Scorching summer traps people of Sudan between conflict and deadly heat

Sudanese refugees and ethnic South Sudanese families who have fled from the war in Sudan gather after crossing the border while waiting to be registered by the authorities at the Joda Border Crossing Point, near Renk. (AFP)
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Updated 26 June 2024
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Scorching summer traps people of Sudan between conflict and deadly heat

  • Dozens attempting to illegally cross the border into Egypt have died amid a severe summer heatwave
  • Worsening climatic conditions may be placing millions at risk of food insecurity and, consequently, malnutrition

LONDON: Desperate to escape the violence raging across Sudan, thousands of people are setting off on the perilous journey to neighboring states. On the way, however, many are confronted by another hazard — deadly heat.

Dozens of people attempting to illegally cross the border into Egypt have died as the region reels from a severe summer heatwave. Earlier this month, temperatures in Egypt’s southern governorate of Aswan rose to a record 49.6 degrees Celsius in the shade.

The Refugee Platform, an independent Egyptian rights organization, said on June 17 that Aswan locals had found vehicles on remote desert roads filled with the bodies of migrants who had perished.




About 500,000 people from Sudan have fled to Egypt alone since the beginning of the conflict. (AFP)

It reported that 51 people died, presumably on their way to Egypt, as a result of dehydration, heat stroke or road accidents, compounded by lack of medical care. Survivors hospitalized in Aswan informed the Refugee Platform that the number of missing migrants exceeds those who have been found.

Many families have reported their loved ones missing. “My aunt lost contact with her 34-year-old son for two weeks earlier this month, only to later hear from a friend who had reached Egypt that he died of heat stroke before they crossed the border,” said Manal, a UK-based Sudanese nurse, whose name has been changed to protect her anonymity.

She told Arab News that her cousin, who was uprooted from his home in the capital Khartoum, had previously sent his mother, wife and their five-year-old son to Egypt when Sudanese women and minors were exempt from visa requirements.

The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which erupted on April 15 last year, has displaced 9.1 million people, with 2.1 million having fled abroad, according to UN figures.

According to the International Organization for Migration, about 500,000 people from Sudan have fled to Egypt alone since the beginning of the conflict.

This year's Global Peace Index, produced by the Sydney-headquartered Institute for Economics and Peace, classified Sudan as the second least peaceful country in the world, preceded only by Yemen.

Before its descent into horror, Sudan was Africa’s second-largest refugee host, accommodating over 1 million refugees from Syria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Eritrea, the Central African Republic, Chad and Yemen.

Today, Sudanese refugees form the largest exile community in Egypt, with more than 300,000 registered with the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, in the neighboring country.




Many families have reported their loved ones missing. (AFP)

Nairobi-based World Food Program communications officer Alessandro Abbonizio described Sudan’s refugee crisis as “the world’s largest displacement crisis,” with hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people also fleeing to other neighboring countries, including Chad and South Sudan.

He said that while the WFP “has mobilized massive responses” in neighboring countries to support families fleeing Sudan, many of these nations already grapple with “high levels of food insecurity.”

“The arrival of Sudanese refugees in those countries is stretching WFP’s already underfunded refugee and humanitarian operations across the region,” he told Arab News. “In South Sudan, WFP has already had to reduce humanitarian assistance, and vulnerable families are only receiving half rations.”

An estimated 7.1 million people in South Sudan already face acute or worse food insecurity, as per UN figures, with the number of those facing starvation and death projected to almost double between April and July 2024, compared with the same period last year.

Abbonizio pointed out that thousands of people from Sudan continue to cross the border into South Sudan every week, adding that “families are arriving with stories of long journeys with little food or water and citing violence and lack of food as the main reasons that they left Sudan.”

South Sudan too has been experiencing extreme heat since March when authorities ordered schools to shut across the country. The country, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, is highly exposed to climatic events such as droughts, floods and rising temperatures, which have led to further displacement, food insecurity and religious and ethnic unrest.

In Chad, “piecemeal funding has forced WFP to operate month-by-month, falling short of meeting the needs of refugees (including those from Sudan) and crisis-affected host communities,” Abbonizio said.

In the absence of preventive measures, worsening climatic conditions spell doom for the region, placing millions at greater risk of food insecurity and, consequently, malnutrition.




Long waiting times and lack of basic amenities at the Sudan-Egypt border are pushing increasing numbers of people in Sudan to take illegal routes into Egypt. (AFP)

A UN Food and Agriculture Organization report cautioned that extreme climatic events “could have major implications for several hotspots, including risk of floods in parts of South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Chad, Mali and Nigeria, as well as Sudan.”

