CAIRO: Hundreds of people fleeing war-torn Sudan arrive in neighboring Egypt every day, a UN official said Sunday, adding to more than 1.2 million who have found refuge there, according to official figures.
The war between rival Sudanese generals since April 2023 has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, with 3.1 million of them seeking shelter beyond the country’s borders, according to the UN.
Egypt currently hosts 546,746 Sudanese refugees who are officially registered with the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR, as well as others who are awaiting registration, said Christine Bishay, associate external relations officer at UNHCR Egypt.
A UNHCR report issued on Friday said that “recent data from the government of Egypt indicates that more than 1.2 million Sudanese have sought international protection in Egypt.”
This has made the North African country the largest host of Sudanese refugees despite imposing stricter entry requirements during the war in Sudan, which shares a long border with Egypt.
Sudanese nationals “now make up two-thirds of the country’s total registered refugee population” of 827,644 people representing 95 nationalities, including Syria, South Sudan and Eritrea, she said.
“Initially, at the very beginning of the conflict, thousands of Sudanese arrived in Egypt on a daily basis, before stabilising to a few hundreds per day,” Bishay added.
Cairo had initially waived visa requirements for Sudanese women, children and men over 50 at the start of the war.
But a month after the conflict erupted, the Egyptian government introduced visa entry requirements for all Sudanese, leaving many to resort to irregular crossings.
In September this year, Egypt further tightened entry requirements, obliging people entering from Sudan to obtain “prior security clearance” alongside a consular visa, according to Egypt’s interior ministry.
Raga Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a 27-year-old Sudanese woman who crossed into Egypt illegally in August, told AFP she had paid about 500,000 Sudanese pounds ($830) to travel in a pick-up truck with 16 others.
The desert journey, which took a gruelling day and a half, was “exhausting and terrifying,” Abdel Rahman said.
“We were constantly afraid of being stopped by RSF forces,” she added, referring to the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces who have been battling the regular army.
Hundreds of thousands of others who fled Sudan have sought refuge primarily in neighboring countries, including Chad, South Sudan and Libya.
In the report published on Friday, UNHCR Egypt warned that the humanitarian crisis caused by Sudan’s war has placed “immense pressure on Egypt’s resources and infrastructure.”
Hanan Hamdan, UNHCR representative to Egypt’s government and the Arab League, said that “the burden on Egypt is unsustainable and requires immediate and substantial international assistance to ensure the protection and well-being of those affected by the conflict.”
UNHCR also noted that so far, just over half of the funding needed for an aid scheme for Sudanese refugees has been secured.
The Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan 2024 “has received $1.52 billion in funding, which is 56.3 percent of the required $2.7 billion,” the UN agency said.
“Despite this significant contribution, the funding gap remains substantial.”
Egypt hosts 1.2 million Sudanese, with ‘hundreds’ arriving daily: UN
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Egypt hosts 1.2 million Sudanese, with ‘hundreds’ arriving daily: UN
- Egypt currently hosts 546,746 Sudanese refugees who are officially registered with the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR
Turkish court jails protesters over Erdogan speech disruption
- The protesters said the government was failing to uphold its pro-Palestinian rhetoric
- The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the group had coordinated their actions inside and outside the venue and sought their detention pending trial
ANKARA: A Turkish court has jailed pending trial nine protesters who disrupted President Tayyip Erdogan’s speech in Istanbul last week, accusing his government of continuing oil exports to Israel despite a publicized embargo.
The incident occurred during Erdogan’s televised address at a forum on Friday, where the protesters said the government was failing to uphold its pro-Palestinian rhetoric.
They chanted slogans such as “Ships are carrying bombs to Gaza” and “Stop fueling genocide.”
Erdogan responded sharply.
“My child, don’t become the mouthpiece of Zionists here. No matter how much you try to provoke by acting as their voice, mouth, and eyes, you will not succeed,” he said.
