Sri Lanka looks to attract Saudi travelers to diversify tourist influx

Attendees listen to a presentation at a tourism roadshow hosted by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh on April 24, 2025. (Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh)
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Updated 29 April 2025
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Sri Lanka looks to attract Saudi travelers to diversify tourist influx

  • Sri Lanka held tourism roadshows in Riyadh, Dammam last week after years-long hiatus
  • Island nation has prepared special packages for Kingdom’s tourists, official tells Arab News

COLOMBO: Saudi Arabia is one of Sri Lanka’s priority markets for tourism, authorities have told Arab News, as the island nation seeks to attract more visitors from the Kingdom to diversify its tourist base.

Tourism has been on the mend in Sri Lanka as the island nation recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its worst economic crisis in decades.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

In 2024, the sector that is traditionally one of key sources of foreign reserves welcomed more than 2 million tourists and earned about $3 billion.

To further boost its hospitality sector, Sri Lankan officials are planning to lessen its reliance on conventional tourist markets and target new visitors, especially those from Saudi Arabia.

“Recognizing the immense potential of the Saudi market, Sri Lanka has positioned Saudi Arabia as a key priority in its tourism promotion efforts,” Madusha Perera, assistant director for marketing at the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, told Arab News recently.

“The country aims to tap into the growing outbound travel market in Saudi Arabia, which has shown an increasing interest in international destinations. By focusing on this market, Sri Lanka seeks to diversify its tourist base and reduce its dependency on traditional source markets.”

In October, the Sri Lankan government began issuing free tourist visas to visitors from 35 countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Last week, the SLTPB and Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh hosted a special roadshow in the Saudi capital and Dammam to showcase its tourism offerings and forge new partnerships with key players in the Kingdom’s travel industry.

To attract more Saudi tourists, Sri Lankan officials have prepared special packages that cater to the market.

“Sri Lanka offers a culturally rich experience that resonates with Saudi tourists,” Perera said. “The country is enhancing its offerings by including halal-friendly services and Arabic-language resources.

“These initiatives are designed to provide a comfortable and familiar environment for visitors from Saudi Arabia.”

These recent efforts built upon Sri Lanka’s historical ties with Saudi Arabia, which has been rooted in people-to-people relations, said Sri Lanka Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ameer Ajwad.

The roadshows last week were held after a years-long hiatus, he added.

“The events were immensely productive and helped to forge business collaborations in the tourism industry,” he told Arab News.

With its famous palm-fringed white beaches, seaside resorts offering water sports, and UNESCO cultural sites, Sri Lanka is a destination that fits well with the preferences of Saudi tourists.

“Sri Lanka offers a wide array of facilities from luxury family getaways and wellness retreats to wildlife safaris, cultural experiences, natural beauty, family-friendly activities and halal-friendly travel which are mostly preferred by Saudi tourists,” Ajwad said.

“We shall continue to organize roadshows in all major cities of Saudi Arabia to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia’s outbound travel partners and other tourism promotional activities,” said Ajwad.

The aim is to position the island nation as a “premier, year-round destination for (the) Saudi family, luxury, and experiential tourism.”


Trump banned citizens of 12 countries from entering the US. Here’s what to know

Updated 59 min 25 sec ago
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Trump banned citizens of 12 countries from entering the US. Here’s what to know

