ISTANBUL/ANKARA: Turkey purged its police on Monday after rounding up thousands of soldiers in the wake of a failed military coup, and said it could reconsider its friendship with the United States unless Washington hands over a cleric Ankara blames for the putsch.
Turkish authorities moved swiftly to retaliate for Friday night’s coup, in which more than 200 people were killed when a faction of the armed forces tried to seize power.
But the swift justice, including calls to reinstate the death penalty for plotters, drew concern from Western allies who said Ankara must uphold the rule of law in the country, a NATO member that is Washington’s most powerful Muslim ally.
Thousands of members of the armed forces, from foot soldiers to commanders, were rounded up on Sunday, some shown in photographs stripped to their underpants and handcuffed on the floors of police buses and a sports hall. Several thousand prosecutors and judges have also been removed.
A senior security official told Reuters that 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had also been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to Friday’s coup bid.
Thirty regional governors and more than 50 high-ranking civil servants have also been dismissed, CNN Turk said.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 7,543 people had so far been detained, including 6,038 soldiers. Work was under way to purge the civil service.
Turkey blames the failed coup on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric based in the United States who has a wide following in Turkey and denies any involvement.
Ankara has demanded Washington hand him over. Washington says it is prepared to extradite him but only if Turkey provides evidence linking him to crime. Yildirim rejected that demand.
“We would be disappointed if our (American) friends told us to present proof even though members of the assassin organization are trying to destroy an elected government under the directions of that person,” Yildirim said.
“At this stage there could even be a questioning of our friendship,” Yildirim added.
Yildirim said 232 people were killed in Friday night’s violence, 208 of them civilians, police and loyalist soldiers, and a further 24 coup plotters. Officials previously said the overall death toll was more than 290.
ERDOGAN’S PLANE IN REBEL SIGHTS
Around 1,400 others were wounded as soldiers commandeered tanks, attack helicopters and fighter jets in their bid to seize power, strafing parliament and the intelligence headquarters and trying to seize the main airport and bridges in Istanbul.
The coup crumbled after President Tayyip Erdogan, on holiday at the coast, phoned in to a television news program and called for his followers to take to the streets. He was able to fly into Istanbul in the early hours of Saturday, after rebel pilots had his plane in their sights but did not shoot it down.
On Sunday he told crowds of supporters, called to the streets by the government and by mosques across the country, that parliament must consider their demands to apply the death penalty for the plotters.
“We cannot ignore this demand,” he told a chanting crowd outside his house in Istanbul late on Sunday. “In democracies, whatever the people say has to happen.”
He called on Turks to stay on the streets until Friday, and late into Sunday night his supporters thronged squares and streets, honking horns and waving flags.
Turkey gave up the death penalty in 2004 as part of a program of reforms required to become a candidate to join the EU. Germany said on Monday that Turkey would lose its EU status if it reinstates the death penalty.
Yildirim said Turkey should not act hastily over the death penalty but could not ignore the demands of its people.
The bloodshed shocked the nation of almost 80 million, where the army last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago, and shattered fragile confidence in the stability of a NATO member state already rocked by Islamic State suicide bombings and an insurgency by Kurdish militants.
Western countries said they supported Erdogan’s government but Ankara should abide by the rule of law.
“We stand squarely on the side of the elected leadership in Turkey. But we also firmly urge the government of Turkey to maintain calm and stability throughout the country,” US Secretary of State Kerry told a news briefing in Brussels where he attended a gathering of European counterparts.
“We also urge the government of Turkey to uphold the highest standards of respect for the nation’s democratic institutions and the rule of law. We will certainly support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice but we also caution against a reach that goes well beyond that.”
Referring to Gulen, Kerry called on Turkey to furnish evidence “that withstands scrutiny,” rather than allegations.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also called on Ankara to avoid steps that would damage the constitutional order.
“We were the first ... during that tragic night to say that the legitimate institutions needed to be protected,” she told reporters on arrival at the EU foreign ministers meeting.
