IRBIL, Iraq: Election results from the vote for the regional parliament in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region show the two dominant Kurdish parties have maintained their hold while an opposition party has made inroads, officials said Wednesday.
According to the Independent High Electoral Commission, the Kurdistan Democratic Party — with its base of support in the regional capital, Irbil, and the city of in Dohuk — made the strongest showing, securing 39 seats.
The rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan won 23 seats, continuing its influence over the city of Sulaymaniyah. In the 2018 elections, the two parties won 45 and 21 seats, respectively.
A relatively new opposition party, New Generation, won 15 seats, a significant increase from the eight seats it got in 2018, when the party was first established.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union, which came in fourth with seven seats, announced it will join the New Generation in opposition in the regional, 100-seat parliament. Other minor parties took a smattering of seats.
Despite some technical issues at the polls, voters turned out in large numbers, with 72 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.
The surge in support for the New Generation appeared to stem from growing disillusionment among younger voters, who are increasingly frustrated with the region’s ongoing economic challenges, including delays in salary payments, high unemployment, and perceived corruption within the traditional political leadership.
Economic concerns remain at the forefront — widespread dissatisfaction over delayed payments to civil servants, fluctuating oil prices, and ongoing budget disputes with the central government in Baghdad have fueled calls for reform.
Three Assyrian Christian candidates and two Turkmen candidates secured the five remaining quota seats for minorities, despite the Iraqi federal court’s controversial elimination of the reserved seats for ethnic and religious minorities earlier this year.
These seats are usually filled by candidates backed by the major political parties, leading some to say that they do not offer a genuine minority representation.
“We no longer have true representation in the parliament or the government; our voices are being silenced,” said Toma Khoshaba, an Assyrian ethnic activist.
Khoshaba argued that that these “so-called independent Assyrian representatives occupying the quota seats are largely supported by the Kurdistan Democratic Party” or by Shiite factions.
“Their loyalty lies with these dominant political groups, not with our communities,” he said.
The election outcome will also play a pivotal role in determining how Kurdish leaders handle ongoing disputes with Baghdad, particularly over oil revenue sharing and budget allocations, as well as the region’s broader economic challenges.
Dominant Kurdish parties maintain their sway in the election for the parliament in the Iraqi region
https://arab.news/cwjdp
Dominant Kurdish parties maintain their sway in the election for the parliament in the Iraqi region
- The election outcome will also play a pivotal role in determining how Kurdish leaders handle ongoing disputes with Baghdad
Migrants’ dreams buried under rubble after deadly strike on Yemen center
- In a nearby hospital in Saada, emaciated African men were recovering from their wounds after surviving the attack that tore their friends to pieces
- The tragedy brought back memories of a March 2021 blaze at a Sanaa migrant center that killed 45 people
SAADA: Africans in search of a better future became the latest casualties of Yemen’s decade-long conflict after a deadly strike blamed on the United States hit a migrant detention center, killing dozens of people.
The pre-dawn attack on Monday killed more than 60 people in their sleep, the country’s Houthi militants said, attributing the raid to the US military.
Rubble, blood and body parts dotted the grounds of the compound in Houthi-held Saada, with several buildings left in ruins, twisted metal glittering in the sun.
In a nearby hospital, emaciated African men were recovering from their wounds after surviving the attack that tore their friends to pieces.
Dead bodies ripped apart, I can’t describe what I saw... A hand here, a leg there. I don’t want to remember
Abed Ibrahim Saleh, 34, from Ethiopia
“The planes struck close by twice. The third time they hit us,” said Abed Ibrahim Saleh, 34, a soft-spoken Ethiopian whose head and leg were wrapped in white gauze.
“Dead bodies ripped apart, I can’t describe what I saw... A hand here, a leg there. I don’t want to remember,” he said with a blank stare.
Since mid-March, Washington has conducted near-daily air strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in a bid to stop their campaign of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, launched in solidarity with Palestinians after the outbreak of the Gaza war.
US strikes on the militants began under former president Joe Biden, but have resumed and intensified under his successor Donald Trump.
Fleeing conflict
Footage broadcast by the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV at the time of the attack showed bodies lying under the rubble as rescue teams searched for survivors.