  • The aim is to “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology

DAKAR, Senegal: President Donald Trump has banned citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States and restricted access for those from seven others, citing national security concerns in resurrecting and expanding a hallmark policy from his first term that will mostly affect people from Africa and the Middle East.
The ban announced Wednesday applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The heightened restrictions apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the US and don’t hold a valid visa.
The policy takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m. and does not have an end date.
Here’s what to know about the new rules:
How Trump justified the ban
Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.
The travel ban stems from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the US
The aim is to “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” the administration said.
In a video posted on social media, Trump tied the new ban to a terrorist attack Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The man charged in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list. US officials say he overstayed a tourist visa.
Who is exempt from the ban, Which countries are affected
Trump said nationals of countries included in the ban pose “terrorism-related” and “public-safety” risks, as well as risks of overstaying their visas. He also said some of these countries had “deficient” screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their citizens.
His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report about tourists, businesspeople and students who overstay US visas and arrive by air or sea, singling out countries with high percentages of nationals who remain after their visas expired.
“We don’t want them,” Trump said.
The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who have worked to resettle its people. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on special immigrant visas, who were generally the people who worked most closely with the US government during the two-decade war there.
The list can be changed, the administration said in a document, if authorities in the designated countries make “material improvements” to their own rules and procedures. New countries can be added “as threats emerge around the world.”
State Department guidance
The State Department instructed US embassies and consulates on Friday not to revoke visas previously issued to people from the 12 countries listed in the ban.
In a cable sent to all US diplomatic missions, the department said “no action should be taken for issued visas which have already left the consular section” and that “no visas issued prior to the effective date should be revoked pursuant to this proclamation.”
However, visa applicants from affected countries whose applications have been approved but have not yet received their visas will be denied, according to the cable, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
And, unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected starting on Monday.
How the ban differs from 2017’s
Early in Trump’s first term, he issued an executive order banning travel to the US by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
It was one of the most chaotic and confusing moments of his young presidency. Travelers from those nations were either barred from getting on flights to the US or detained at US airports after they landed. They included students and faculty, as well as businesspeople, tourists and people visiting friends and family.
The order, often referred to as the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban,” was retooled amid legal challenges until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
That ban affected various categories of travelers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, plus North Koreans and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.
Reactions to Trump’s order
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s government condemned the travel ban, characterizing it in a statement as a “stigmatization and criminalization campaign” against Venezuelans.
Chad President Mahamat Deby Itno said his country would suspend visas for US citizens in response to the ban.
Aid and refugee resettlement groups also denounced it.
“This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,” said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America.
But reactions to the ban ran the gamut from anger to guarded relief and support.
In Haiti, radio stations received a flurry of calls Thursday from angry listeners, including many who said they were Haitians living in the US and who accused Trump of being racist, noting that the people of many of the targeted countries are Black.
Haitian-American Elvanize Louis-Juste, who was at the airport Sunday in Newark, New Jersey, awaiting a flight to her home state of Florida, said many Haitians wanting to come to the US are simply seeking to escape violence and unrest in their country.
“I have family in Haiti, so it’s pretty upsetting to see and hear,” Louis-Juste, 23, said of the travel ban. “I don’t think it’s a good thing. I think it’s very upsetting.”
William Lopez, a 75-year-old property investor who arrived from Cuba in 1967, supports the travel ban.
“These are people that come but don’t want to work, they support the Cuban government, they support communism,” Lopez said at a restaurant near Little Havana in Miami. “What the Trump administration is doing is perfectly good.”


Who is Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay who was shot during a campaign rally in Bogota?

Updated 1 min 48 sec ago
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Who is Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay who was shot during a campaign rally in Bogota?

  • Uribe Turbay, 39, who has announced he intends to run for president next year, was in serious condition following surgery, a day after the shooting
  • He launched his presidential bid in March and has become a prominent opposition voice against the government of President Gustavo Petro

Conservative Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot and seriously injured during a campaign rally in the capital, Bogota. The brazen attack captured on video shook a nation that decades ago regularly saw kidnappings and killings of politicians and high profile people.
Uribe Turbay, 39, who has announced he intends to run for president next year, was in serious condition following surgery Sunday, a day after the shooting, and doctors said he was going through “critical hours.”
Here’s what to know about the conservative politician:
Presidential contender
A member of the right-wing Democratic Center party, Uribe Turbay has become a prominent opposition voice against the government of President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist politician to become the leader of Colombia. Petro cannot seek reelection in 2026.
Uribe Turbay, whose family had also suffered political violence, launched his presidential bid in March. In October last year, he had posted a video on social media announcing his intention to run, choosing the mountains of Copacabana in the department of Antioquia as a backdrop.
The country will hold a presidential election on May 31, 2026.
“A place with deep meaning for me,” he said in the video. “It was here that my mother was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar and was killed when I was about to turn five.”
His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was abducted by the Medellin Cartel and killed in 1991, one of Colombia’s most violent periods.
The attack on Uribe Turbay on Saturday shocked the nation and revived memories of an era when political violence affected Colombian public life.
Prominent political family
Uribe Turbay entered politics early, being elected to Bogota’s City Council at age 25 in 2012. In 2016, he was appointed the city’s secretary of government by then-Mayor Enrique Peñalosa.
In 2022, he became senator after being invited to run by former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, no relation.
Uribe Turbay was born into a prominent political family. He is the grandson of former President Julio César Turbay Ayala, who served from 1978 to 1982, and the paternal grandson of Rodrigo Uribe Echavarría, a former director of the Liberal Party.
He was not considered a front-runner in next year’s race, according to recent polls, and was still facing competition within his political coalition. In his pre-campaign messaging, Uribe Turbay focused heavily on security, seeking to inspire investments and promote economic stability.
‘Reserved prognosis’
The senator is going through what authorities have described as “critical hours” after undergoing surgery at a private clinic in Bogotá.
“He survived the procedure; these are critical moments and hours for his survival,” said Bogotá Mayor Carlos Galán early Sunday after receiving information from the medical staff at the Fundación Santa Fe clinic.
“His condition is extremely serious and the prognosis is reserved,” the clinic added hours later in a new medical report.
Police arrested a 15-year-old boy for the shooting, whom they considered the perpetrator. Authorities have not disclosed a motive.
Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office condemned the attack, saying the country “cannot allow a return to dark times when violence sought to silence ideas, candidacies or political leadership.”