“We are the ones saying today rule of law has to be protected in the country,” she said. “There is no excuse for any steps that take the country away from that.”
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP opposition, parliament’s third largest party, said it would not support any government proposal to reintroduce the death penalty. The main CHP opposition said the response to the coup attempt must be conducted within the rule of law and that the plotters should face trial.
“HEAVY BLOW” TO MILITARY
Turkish security forces are still searching for some of the soldiers involved in the coup bid in various cities and rural areas but there is no risk of a renewed bid to seize power, a senior security official told Reuters.
The official said Turkey’s military command had been dealt “a heavy blow in terms of organization” but was still functioning in coordination with the intelligence agency, police and the government. Some high-ranking military officials involved in the plot have fled abroad, he said.
Erdogan has long accused Gulen of trying to create a “parallel state” within the courts, police, armed forces and media. Gulen, in turn, has said the coup attempt may have been staged, casting it as an excuse for Erdogan to forge ahead with his purge of the cleric’s supporters from state institutions.
The swift rounding up of judges and others indicated the government had prepared a list beforehand, the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s membership bid, Johannes Hahn, said.
“I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared,” he said in Brussels.
A Turkish official acknowledged that Gulen’s followers in the armed forces had been under investigation for some time, but denied that an arrest list had been prepared in advance.
“In our assessment, this group acted out of a sense of emergency when they realized that they were under investigation. There was a list of people who were suspected of conspiring to stage a coup,” the official said.
“There was no arrest list. There was a list of people suspected of planning a coup.”
Turkey widens post-coup purge, demands Washington hand over cleric
Turkey widens post-coup purge, demands Washington hand over cleric
15 killed in Darfur camp as battle for last army-held city intensifies
- Earlier in the day, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced they had captured Um Kadadah, a key town on the road to El-Fasher
KHARTOUM: Shelling by Sudanese paramilitaries killed at least 15 civilians in a Darfur displaced persons’ camp Thursday, a medical source told AFP, as fighting for the only part of the region still under regular army control intensified.
Earlier in the day, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced they had captured Um Kadadah, a key town on the road to El-Fasher, the last city in Darfur still in the hands of their regular army foes.
“The Abu Shouk camp was shelled by the RSF with 120mm and 82mm cannons fired inside the camp and the Nifasha market, killing at least 15 people and wounding 25,” the camp’s volunteer emergency department said in a statement.
The densely populated camps for the displaced around the besieged city of El-Fasher have suffered heavily during nearly two years of fighting between Sudan’s warring generals.
The Zamzam camp was the first part of Sudan where famine was declared.
The RSF has stepped up its efforts to complete its conquest of Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum last month.
On Thursday, it said it had captured Um Kadadah.
“Our forces took full control of the strategic town of Um Kadadah,” an RSF spokesman said in a statement, adding that hundreds of members of its garrison had been killed.
There was no immediate comment from the regular army.
The paramilitaries’ advance came after their shelling of besieged El-Fasher killed 12 people on Wednesday, the army and activists said.
The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million since a struggle for power between rival generals erupted into full-blown war in April 2023.
Famine has been declared in parts of the country, including displacement camps around El-Fasher, and is likely to spread, according to a UN-backed assessment.
On Wednesday the United Nations humanitarian office OCHA said conditions in Darfur are rapidly deteriorating.
“In North Darfur state, more than 4,000 people have been newly displaced in the past week alone due to escalating violence in El-Fasher, as well as in Zamzam displacement camp south of the city and other areas,” OCHA said on its website.
The RSF also controls parts of the south.
The army retook the capital Khartoum in late March. It holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa’s third-largest country divided in two.
South Sudan replaces foreign minister
- No explanation was given for the sacking of Foreign Minister Ramadan Mohammed, which was announced on the state radio station late on Wednesday
JUBA: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has replaced its foreign minister with his deputy, Monday Semaya Kumba, state media reported, following a migration dispute with the United States.
No explanation was given for the sacking of Foreign Minister Ramadan Mohammed, which was announced on the state radio station late on Wednesday.
