DUBAI: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have detained more than a dozen aid workers, including United Nations staff, in an apparently coordinated sweep, the Yemeni government and an NGO said Friday.
At least 18 Yemeni aid workers were kidnapped in four rebel-held parts of the war-torn country, the Yemeni Mayyun Organization for Human Rights said, listing 10 workers from UN agencies.
Yemen’s internationally-recognized government condemned the “massive abduction campaign,” saying it targeted “dozens of employees of the United Nations agencies, the office of the UN envoy Hans Grundberg, and several international organizations working” in the capital Sanaa and other Houthi-run areas.
In a statement on social media platform X , Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani called it an “unprecedented escalation and a flagrant violation of international laws and conventions.”
A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told AFP that more than a dozen aid workers including UN staff were kidnapped on Thursday.
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis or the United Nations.
The abductions underline the perilous task facing aid workers in Yemen, whose long-running civil war has precipitated one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
“The Houthi armed group raided the homes and kidnapped staff of the United Nations and other international organizations operating in four governorates under” their control, the Mayyun Organization said.
This “serious escalation... constitutes a violation of the privileges and immunities of United Nations personnel,” it added, describing the abductions as “blackmail practices in order to obtain political and economic gains.”
The “simultaneous” abductions took place in the capital Sanaa, the key port of Hodeida, Amran and Saada, the rebels’ traditional stronghold, the aid group said.
“The Houthis’ actions are undermining essential humanitarian work in Yemen at a time when the majority of Yemenis do not have adequate access to basic necessities like food and water,” Niku Jafarnia, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch, told AFP.
The Houthis have kidnapped, arbitrarily detained, and tortured hundreds of civilians, including UN and NGO workers, since the start of Yemen’s conflict in 2014, according to rights groups.
Several aid workers have been killed or kidnapped throughout the conflict, forcing international agencies to temporarily suspend operations or pull out international staff as a security precaution.
The Yemani information minister said the Houthis have “previously abducted dozens of United Nations employees,” with at least three kidnapped over the past three years still in detention.
Last year, the charity Save the Children suspended operations for 10 days in northern Yemen after a staff member died in detention in the rebel-held capital.
Also last year, a long-serving staffer with the UN World Food Programme was shot and killed in the southern city of Taiz by unknown gunmen.
The Houthis seized control of Sanaa in September 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention on behalf of the government the following March.
Yemen Houthis detain aid workers, UN staff
https://arab.news/n42bk
Yemen Houthis detain aid workers, UN staff
- The Houthis have kidnapped, arbitrarily detained, and tortured hundreds of civilians, according to rights groups
Psychological wounds hard to heal for Gaza war victims
- Child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Al-Arish funded and operated by the UAE
- If that only scratches the surface of the needs of Gaza, it reflects the difficulty of providing aid for the sealed and bombarded territory
AL-ARISH, Egypt: On a floating hospital near Gaza, doctors aren’t just treating physical wounds — they’re providing emotional support too for children and adults haunted by months of terrifying war.
Child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Arish, northern Egypt, funded and operated by the United Arab Emirates.
About 2,400 people have been treated at the temporary facility, whose rows of tents below deck hold about 100 patients at a time, says deputy medical director Abdullah Al-Zahmi.
If that only scratches the surface of the needs of Gaza, it reflects the difficulty of providing aid for the sealed and bombarded territory.
More than 38,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly nine months ago, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Nine-year-old Yazan is one of those traumatized by the war, after being brought to the hospital about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Gaza without his parents and having a leg amputated because of his wounds.
Zahmi jokes with the boy, asks how his parents are doing in Gaza and assures him he will soon have a prosthetic leg fitted.
“The traditional relationship between the patient and the doctor” has dissolved, the doctor tells AFP.
“Every day we see each other, we speak comfortably, and we care about their needs, problems, and psychological pain.”
Yazan’s parents were not allowed to accompany him through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Zahmi says, without giving further details. The route was closed by Israeli forces in early May.
The boy’s condition “was initially a concern for us, as dealing with him was difficult because he was emotional and in need of his mother and father.”
“But as days passed, we began to include Yazan as one of our family... and now he has become an icon for us because of his clinging to life, his constant smile, and everyone’s love for him,” Zahmi says.
The child is undergoing psychological and social rehabilitation and communicates daily with his family, Zahmi adds.
Smiling as he sits inside one of the tents, Yazan shows the doctor a picture of him with his father before the outbreak of war last October.
After his artificial leg is fitted, Yazan says he wants to “walk and play football,” adding that his “favorite player is (Cristiano) Ronaldo.”
“I would like to return to Gaza and live with my father and mother,” he says.