How conflict, climate shocks and collapsing aid budgets are pushing millions to the brink of starvation

Updated 8 min 23 sec ago
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How conflict, climate shocks and collapsing aid budgets are pushing millions to the brink of starvation

  • Global hunger has reached an unprecedented tipping point, as rates of acute food insecurity and malnutrition rise for the sixth consecutive year
  • Nearly 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women and girls, reflecting a stark reflection of systemic gender inequality

DUBAI: There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire global population, yet 733 million people still go hungry, including 38 million children under five years of age, according to the latest aid agency data.

Global hunger has reached an unprecedented tipping point, with 343 million people across 74 countries deemed acutely food insecure, Stephen Anderson, a representative of the World Food Programme in the GCC, told Arab News.

“This figure represents a 10 percent increase from the previous year and is just shy of the record number seen during the pandemic,” he said. 

Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises

Anderson said that WFP is supporting about 123 million of the most vulnerable — but nearly half of them (58 million) are at risk of losing food assistance due to funding shortages.

The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises delivers a stark warning — that without urgent action, today’s crisis could spiral into a full-blown catastrophe across some of the world’s most fragile regions.

UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Joyce Azzam said that hunger is no longer a problem of supply — it is a matter of justice.

UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Joyce Azzam. (X: @joyceazzamoffcl)

Hunger today isn’t caused by a lack of food — it’s caused by a lack of fairness,” Azzam told Arab News. “We’re still treating it like a temporary emergency instead of the ongoing crisis that it is.”

Azzam described hunger not as a side-effect, but as a symptom of broken systems, deep inequality and prolonged neglect.

“Unless we confront those root causes — not just with aid, but with bold policy and deep empathy — this trend won’t just continue, it will accelerate.”

The GRFC report, based on consensus among partner organizations, echoed recent WFP findings, revealing that 295.3 million people across 53 countries faced acute food insecurity in 2024.

Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises

It shows an increase of 13.7 million people facing acute food security from 2023, marking the sixth consecutive year of rising hunger.

“The year 2024 marked the worst year on record since GRFC tracking began in 2016,” Anderson said.

Catastrophic hunger — known as “Phase 5,” which indicates “extreme lack of food, starvation, death, destruction and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels” under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — doubled to 1.9 million people, 95 percent of whom are in Gaza and Sudan.

Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises

Famine was officially declared in Gaza in 2024. Conditions have now worsened as a result of an 11-week aid blockade imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2.

Since then, at least 29 children and elderly people have died from starvation-related causes, according to Palestinian health authorities. Aid agencies fear the real figure could be far higher.

Azzam said that events in Gaza reflect a broader pattern in which hunger is being weaponized.

“In these regions — hunger is being used as a weapon. It’s deliberate. And it’s devastating,” she said, recalling her own life growing up amid the Lebanese civil war. “Hunger during conflict is about so much more than food. It’s about dignity being stripped away, day by day.”

A child cries as Palestinians gather to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)

As of the latest assessment in March 2024, the IPC Famine Review Committee classified the entire population of Gaza as being in IPC Phase 3 or higher, meaning everyone is in crisis, emergency, or catastrophic food insecurity.