The tragedy brought back memories of a March 2021 blaze at a Sanaa migrant center that killed 45 people and was sparked by teargas canisters fired by Houthi forces responding to a protest.
Each year, tens of thousands of migrants cross the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa, fleeing conflict, natural disasters and poor economic prospects.
This brutal aggression that killed the sons of Palestine and the Yemeni people is now targeting poor migrants
Ibrahim Al-Moallem from Yemen’s Somali community
Many hope for employment as laborers or domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf countries, though they first face a perilous journey through war-torn Yemen.
Inspecting the wreckage, Ibrahim Abdul Qadir Mohammed Al-Moallem, a member of Yemen’s Somali community, denounced the “heinous crime” against innocent people.
“This brutal aggression that killed the sons of Palestine and the Yemeni people is now targeting poor migrants,” he said, blaming the United States for the attack.
The Houthis, who have also repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel, paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire in Gaza, but had threatened to resume them after Israel cut off aid to the territory over an impasse in negotiations.
Before they could, however, the intensified US campaign resumed, hitting more than 1,000 targets in insurgent-held Yemen since March 15. The Houthi’s attacks since then have only targeted US warships.
“There is no justification for this,” Moallem said, calling on African leaders to take a stance and urging the international community to “break your silence.”
'Conducting assessment'
Asked about the strike, a US defense official told AFP the army was aware of reports of civilian casualties “and we take those claims very seriously.”
“We are currently conducting our battle-damage assessment and inquiry into those claims,” they said on condition of anonymity.
The United Nations expressed deep concern at Monday’s strike, while Niku Jafarnia of Human Rights Watch said US attacks “are appearing to kill and injure civilians in Yemen at an alarming rate over the past month.”
“Failing to take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law,” HRW said.
Qatar supplies Syria’s White Helmets with vehicles, logistical equipment
- Consignment of fire engines, mobile water tanks will be used in search and rescue operations
- White Helmets’ director praises Qatari support
LONDON: Qatar has provided a consignment of vehicles, water pumps and other logistical equipment to the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, to support its humanitarian and rescue efforts.
Since the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime late last year, the White Helmets have been at the forefront of rescue and first aid operations in Syria, providing essential relief services and contributing to rebuilding efforts.
The consignment was received at the Internal Security Force headquarters in Al-Duhail on Wednesday in the presence of Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed Al Saleh and Qatari Brig. Gen. Nawaf Majed Al-Ali, assistant commander for security operations at the internal force.
The equipment included fire engines, mobile water tanks, high-altitude rescue vehicles, water pumps and personnel transport vehicles that will be used in search and rescue operations and emergency response, the Qatar News Agency reported.
Mounir Moustafa, director of the White Helmets, praised Qatar’s support and said the equipment and training programs would significantly enhance their daily operations.
Sudan’s army leader Burhan appoints an acting prime minister, statement says
- Dafallah Al-Hajj Ali appointed on Wednesday as acting prime minister
Sudan’s army leader Abdel Fattah Burhan appointed diplomat Dafallah Al-Hajj Ali as acting prime minister on Wednesday, weeks after the army’s recapture of Khartoum.
Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s transitional sovereign council, also approved the appointment of Omar Seddik, a current ambassador, as foreign minister, a council statement said.
In March, the Sudanese army drove Rapid Support Forces militia from most of Khartoum after two years of devastating conflict that split the country into rival zones of control. The RSF is still deeply embedded in western Sudan.
The war erupted in April 2023 over disputes about the integration of the two forces after they worked together to oust civilians with whom they had shared power after the uprising that toppled autocrat Omar Al-Bashir.
In February, Burhan said there would be changes to the country’s interim constitution, which military sources said would remove all references to partnership with civilians or the RSF, placing authority solely with the army which would appoint a technocratic prime minister who would then appoint a cabinet.
Moroccan-based cardinal says Church does not need Francis ‘impersonator’
- “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Francis mark II, a Francis impersonator,” said Lopez
- Born in Spain, Lopez has been the archbishop of the Moroccan capital Rabat since 2017
ROME: Cardinal Cristobal Lopez Romero, the Spanish-born archbishop of Rabat, admits he is a little anxious ahead of his first conclave, although also curious.