“Zionists around the world know very well where Tayyip Erdogan stands. But it seems you still haven’t understood.”
Police removed the demonstrators from the event, and prosecutors charged them with insulting the president and participating in an illegal demonstration.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the group had coordinated their actions inside and outside the venue and sought their detention pending trial.
The arrests have drawn strong criticism from opposition politicians and rights advocates. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel denounced the detentions as a blow to democracy.
“The decision to arrest nine young people who protested Tayyip Erdogan proves the grave situation our country’s democracy has fallen into,” Ozel said.
“These young people were exercising their right to free expression and should be released immediately.”
Israeli leaders applaud Trump pledge on hostages, Gazans fear the worse
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters“
- Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said simply on X: “Thank you President Trump“
JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israeli leaders hailed on Tuesday a pledge by US President-elect Donald Trump that there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East unless hostages held in the Gaza Strip were released ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The reaction in Gaza was less enthusiastic.
Writing on Truth Social, and without naming any group, Trump said the hostages had to be freed by the time he was sworn in.
If his demand was not met, he said: “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”
During their deadly 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas-led militants captured more than 250 people. Some have been released or freed but around half of them are still in Gaza, although at least a third of these are believed to be dead.
Israeli ministers lined up to thank Trump for his hard-hitting words.
“How refreshing it is to hear clear and morally sound statements that do not create a false equivalence or call for addressing ‘both sides’, but rather clarify who are the good and who are the bad,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters, and defeating them, rather than giving in to their absurd demands.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said simply on X: “Thank you President Trump.”
Likewise the families of the missing hostages expressed their gratitude. “It is now evident to all: the time has come. We must bring them home NOW,” the families forum said.
NEGOTIATIONS STALLED
Israel and Hamas have held on-off negotiations since October 2023, but after an initial hostage release in November, little progress has been made with both sides blaming each other.
Responding to Trump’s post, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sabotaged all efforts to secure a deal that involved exchanging the hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
“Therefore, we understand (Trump’s) message is directed first at Netanyahu and his government to end this evil game,” he told Reuters.
Gaza political analyst Ramiz Moghani said Trump’s threat was directed at both Hamas and its backer Iran, and warned that it would embolden Israel to not expel Palestinians from swathes of Gaza but also annex the nearby, Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“These statements have serious implications for the Israeli war in Gaza and the West Bank,” he told Reuters.
Mohammed Dahlan, like hundreds of thousands of Gazans, has had to flee his house because of the fighting and is desperate for the war to end. But he said he was shocked by Trump.
“We were hoping that the new administration would bring with it a breakthrough .... but it seems (Trump) is in complete agreement with the Israeli administration and that there are apparently more punitive measures ahead,” he said.
Israel kills 23 people in north Gaza, orders evacuations in south
- Medics said eight people had been killed in a series of airstrikes in Beit Lahiya while four others were killed elsewhere in Gaza City
- An Israeli airstrike later killed two people and wounded others in Jabalia
CAIRO: Israeli military strikes killed at least 23 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, most of them in the town of Beit Lahiya on the northern edge, medics said, as the army issued new evacuation orders in the south of the small enclave.
Medics said eight people had been killed in a series of airstrikes in Beit Lahiya while four others were killed elsewhere in Gaza City.
An Israeli airstrike later killed two people and wounded others in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, in the coastal enclave’s north, medics said.
Another air attack, on Al-Falah School sheltering displaced families in Gaza City’s Zeitoun suburb, killed six people and wounded others, medics said, while in Rafah in the far south, three women were killed by Israeli drone fire, they added.
The Israeli army has been operating in Jabalia and also in the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun since October. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of militants in the three locations since the operation began, the army has said.
The army says it is targeting regrouping Hamas-led militants who often use civilian buildings including schools and hospitals for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminate bombardments.
Hamas and its smaller ally Islamic Jihad have said their fighters have killed several Israeli soldiers in guerrilla-style ambushes since October.