More than 500,000 people — roughly one in every four Gazans — were assessed to be in IPC Phase 5.

Sudan faces a similarly dire scenario. Famine was officially declared in multiple regions of the country as a result of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Since the start of the war in April 2023, which has devastated infrastructure, disrupted agricultural production and severely limited humanitarian access, nearly 12 million people have been forced from their homes, leading to widespread displacement.

People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control, queue for food rations in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13, 2025. (AFP/File)

The deteriorating situation has exacerbated food insecurity, leading to famine conditions in August 2024.

In Yemen, the hunger crisis has also intensified in 2025, with the WFP warning that more than 17 million people — nearly half the population — are facing acute food insecurity. This figure is projected to rise to 19 million by the end of the year.

“Protracted wars also inflate food prices and we see this in Yemen where staple costs rose 300 percent since 2015, paralyzing markets,” Anderson said.

More than a decade of conflict has devastated the country’s economy, healthcare system and infrastructure, leaving more than half the population reliant on humanitarian aid.

Yemenis wait to collect humanitarian aid provided by a Kuwaiti charitable organization to people displaced by conflict, on March 19, 2024, on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Marib. (AFP/File)

However, soaring needs continue to outpace funding and resources.

“These funding gaps have forced WFP to cut rations for 40 percent of the people we served in 2023, as was the case in Yemen and Afghanistan,” Anderson said.

Malnutrition in Yemen is also surging, particularly among women and children.

WFP and UNICEF report that 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished — more than 537,000 of them severely so — while 1.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are also affected.

In Yemen, some 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, with more than 537,000 categorized as severe cases. (AFP/File)

In the western coastal region of Hodeidah, malnutrition rates have exceeded 33 percent, with dwindling aid and funding cuts forcing the WFP to scale back food distributions.

Children and pregnant or breastfeeding women are among the hardest hit in food-insecure regions. According to the WFP, 60 percent of the people who are experiencing chronic hunger are women and girls — a number that reflects systemic inequalities.

“When food becomes scarce, women and girls are the first to feel it — and the last to be prioritized,” Azzam said. “We cannot address hunger without addressing gender. Period.”

She added: “That’s not just a statistic — it reflects deep, structural inequality. In many households, women skip meals so their children or husbands can eat. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are especially vulnerable, and often face severe malnutrition without access to basic healthcare.”

This is echoed in the GRFC report, which found that 10.9 million pregnant or breastfeeding women across 22 countries are acutely malnourished.

Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises

Azzam also pointed out that hunger has particularly devastating effects on adolescent girls, who are often pulled out of school — not only because of poverty, but because they are expected to support their families, care for siblings, or earn an income.

In some of the most desperate situations, families may even marry off their daughters to reduce the number of mouths to feed and gain short-term financial relief.

“Hunger also increases the risk of gender-based violence,” Azzam said. “When resources are scarce and systems collapse, exploitation and abuse rise — especially for women and girls.”

Other factors driving food insecurity include climate-related disasters, such as droughts and floods intensified by the El Nino effect, a natural climate phenomenon that occurs when surface ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become unusually warm.

Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises

In 2024, this phenomenon affected 96 million people across 18 countries, more specifically in southern Africa, southern Asia and the Horn of Africa, the GRFC report found.

In the Horn of Africa, successive droughts between 2020 and 2024 — followed by severe flooding — have devastated pastoral livelihoods, Anderson said.

Somalia, for instance, saw its cereal output plummet by 50 percent in 2023. In the Sahel, erratic rainfall and advancing desertification have also taken a toll. “Niger’s millet production dropped 30 percent,” Anderson added.

These environmental shocks are now colliding with conflict. “In Mali and Burkina Faso, climate and insecurity are trapping communities in hunger cycles,” he said.

A

People wait for food distributions and health services at a camp for internally displaced persons in Baidoa, Somalia, on February 14, 2022. (AFP/File)

zzam, who holds a PhD in environmental management, warned that the world is witnessing a “dangerous unraveling” of the systems that once sustained vulnerable communities.

“When fragile communities are hit by climate shocks — floods, droughts, desertification — they don’t just lose crops. They lose soil, homes, water sources, entire ways of life,” she said.

Azzam called for urgent investment in “climate-smart, locally-led solutions,” including regenerative agriculture and sustainable water systems.