Zahmi says more than 840 operations have been carried out at the hospital, which has a surgical department, an intensive care and anaesthesia unit, X-ray facilities, a pharmacy and laboratory.
Its 60 staff span specialities including orthopaedics, internal care, neurosurgery and dentistry.
The hospital also provides communal spaces and communications with relatives in Gaza or elsewhere, Zahmi says.
“We provide them with high-speed Internet, outdoor areas for playing and resting, and a place for prayer,” he says.
In the main loading area of the 200-meter ship, ambulances are preparing to transfer patients to a plane to the UAE, where they will receive further treatment.
According to Zahmi, they are among those chosen as part of a UAE initiative to receive 1,000 wounded children and 1,000 cancer-sufferers from the Gaza Strip.
Other patients discharged from the hospital are taken to housing designated for them by Egyptian authorities.
For any patients who need further treatment but who are not being flown to the UAE, the Emirates Red Crescent will cover their costs at an Egyptian hospital.
Fadia Al-Madhun, 44, is on the floating hospital with her husband, who was injured in a bombing that targeted their Gaza home.
“We left the house. It was bombed. We did not take clothes or anything else,” says Madhun, wearing a floral hijab.
“They gave us everything (including) psychological support for our children,” she adds.
Zahmi says the hospital staff have seen “many families who lost their children and people who lost their fathers and mothers, and therefore we understand the tragedies.”
“We listen a lot and try to accept, but in the end, no matter how much we console them, the wound runs deep and remains in the memory,” he adds.
Two killed in Ukrainian strike on Donetsk region, Russian-backed official says
- An additional fifteen people were wounded
- US-supplied HIMARS rockets and drones had been used in the attack
MOSCOW: Two people were killed by Ukrainian army shelling of the Russian-controlled town of Volnovakha in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed regional head, said on Friday.
An additional fifteen people, including a teenage girl and two employees of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, were wounded, Pushilin said.
He said US-supplied HIMARS rockets and drones had been used in the attack, which damaged seven residential buildings in multiple settlements.
Video and pictures published by Russian army news outlet Zvezda showed a woman covered in blood lying on the ground next to a car, as well as a bus and several buildings with their windows shattered.
Reuters could not independently verify that had happened and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Turkiye’s Demiral banned for two games, England’s Bellingham fined
- UEFA said Demiral was being punished “for failing to comply with the general principles of conduct”
- Bellingham’s fine and suspended one-match ban were “for violating the basic rules of decent conduct,” UEFA said
The ban rules Demiral out of Turkiye’s quarterfinal against the Netherlands on Saturday, and the semifinal, should Turkiye progress.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to attend Saturday’s game. He scrapped plans to attend a meeting in Azerbaijan and decided to attend the match instead to support the team.
UEFA said it banned Demiral “for failing to comply with the general principles of conduct, for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sports events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing the sport of football into disrepute.”
Demiral scored both goals Tuesday in a 2-1 win over Austria to earn Turkiye’s place in the quarterfinals and celebrated with a hand sign associated with an ultra-nationalist group.
After scoring the second goal he made a sign with each hand that is used by Turkish nationalists and associated with the Turkish ultra-nationalist organization Ulku Ocaklari, which is more widely known as the Gray Wolves.
Demiral defended the gesture afterward, saying it was an innocent expression of national pride and that he was hoping he’d have “more opportunities to do the same gesture again.”
It was condemned by German interior minister Nancy Faeser and other German politicians, leading to a harsh rebuke from Turkish authorities and the summoning of the German ambassador.
Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry slammed UEFA’s investigation as a politically motivated reaction “to the use of a historical and cultural symbol” and said German authorities’ statements about Demiral’s gesture “themselves contain xenophobia.”
UEFA launched its investigation into Demiral’s gesture on Wednesday. The Turkish camp had until Friday to state its case. There was no immediate reaction from the Turkish soccer association to the ban.
Demiral was previously one of 16 Turkiye players reprimanded in 2019 for making military-style salutes at games at a time when the country was conducting a military offensive in Syria.
The Gray Wolves group was founded as the youth wing of Turkiye’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, which is currently in an alliance with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, the Justice and Development Party.
In the decades following its founding in the 1960s, the group was accused of involvement in politically motivated violence, mostly against leftist groups.
Pope to preside over interfaith meeting in Indonesian mosque during longest, most challenging trip
- The Vatican released the itinerary for Francis’ Sept. 2-13 trip to Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore
ROME: Pope Francis will preside over an interfaith meeting in a mosque in the world’s largest predominantly Muslim country during a four-nation Asian visit in September that will be the longest and most complicated foreign trip of his pontificate.
