irregular Migration in the southeastern city of Kufra said the migrants were on their way from Sudan to Libya when their vehicle broke down due to lack of fuel.
The agency said nine other migrants survived while two remain missing in the desert. There were women and children among the migrants, but the agency did not elaborate on how many. It also did not reveal causes of the migrants’ death, but said they did not have enough food and water.
It said the migrants were all Sudanese — from a country in turmoil for years. The migrants likely attempted to reach western Libya in efforts to board trafficking boats to Europe.
The agency posted images on Facebook showing bodies purportedly of the dead migrants who were later burned in the desert.
The tragedy was the latest in Libya’s sprawling desert. In June, authorities in Kufra said they found the bodies of 20 migrants who they said died of thirst in the desert after their vehicle broke down close to the border with Chad.
Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders with six nations. The migrants are then packed into ill-equipped rubber boats and set off on risky sea voyages.
15 migrants found dead on border with Sudan, say Libya officials
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15 migrants found dead on border with Sudan, say Libya officials
- The agency said nine other migrants survived while two remain missing in the desert
Gaza ‘hell on earth’ as hospital supplies running out, warns head of Red Cross
“We are now finding ourselves in a situation that I have to describe as hell on earth ...People don’t have access to water, electricity, food, in many parts,” Mirjana Spoljaric told Reuters at the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
No new humanitarian supplies have entered the Palestinian enclave since Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks on March 2, as talks stalled on the next stage of a now broken truce. Israel resumed its military assault on March 18.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 25,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the 42 days of the ceasefire and that Hamas had used the aid to rebuild its war machine, an allegation which the group has denied.
Spoljaric said supplies were running critically low.
“For six weeks, nothing has come in, so we will, in a couple of weeks’ time, run out of supplies that we need to keep the hospital going,” she said.
The World Health Organization said supplies of antibiotics and blood bags were dwindling fast. Twenty-two out of 36 hospitals in the enclave are only minimally functional, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link in Jerusalem.
The Red Cross president also raised concern about the safety of humanitarian operations.
“It is extremely dangerous for the population to move, but it’s especially also dangerous for us to operate,” Spoljaric said.
In March, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers, including eight members of the Palestinian Red Crescent, were found buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza.
The UN and Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of killing them.
The Israeli military said on Monday that an initial investigation showed that the incident occurred “due to a sense of threat” after it said it had identified six Hamas militants in the vicinity.
Spoljaric called for an immediate ceasefire in order to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas and to address grave humanitarian issues in Gaza.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023 after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages on a raid into Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed and much of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
Kurdish fighters leave northern city in Syria as part of deal with central government
The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month
ALEPPO, Syria: Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighborhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.
The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.
The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main US-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.
The withdrawal of fighters from the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates River, where the Kurdish-led force controls nearly a quarter of Syria.
Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016. The two neighborhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa captured the city in November, and days later captured the capital, Damascus, removing Assad from power.
After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family rule, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes. Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.
Kurds made up 10 percent of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament. They want decentralization and room to run their day-to day-affairs.
Gaza ‘hell on earth’ as hospital supplies running out, warns head of Red Cross
- Mirjana Spoljaric says field hospital will run out of supplies within two weeks
- No new humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza since Israel blocked entry on March 2
GENEVA: The president of the Red Cross described the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Friday as “hell on earth” and warned that its field hospital will run out of supplies within two weeks.
“We are now finding ourselves in a situation that I have to describe as hell on earth ...People don’t have access to water, electricity, food, in many parts,” Mirjana Spoljaric told Reuters at the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
No new humanitarian supplies have entered the Palestinian enclave since Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks on March 2, as talks stalled on the next stage of a now broken truce. Israel resumed its military assault on March 18.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 25,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the 42 days of the ceasefire and that Hamas had used the aid to rebuild its war machine, an allegation which the group has denied.
Spoljaric said supplies were running critically low.
“For six weeks, nothing has come in, so we will, in a couple of weeks’ time, run out of supplies that we need to keep the hospital going,” she said.
The World Health Organization said supplies of antibiotics and blood bags were dwindling fast. Twenty-two out of 36 hospitals in the enclave are only minimally functional, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link in Jerusalem.