Economic shocks, including inflation and currency devaluation, have compounded the problem, pushing some 59.4 million people into hunger.

Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises

“Combined with economic instability, many are left with no choice but to migrate, abandon their land or depend entirely on aid — a cycle that leaves little room for recovery,” Azzam said.

If current trends continue, “entire regions could become uninhabitable,” leading to mass displacement, overcrowded urban centers and increased conflict over dwindling resources, she said.

“Most tragically, we’ll see children growing up malnourished, undereducated and cut off from opportunity — a lost generation shaped by crisis,” she added.

To make matters worse, significant cuts to humanitarian spending by the world’s biggest state donors have led to the suspension of nutrition services for more than 14 million children in vulnerable regions, according to the GRFC report. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.P/File)

“The Global Report on Food Crises reflects a world dangerously off course,” said Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, responding to the findings.

In light of these alarming trends, the GRFC called for a comprehensive humanitarian reset — urging ceasefires in conflict zones such as Gaza and Sudan, investment in resilient local food systems, debt relief, and scaled-up climate adaptation to protect the most vulnerable.

“Without urgent, committed action, the gap between those who need help and those who receive it will only grow,” Azzam said. “And in that gap, lives are lost — not because we couldn’t act, but because we didn’t.”
 

 


Two charged with murder after death of Yemeni teenager in Sheffield hit-and-run

Updated 08 June 2025
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Two charged with murder after death of Yemeni teenager in Sheffield hit-and-run

  • Victim’s family said teenager had come to UK from Yemen in hope of a better future

LONDON: Two men have been charged with murder after a 16-year-old boy died in an alleged hit-and-run in Sheffield last week, it was reported on Sunday.

Zulkernain Ahmed and Amaan Ahmed have also been charged with three counts of attempted murder following the death of Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Al-Yazidi, South Yorkshire Police said.

Al-Yazidi’s family said the teenager had come to the UK from Yemen three months ago, hoping for a better future. He had been learning English ahead of starting college in September and was described as someone who would “light up their faces with a big smile.”

He was walking along the road in Darnall on Wednesday when he was struck by a grey Audi.

Police believe the car first hit the rider of an electric bike before continuing on and hitting Al-Yazidi. He later died in hospital from his injuries.

An 18-year-old man riding the e-bike was seriously injured but is expected to recover.

The two suspects are due to appear at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

A 46-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman, arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, remain on bail.

Saleh Alsirkal, a relative who runs a shop in Darnall, said Al-Yazidi had dropped in shortly before the collision, after attending a hospital appointment.

“He was a kind boy,” he told the BBC. “He just wanted to look after his family. His dad brought him over to change his life, to get a better future for his son, but this has happened and destroyed everything.”

Local councillor Qais Al-Ahdal said the teen was widely liked and respected in the area.

“We’ve really lost someone who is good in the community,” he said. “Praised by everyone unanimously, he was a really good kid. May God have mercy on his soul,” adding that the Darnall community was united in grief.


54 migrants rescued from Mediterranean oil platform

The Open Arms vessel: rescuing migrants and refugees at sea. (Supplied)
Updated 08 June 2025
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54 migrants rescued from Mediterranean oil platform

  • On Friday, one of the migrants gave birth to a boy, while another woman had given birth days before

ROME: Over 50 migrants were headed to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday after a charity ship rescued them from an abandoned oil platform in the Mediterranean, where one woman gave birth.
The vessel Astral, operated by the Spain-based NGO Open Arms, rescued the 54 people, the group said in a statement.
The migrants had been trapped on the oil platform for three days after their rubber boat shipwrecked following their departure from Libya on Tuesday, Open Arms said.
On Friday, one of the migrants gave birth to a boy, while another woman had given birth days before.
Two other young children were among the group, Open Arms said.
Later Sunday, the charity said that, following the rescue of those on the oil platform, the Astral came upon another 109 people, including four people in the water.
That group, which included 10 children, had also departed from Libya, it said.
Open Arms said they provided life jackets to the migrants before they were rescued by another charity ship, the Louise Michel, which street artist Banksy sponsors.
The Louise Michel, a former French navy vessel, was transporting the migrants to a safe port in Sicily, Open Arms said.
It is not unusual for migrants crossing the Mediterranean on leaky and overcrowded boats to seek refuge on offshore oil platforms.
As of June 1, some 23,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.