Palestinians have accused Israel’s army of trying to drive people from the northern edge of Gaza with forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The army denies this, saying it has returned there to prevent Hamas fighters from renewing operations in an area from which they had been cleared.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said its operations in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun had now been halted for nearly four weeks due to Israeli attacks on their teams as well as fuel shortages.
On Tuesday it said 13 of 27 vehicles in central and southern Gaza were also stuck for lack of fuel. It said 88 members of the Civil Emergency Service had been killed, 304 wounded and 21 detained by Israel since the
war began in October 2023.
EVACUATION ORDERS
The Israeli army issued evacuation orders on Tuesday to residents in northern districts of Khan Younis, a city in south Gaza, citing the firing of rockets by militants from those areas. The orders, the latest of many, prompted the hurried exodus of families, mostly before dawn, in a westerly direction.
“For your own safety, you must evacuate the area immediately and move to the humanitarian zone,” the army said in a statement on X.
Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been internally displaced, some as many as 10 times in all.
Israel launched its campaign in the densely populated enclave after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 44,400 Palestinians, injured many others, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble.
Retiring UN official laments lack of diplomatic focus on Palestinian state
- Tor Wennesland, special coordinator for Mideast peace process, criticizes short-term fixes
- Warns against opponents of Palestinian sovereignty setting terms of debate
LONDON: World leaders have wrongly focused on short-term fixes at the expense of pushing for a Palestinian state, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process has said.
Tor Wennesland, who is retiring after a four-year tenure, told the New York Times that the international community had focused on improving Gaza’s economy and diplomatic deals between Israel and Arab states, but that these approaches have failed to solve the central issue driving the conflict: the lack of a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Politics failed. Diplomacy failed. The international community failed. And the parties failed,” he said. “What we have seen is the failure of dealing with the real conflict, the failure of politics and diplomacy.”
Western leaders have failed to convince Israel of the need for Palestinian sovereignty, having been distracted by migration crises, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Wennesland added.
“Politics is what ends war, and diplomacy is what ends war,” he said, adding that international attention has been shifting “toward dealing with the day-to-day humanitarian situation, and with less attention on the politics.”
The perceived decline in the viability of the two-state solution among Western officials risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy as it allows opponents of Palestinian statehood to set the terms of debate, Wennesland said.
“The spoilers have been more effective, determined and fast moving than diplomats and politicians,” he added.
UN chief slams ‘systematic’ looting of Gaza humanitarian aid
- Aid distribution in Gaza is complicated by shortages of fuel, war-damaged roads and looting
- On Monday, Gaza’s interior ministry said it had carried out a major operation targeting looters
“Armed looting has become systematic and must end immediately. It is hindering life saving aid operations and further endangering the lives of our staff,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“However, the use of law enforcement operations must be lawful, necessary and proportionate.”
Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza in the early stages of the war last year, and the UN warned on November 9 that famine was looming in some areas due to a lack of aid.
Aid distribution in Gaza is complicated by shortages of fuel, war-damaged roads and looting, as well as fighting in densely populated areas and the repeated displacement of much of the territory’s 2.4 million people.
Several humanitarian officials have told AFP on condition of anonymity that almost half the aid that enters Gaza is looted, especially basic supplies.
On Monday, Gaza’s interior ministry said it had carried out a major operation targeting looters.
“More than 20 members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed in a security operation carried out by security forces in cooperation with tribal committees,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said the operation was “the beginning of a broad security campaign that has been long planned and will expand to include everyone involved in the theft of aid trucks.”
On Tuesday, the US-based Washington Post newspaper cited a UN memo as saying some of the gangs were receiving “passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israel Defense Forces.
Dujarric said he was unaware of the memo, but that the allegation was “fairly alarming” if true.
“The idea that the Israeli forces may be allowing looters or not doing enough to prevent it is frankly, fairly alarming, given the responsibilities of Israel as the occupying power to ensure that humanitarian aid is distributed safely,” he said.