The Red Cross president also raised concern about the safety of humanitarian operations.
“It is extremely dangerous for the population to move, but it’s especially also dangerous for us to operate,” Spoljaric said.
In March, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers, including eight members of the Palestinian Red Crescent, were found buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza.
The UN and Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of killing them.
The Israeli military said on Monday that an initial investigation showed that the incident occurred “due to a sense of threat” after it said it had identified six Hamas militants in the vicinity.
Spoljaric called for an immediate ceasefire in order to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas and to address grave humanitarian issues in Gaza.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023 after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages on a raid into Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed and much of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
Syria extends deadline for probe into killings of Alawites
- President Ahmed Al-Sharaa grants fact-finding committee three month extension to identify perpetrators
- Human rights groups say more than 1,000 civilians — mostly Alawites were killed in violence last month
BEIRUT: Syria’s presidency announced on Friday that it would extend a probe into the killings of Alawite civilians in coastal areas that left hundreds dead after clashes between government forces and armed groups loyal to former President Bashar Assad spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks.
The violence erupted on March 6 after Assad loyalists ambushed patrols of the new government, prompting Islamist-led groups to launch coordinated assaults on Latakia, Baniyas, and other coastal areas.
According to human rights groups, more than 1,000 civilians — mostly Alawites, an Islamic minority to which Assad belongs — were killed in retaliatory attacks, including home raids, executions, and arson, displacing thousands.
The sectarian violence was possibly among the bloodiest 72 hours in Syria’s modern history, including the 14 years of civil war from which the country is now emerging. The violence brought fear of a renewed civil war and threatened to open an endless cycle of vengeance, driving thousands of Alawites to flee their homes, with an estimated 30,000 seeking refuge in northern Lebanon.
On March 9, President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group, formed a fact-finding committee and gave it 30 days to report its findings and identify perpetrators. In a decree published late Thursday, Sharaa said the committee had requested more time and was granted a three-month non-renewable extension.
The committee’s spokesperson, Yasser Farhan, said in a statement on Friday that the committee has recorded 41 sites where killings took place, each forming the basis for a separate case and requiring more time to gather evidence. He said some areas remained inaccessible due to time constraints, but that residents had cooperated, despite threats from pro-Assad remnants.
In a report published on April 3, Amnesty International said its probe into the killings concluded that at least 32 of more than 100 people killed in the town of Baniyas were deliberately targeted on sectarian grounds — a potential war crime.
The rights organization welcomed the committee’s formation but stressed it must be independent, properly resourced, and granted full access to burial sites and witnesses to conduct a credible investigation. It also said the committee should be granted “adequate time to complete the investigation.”
Witnesses to the killings identified the attackers as hard-line Sunni Islamists, including Syria-based jihadi foreign fighters and members of former rebel factions that took part in the offensive that overthrew Assad. However, many were also local Sunnis, seeking revenge for past atrocities blamed on Alawites loyal to Assad.
While some Sunnis hold the Alawite community responsible for Assad’s brutal crackdowns, Alawites themselves say they also suffered under his rule.
Erdogan accuses Israel of seeking to ‘dynamite’ Syria ‘revolution’
- Turkish president says Israel is turning minorities in Syria against the government
ANTALYA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Israel of sowing divisions in Syria in a bid to “dynamite” the “revolution” that toppled strongman Bashar Assad.
Turkiye is a key backer of Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) led the rebel coalition which ousted Assad in December.
“Israel is trying to dynamite the December 8 revolution by stirring up ethnic and religious affiliations and turning minorities in Syria against the government,” Erdogan told a diplomacy forum in the southern Mediterranean resort of Antalya.
Erdogan’s comments come as officials from Turkiye and Israel began talks this week aimed at easing tensions over Syria.
Israel has launched air strikes and ground incursions to keep Syrian forces away from its border.
“Israel is turning into a problematic country that directly threatens the stability of the region, especially with its attacks on Lebanon and Syria,” Erdogan said.
He also said Israeli strikes were denting efforts to combat the Daesh jihadist group.