The 72-year-old is among 133 cardinals from around the world who will vote for a successor to Pope Francis starting May 7.
“I haven’t decided anything,” he told AFP when asked whom he would vote for as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
“We believe in the Holy Spirit and we will see what it shows us and where we have to go.”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Francis mark II, a Francis impersonator,” said Lopez, who the Argentine pontiff appointed as a cardinal in 2019.
“I am happy for him to be a good impersonator of Christ, that he is a good Christian, a good person and pays attention to what happens in the world.”
Born in Spain, Lopez has been the archbishop of the Moroccan capital Rabat since 2017.
There, he claims to have experienced a “conversion” — not to Islam, the overwhelming majority religion in the North African country, but in his approach to his work.
“I hear confession barely once every six months,” Lopez said. Christians make up less than one percent of Morocco’s population of 38 million people.
“That helped me to realize that I wasn’t there to serve the Church but rather, as the Church, to serve the world — in this case the Muslim world.”
Lopez has been taking part in the daily cardinal meetings, known as “general congregations,” in which those present discuss the priorities for the new pope and future direction of the 2,000-year-old Church.
“We are listening to people who we have never listened to before... and that guides you,” said Lopez, who is a Paraguayan citizen, having lived there for almost two decades.
The cardinals taking part in the conclave — those aged under 80 and able to attend — are staying in the relatively modest Casa Santa Marta on the Vatican’s grounds where Francis lived during his papacy.
They are, however, sworn to lifelong secrecy about what happens inside the Sistine Chapel during the conclave.
Smartphones are banned, the room will be swept for listening devices and cardinals are barred from reading newspapers, listening to the radio or watching television.
“I’m not worried, but I am curious,” said Lopez. “A little apprehensive because I know the responsibility that this entails, but calm because I believe in the Holy Spirit.”
In fact, Lopez even feels “a certain happiness” about the whole process — but hopes it will not last more than “two or three days.”
There are up to four votes a day until at least two-thirds of the cardinals agree on a single candidate.
Two days were needed to elect Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI, but the longest ever conclave lasted three years.
“It’s already many days that I have been out of Morocco and I’m eager and need” to return, said Lopez.
Like Francis, Lopez wants a missionary Church pushing out especially into areas where Catholicism has few adherents, such as Morocco.
“Thanks to Pope Francis this has become much clearer, that the Church is universal, Catholic, that there are no geographic borders that limit us,” he said.
And Lopez has not ruled out the next pope hailing from outside the traditional Catholic heartlands.
“After 50 years of a Polish pope, a German pope and an Argentine pope, why not think about a pope from Myanmar, East Timor or Australia, or North America, or Africa. It’s all open,” he said.
However, he is ruling himself out of the running.
“It’s as if I said (Lionel) Messi is going to retire and I’m going to replace” the Argentine football legend, he joked.
Algeria drafts wartime mobilization bill amid regional tensions
- The text was approved by government ministers earlier this month
- The draft law is raising concerns among ordinary Algerians
ALGIERS: Algeria’s government proposed a law to streamline military mobilization amid tensions with neighboring countries Morocco and Mali, as well as former colonial ruler France.
The text, set to be unveiled on Wednesday by the North African country’s minister of justice, was approved by government ministers earlier this month.
Relations between France and Algeria sharply deteriorated last summer when France shifted its position to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
The debate on the general mobilization law comes as Algeria’s strongman leader, army chief of staff Said Changriha, makes a series of trips to military regions in the border areas to oversee military manouvers.
It also comes after Algeria, which has one of Africa’s largest militaries, said earlier this month it had shot down a military drone near the country’s border with Mali.
The text of the draft law, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, aims “to define the provisions for organizing, preparing and carrying out the general mobilization provided for in Article 99 of the Constitution,” which authorizes the mobilization of all the nation’s forces in the event of a major crisis.
The draft law is raising concerns among ordinary Algerians.
“I did not understand what’s behind this project,’ Aziza Sahoui, a retired teacher, said on social media. “I’m really worried, especially as it comes after the incursion of a Malian drone into our territory.”