The Vatican on Friday released the itinerary for Francis’ Sept. 2-13 trip to Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The packed schedule makes clear that the 87-year-old pontiff, who has battled health problems and is increasingly reliant on a wheelchair, has no plans to slow down.
After a day of rest upon arrival in Jakarta on Sept. 3, Francis launches into a typically rigorous round of protocol visits to the four countries’ heads of state and government, speeches to diplomats and meetings with clergy and public Masses in each location. In Jakarta, he’ll preside over an interfaith meeting at the capital’s Istiqlal Mosque.
Sprinkled in the mix are encounters with young people, poor and disabled people, elderly people and Francis’ regular meetings with his Jesuit confreres.
The trip was originally planned for 2020 but was called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At 11 full days, it’s the longest of Francis’ 11-year papacy, outpacing by a few days some of his long trips to the Americas and recalling some of the strenuous, globe-hopping trips of St. John Paul II.
It will bring the Argentine Jesuit to the world’s most populous predominantly Muslim nation, Indonesia, as well as the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence.
In East Timor, however, Francis may also have to reckon with the legacy of independence hero Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2020 for having sexually abused young Timorese boys and is currently believed to be living in Portugal.
Francis had to cancel his last planned foreign visit -– a quick trip to Dubai last year to participate in the UN climate conference -– because of a recurring case of bronchitis. He has seemed in relatively good form in recent months, including during day trips to Italian cities and visits to Roman parishes.
But in recent years, as his mobility has been limited by bad knee ligaments, he has generally stuck closer to home and kept his trips relatively short.
After he returns to Rome in mid-September, he has a four-day visit to Belgium before the end of the month, the only other foreign trip that has been confirmed for the year.
Hungary’s Orban meets Putin in Moscow, drawing EU rebukes
- EU leaders warn Hungary against ‘appeasing’ Russia on Ukraine
- EU says Orban does not speak for EU in meeting Putin
- Orban: Ukraine peace can’t be brokered from ‘armchair in Brussels’
BUDAPEST/MOSCOW: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss peace in Ukraine, drawing warnings from fellow European Union leaders against appeasement and an insistence that he did not speak for the EU.
Hungary assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the bloc on Monday. Five days in and Orban has visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and formed the “Patriots for Europe” alliance with other right-wing nationalists.
Now, he has chosen to go to Moscow on a “peace mission,” days before a NATO summit that will address further military aid for Ukraine against what the Western defense alliance has called Russia’s “unprovoked war of aggression.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that only unity and determination within the 27-nation EU would pave the way to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
“Appeasement will not stop Putin,” she said on X.
Hungarian @PM_ViktorOrban is visiting Moscow:
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 5, 2024
Appeasement will not stop Putin.
Only unity and determination will pave the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
Putin, who received Orban in the Kremlin, told him that he was ready to discuss the “nuances” of peace proposals to end the two-and-a-half-year-old war.
Putin said last month that Russia would end the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation, only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow — demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.
’Sceptism’ of Hungary’s motivations
An EU diplomat said that, in Orban’s decision to meet Putin in Moscow, Hungary’s presidency of the EU — which will run until Dec. 31 — had effectively ended before it had really begun.
“The skepticism of EU member states was unfortunately justified – it’s all about promoting Budapest’s interests,” the diplomat said, asking for anonymity due to political sensitivities.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda accused Orban of undermining the EU presidency. “If you truly seek peace, you don’t shake hands with a bloody dictator, you put all your efforts to support Ukraine,” he wrote on X.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Orban in Moscow was “not representing the EU in any form” and Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the visit undermined EU interests.
Pavel Havlicek, research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Orban’s visit was an abuse of a power vacuum in Brussels and a dangerous undermining of the common European position.
Orban, a critic of Western military aid to Ukraine who has the warmest relations of any EU leader with Putin, said he recognized he had no EU mandate for the trip, but that peace could not be made “from a comfortable armchair in Brussels.”
“We cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end,” he wrote on X.
The EU presidency’s role is to chair meetings of member states, seek consensus and broker agreements on legislation with the European Parliament.
At a time of transition, with a new European Commission only set to take office in November, analysts said Budapest’s actions at the forefront of EU policy-making were
likely to be restricted.
Ministers said Hungary wanted to make an impact with its presidency, which it launched with a striking call to “Make Europe Great Again,” echoing former US president Donald Trump, an Orban ally.
“We intend to leave a mark,” Orban’s spokesman Zoltán Kovacs said on Thursday, before reports of the Moscow trip emerged. “The prime minister is going to use the presidency in a political way.”
