PORT SUDAN: The World Food Programme has called on the warring parties in Sudan’s conflict to grant full access to the agency as the country faces the imminent threat of famine.
Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023 between the regular armed forces led by the country’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and resulted in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes, including targeting civilians and preventing aid from reaching those in need, as well as using methods that amount to starving millions.
“We want complete and unfettered access as well as the ability to get in through as many different entry points into Sudan as possible,” WFP’s executive director Cindy McCain told AFP on Sunday.
She warned that with the whole of Sudan currently at famine alert level and famine already declared at Darfur’s Zamzam camp, “it will spread so it’s really urgent and that we can get in and we can do it at scale.”
About 11.3 million people have been uprooted by the war, among them nearly three million who have fled outside Sudan, according to the UN refugee agency.
About 26 million people face acute food insecurity, and a UN-backed assessment in August said the war had pushed the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur state into famine.
“For us it’s about getting food and trucks in there so it’s important that the gates stay open,” McCain said, adding that this included not just Sudan’s border crossing with Chad but all crossings into the country.
“We need as many of them open as possible,” she said.
On October 18, Western countries including Britain, the United States, France and Germany urged both sides in war-torn Sudan to let in “urgently required” aid to millions of people in dire need.
“The two sides’ systematic obstruction of local and international humanitarian efforts is at the root of this famine,” the European and North American nations said in a joint statement.
WFP calls for full access to Sudan amid looming famine
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WFP calls for full access to Sudan amid looming famine
- WFP warns famine already declared at Darfur’s Zamzam camp
Israeli troops arrested around 100 Hamas militants in northern Gaza hospital, military says
- Gaza health officials have denied any militant presence at the hospital
JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers arrested around 100 suspected Hamas militants during a raid in Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, the military said in a statement on Monday.
“The soldiers apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents and in the surrounding area,” the military said.
Gaza health officials have denied any militant presence at the hospital.
Kremlin says Russia is doing all it can to try to de-escalate Middle East tensions
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments when asked about the aftermath of Israeli strikes on Iran
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was doing everything it could to try to facilitate attempts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East by urging restraint on all sides.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments when asked about the aftermath of Israeli strikes on Iran.
“Russia is maintaining contacts with all parties to this conflict. We have contacts with Tehran, and we have contacts with the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Peskov told reporters.
“Russia is constantly doing everything possible to call on the parties to show restraint and to facilitate any attempts to de-escalate tensions..” adding “There is still an extremely tense situation in the region and, of course, it is very important now to promote restraint in this regard.”
Current climate pledges still fall way short on Paris goals, UN body says
SINGAPORE: National pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions still fall far short of what is needed to limit catastrophic global warming, the United Nations said on Monday as countries prepare for the next round of climate change negotiations in November.
The “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) already submitted by countries to the UN are enough to cut global emissions by 2.6 percent from 2019 to 2030, up from 2 percent last year, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said in its annual assessment.
But they are far from sufficient to achieve the 43 percent cut that scientists say is required to stay within reach of a Paris Agreement target to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), it warned.
As part of their Paris obligations, nations must deliver new and stronger NDCs before a deadline in February next year, and the report’s findings should mark a “turning point,” said Simon Stiell, UNFCCC secretary general.
“Current national climate plans fall miles short of what’s needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country,” he said.
“The last generation of NDCs set the signal for unstoppable change,” said Stiell. “New NDCs next year must outline a clear path to make it happen.”
Persuading nations to set and implement more ambitious pledges could depend on the success of COP29 climate talks beginning in two weeks in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Nearly 200 countries will thrash out the details of a new global emissions trading system as well as a hefty $100 billion annual financial package to help developing countries meet their climate goals.
“What we are seeing is that in some cases, (the NDC process) might be used as a negotiating mechanism — more money for more ambition,” said Pablo Vieira, global director of the NDC Partnership, a non-government group that is helping around 60 countries draw up updated pledges.
“They also want to make sure that the new NDCs are investable, that they have the necessary elements that will attract not just public finance, but also private,” he said.
ATMOSPHERIC CO2 AT NEW RECORD
In a separate report, the UN’s weather monitoring body said on Monday that greenhouse gases have been accumulating in the atmosphere “faster than any time experienced during human existence” over the last two decades.
Carbon dioxide concentrations hit a new high of 420 parts per million (ppm) last year, up 2.3 ppm from a year earlier, and they have risen by 11.4 percent in just 20 years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its annual greenhouse gas bulletin.
There are already signs that rising temperatures are driving dangerous “feedbacks” that will further increase atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, the report warned.
Last year’s increase in CO2 concentrations, the second largest annual rise of the last decade, could have been driven by a surge in forest fires, with the carbon released from Canada’s worst ever wildfire season exceeding the annual emissions of most major countries.
CO2 concentrations are now 51 percent higher than pre-industrial levels, while methane — another potent greenhouse gas — is 165 percent higher than in 1750, WMO said.
“This should set alarm bells ringing among decision makers,” said WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo.
“These are more than just statistics. Every part per million and every fraction of a degree temperature increase has a real impact on our lives and our planet.”
Tunisia coastguard recovers bodies of 16 migrants
- Bodies were found on Saturday and Sunday
TUNIS: Tunisia’s coast guard has recovered the bodies of 16 migrants off the coast of the towns of Maloulech, Salakta and Chebba, the national guard said on Monday, the latest migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean.
“The bodies were found at the weekend and on Monday... The victims have not been identified because the bodies had decomposed,” a senior official in the national guard, Houssem Eddine Jebabli, told Reuters.
Last month at least 15 Tunisian people died, including three infants, and 10 others were missing after their boat sank off the Tunisian coast at Djerba as they sought to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The bodies of 13 sub-Saharan African migrants were also recovered in the same area last month.
Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as the major departure point for both Tunisians and people from elsewhere in Africa seeking a better life in Europe.
Iraq lodges UN complaint over Israel using its airspace to attack Iran
- Iraqi foreign ministry would also bring up “this violation” in talks with the United States
BAGHDAD: Iraq has condemned Israel’s use of its airspace to attack neighboring Iran in a protest letter sent to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Baghdad said Monday.
A statement from government spokesman Bassim Alawadi said the letter condemns “the Zionist entity’s blatant violation of Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to carry out an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 26.”
Alawadi said the Iraqi foreign ministry would also bring up “this violation” in talks with the United States, Israel’s close ally and top arms provider.
Israel on Saturday launched air strikes on military sites in Iran, risking further regional escalation more than a year into the Gaza war and a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.
The Israeli raid was in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on October 1, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
The Iranian military said that some Israeli aircraft had fired a “small number of long-range missiles... from a distance,” inside the US-patrolled airspace of Iraq.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran was “sure that no neighboring country has given this permission to the Zionist regime” to use its airspace.
“We certainly hope that our friends in Iraq will announce the necessary reactions, including by registering their protest with the United Nations, and will not allow such incidents to happen again,” Baghaei added.
Baghdad has close ties with Tehran but also a strategic partnership with Washington, which has troops in Iraq as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.
While the Iraqi government has sought to avoid being dragged into the escalating regional conflict, some pro-Iran factions have launched attacks on US forces in the region and claimed responsibility for drones sent to Israel.
One Tehran-aligned group, the influential Kataeb Hezbollah, condemned on Sunday the Israeli use of Iraqi airspace to attack Iran as a “dangerous precedent.”
It accused the United States of being complicit in the Israeli attack, warning both of a response to this “aggression.”