The Hunger Hotspots report, published on June 5, highlighted that “Mali, Palestine, South Sudan and Sudan remain at the highest alert level and require the most urgent attention.”

WFP’s Abbonizio warned that as the rainy season arrives in the coming weeks, access to parts of Eastern Chad will be cut off, potentially worsening the food insecurity crisis in the region.

Noting that 3.4 million people in Chad are projected to face acute food insecurity during the current lean season from June to August, he said: “This year is becoming a race against time as the rainy season is expected to begin in the coming weeks and could cut off access to parts of Eastern Chad.”

INNUMBERS

• 700,000+ Refugees and returnees who have fled from Sudan into South Sudan since April 2023.

• 900,000+ People projected to flee from Sudan into Chad by 2024 end.

• 300,000+ Sudanese refugees registered with UNHCR in Egypt.

Abbonizio called for urgent funding “to preposition food supplies for its refugee response ahead of the start of the rains,” adding that “WFP is also supporting hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt with food, cash, and nutrition assistance.”

Meanwhile, long waiting times and lack of basic amenities at the Sudan-Egypt border are pushing increasing numbers of people in Sudan to take illegal routes into Egypt in hopes of finding sanctuary.




The conflict has displaced 9.1 million people, with 2.1 million having fled abroad. (AFP)

“Some of the bodies arrived with their skin peeled off and suffering from dehydration,” a medical source at a hospital in Aswan told the Mada Masr news outlet.

Survivors of the ordeal said that “dozens in the desert have no water,” and “entire families died because of the high temperatures and were left there.”

The precise number of people who have died in the process is difficult to ascertain. The Refugee Platform said that, between June 7 and June 9, 40 people, including children, women and entire families, lost their lives. The number is expected to rise as more bodies are uncovered.

In June last year, Cairo announced that all Sudanese people must hold valid visas prior to entering Egypt, scrapping a law that only required Sudanese men aged 16 to 50 to have a visa.

As Egypt has further tightened entry and residency requirements, at least 120,000 people, lacking travel documents, remain in limbo on the Sudan side of the border, according to an AFP news agency report.

Since September, Egyptian authorities have also carried out arrests of Sudanese refugees “based on their migration status.” The decision was made after authorities detected “unlawful activities,” including visa forgery, an Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson told the Reuters news agency.




Cairo announced that all Sudanese people must hold valid visas prior to entering Egypt. (AFP)

In March, the Sudanese Dabanga Radio cited a thriving trade in forged Egyptian visas at the Argeen border crossing between the two countries.

In a condolence message to the families of those who have died trying to reach Egypt, Abdelgadir Abdallah, Sudan’s consul general in Aswan, warned of the dangers of using irregular means to enter Egypt. “Avoid using this method. Some areas in Sudan are safe; remain there,” he said.


Israeli strikes batter Lebanon, killing five medics

Updated 22 November 2024
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Israeli strikes batter Lebanon, killing five medics

  • Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy could lead to an imminent ceasefire
  • Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes battered southern Lebanon and the outskirts of the capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least five medics, as ground troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south.
Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy could lead to an imminent ceasefire.
US mediator Amos Hochstein said earlier this week in Beirut that a truce was “within our grasp.” He traveled on to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington, according to the news outlet Axios.
His trip aimed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern border, which escalated dramatically when Israel ramped up its strikes in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on Oct. 1.
Israeli troops have fought Hezbollah in a strip of towns all along the border and this week pushed deeper to the edges of Khiyam, a town some six km (four miles) from the border. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israeli troops had also advanced in a string of villages to the west as well. They said Israel was most likely trying to isolate Khiyam ahead of a major attack on the town.
Israeli strikes on two other villages in southern Lebanon killed a total of five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The more than 3,500 people killed by Israeli strikes over the last year include more than 200 medics, the health ministry said.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Israel’s north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which began firing across the border in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Israel also mounted more strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a once densely populated stronghold of Hezbollah.
It issued evacuation orders on the social media platform X for several buildings in the area on Friday. Reuters footage showed one of the strikes appearing to pierce the center of a multi-story building, sending the whole structure toppling in a massive cloud of smoke.


UN reports heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon

Updated 22 November 2024
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UN reports heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon

  • “We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said
  • Asked if the peacekeepers and staff at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes for the moment”

BEIRUT: Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters on Friday in different areas in south Lebanon, including a coastal town that is home to the headquarters of UN peacekeepers.
A spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL told The Associated Press that they are monitoring “heavy clashes” in the coastal town of Naqoura and the village of Chamaa to the northeast.
UNIFIL’s headquarters are located in Naqoura in Lebanon’s southern edge close to the border with Israel.
“We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said. Asked if the peacekeepers and staff at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes for the moment.”
Several UNIFIL posts have been hit since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, leaving a number of peacekeepers wounded.
The fighting came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and a Hamas military leader, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their 13-month war in Gaza and the October 2023 attack on Israel respectively.
The warrant marked the first time that a sitting leader of a major Western ally has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global court of justice.
Israel’s war has caused heavy destruction across Gaza, decimated parts of the territory and driven almost the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes, leaving most dependent on aid to survive.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel has also launched airstrikes against Lebanon after the Hezbollah militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’ attack last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.


Gaza ministry: hospitals to cut or stop services ‘within 48 hours’ over fuel shortages

Updated 22 November 2024
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Gaza ministry: hospitals to cut or stop services ‘within 48 hours’ over fuel shortages

  • All hospitals in Gaza would have to stop or reduce services “within 48 hours“

GAZA: The Hamas government’s health ministry warned Friday all hospitals in Gaza would have to stop or reduce services “within 48 hours” for lack of fuel, blaming Israel for blocking its entry.
“We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation’s (Israel’s) obstruction of fuel entry,” Marwan Al-Hams, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, said during a press conference.


Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

Updated 22 November 2024
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Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

  • Practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court
  • The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention

JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities will stop holding Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, or incarceration without trial, the defense ministry announced Friday.
The practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court, and is often used against Palestinians who Israel deems security threats.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was “inappropriate” for Israel to employ administrative detention against settlers who “face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions.”
But, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now, it is one of only few effective tools that Israeli authorities to prevent settler attacks against Palestinians, which have surged in the West Bank over the past year.
Katz said in a statement issued by his office that prosecution or “other preventive measures” would be used to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.
B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, said authorities use administrative detention “extensively and routinely” to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that eight settlers were held under the same practice in November.
Yonatan Mizrahi, director of settlement watch for Peace Now, said that although administrative detention was mostly used in the West Bank to detain Palestinians, it was one of the few effective tools for temporarily removing the threat of settler violence through detention.
“The cancelation of administrative detention orders for settlers alone is a cynical... move that whitewashes and normalizes escalating Jewish terrorism under the cover of war,” the group said in a statement, referring to a spike in settler attacks throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict over the past 13 months.
Western governments, including Israel’s ally and military backer the United States, have recently imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers and settler organizations over ties to violence against Palestinians.
On Monday, US authorities announced sanctions against Amana, a movement that backs settlement development, and others who have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank.”
“Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank,” the US Treasury said.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank — which Israel has occupied since 1967 — is home to three million Palestinians as well as about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.


UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

Updated 22 November 2024
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UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

  • Emily Thornberry: Britain has ‘obligation under Rome Convention’ to arrest Israeli PM if he enters country 
  • Court: ‘Reasonable grounds to believe’ Netanyahu responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity in Gaza

LONDON: The UK will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country, a senior British politician has said.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on Thursday for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, alongside his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, pertaining to the Gaza war.

Emily Thornberry — Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, and former shadow foreign secretary and shadow attorney general — told Sky News: “If Netanyahu comes to Britain, our obligation under the Rome Convention would be to arrest him under the warrant from the ICC.

“(It is) not really a question of should — we are required to, because we are members of the ICC.”

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has refused to be drawn on whether Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot on British soil, saying it “wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment.”

She told Sky: “We’ve always respected the importance of international law, but in the majority of the cases that they pursue, they don’t become part of the British legal process.

“What I can say is that obviously, the UK government’s position remains that we believe the focus should be on getting a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is the first to be issued against the premier of a major Western ally by an international court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His office denounced the warrant as “anti-Semitic,” adding that Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions.” Israel is not an ICC member and rejects the court’s jurisdiction.

US President Joe Biden called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “outrageous,” adding: “Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he plans to invite Netanyahu to visit Budapest, adding that the arrest warrant will “not be observed” by his government.

The Italian and French governments, however, have indicated that Netanyahu will be arrested if he visits either country.

The ICC said on Thursday it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

The court also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel says Al-Masri, believed to have been the mastermind behind the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, was killed in Gaza earlier this year.

The ICC said it issued the warrant for his arrest because of insufficient evidence to prove his death.