The move follows a row with Washington over Juba’s refusal to admit a Congolese man deported from the US, which led to the Trump administration threatening to revoke all US visas held by South Sudanese citizens.
South Sudan yielded to Washington’s demands on Tuesday and allowed the man to enter the country.
Separately, a faction of South Sudan’s main opposition party said on Wednesday it had replaced its chairman, First Vice President Riek Machar, with an interim leader, Peacebuilding Minister Stephen Par Kuol, until Machar was released from house arrest.
Analysts said the move, which other party members criticized, could allow Kiir to sack longstanding rival Machar and consolidate his power over the government by appointing Kuol.
“President Kiir (would) want people who would agree with him ... so that now the government’s legitimacy will be created,” said Kuol Abraham Nyuon, professor of political science at the University of Juba.
Machar, who has served in a power-sharing administration with Kiir since a 2018 peace deal ended a civil war between fighters loyal to the two men, was accused of trying to stir up rebellion and detained at his home last month.
Machar’s party denies government accusations that it backs the White Army.
This ethnic militia clashed with the army in the northeastern town of Nasir last month, triggering the latest political crisis.
African Union mediators arrived in Juba last week to try to rescue the peace deal but did not appear to have made any immediate progress.
On Thursday, embassies based in Juba, including France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, the UK, US, and the EU, reiterated their call for the immediate release of all political detainees.
“South Sudan’s leaders must meet their obligations and demonstrate that their priority is peace,” they said in a joint statement.
The SPLM-IO said Machar’s detention had effectively voided the agreement that ended the five-year civil war in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. The party later said they were committed to upholding the deal.
The SPLM-IO’s military wing remained loyal to Machar and was “not part and parcel of the betrayers in Juba,” its spokesperson, Lam Paul Gabriel, said in a statement on Wednesday.
UN food agency warns that tens of thousands could die during third year of war in Sudan
- Shaun Hughes of the World Food Programme says 10 areas of the country are affected by famine and it could spread to another 17
- His agency faces a $650m shortfall in its funding needs for Sudan over the next 6 months alone
LONDON: Tens of thousands of people will die in Sudan if the country’s civil war continues for another year, with the UN facing a vast food-aid funding gap and unable to reach those most vulnerable to famine, a senior official warned on Thursday.
The conflict, which began two years ago, has caused what is, “by any metric,” the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, Shaun Hughes, the World Food Programme’s emergency coordinator for the Sudan crisis, told a UN briefing.
He said famine had spread to 10 areas in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, and threatens to engulf another 17. Unless the WFP can bridge a $650 million gap in funding for its operations over the next six months, which amounts to an 80 percent shortfall, and gain better access on the ground to those in need, he said the crisis will continue to spiral out of control.
“This war is having devastating consequences for the people of Sudan and the entire region,” Hughes said during a video call.
“Tens of thousands more people will die in Sudan during a third year of war unless WFP and other humanitarian agencies have the access and the resources to reach those in need.”
The civil war began on April 15, 2023, amid a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the leader of a powerful rival militia called the Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed thousands of people and forced 12 million to flee their homes.
The army finally regained control of all of Khartoum last month, having been driven out of the capital at the start of the conflict. But the RSF continues to control vast areas in western and southern Sudan, including much of Darfur region.
Fighting has raged around the city of El-Fasher in Darfur, just south of which is located the Zamzam displacement camp that hosts 400,000 people. Famine was first reported in the camp in August last year and people continue to die from starvation and malnutrition there, Hughes said.
“It’s obviously a horrific situation,” he added. “El-Fasher, Zamzam and other camps have been at the center of famine and the epicenter of conflict in the Darfurs for several months now, and under an effective siege on a daily basis.
“People are unable to access services, and humanitarian agencies have, essentially, had to withdraw from the camp.”
He said the last delivery of food aid was in October but the WFP had managed to digitally transfer cash aid to help residents of the camp buy food wherever they can.
But unless aid efforts can be reestablished on the ground in Sudan’s worst-effected areas, Hughes fears the famine could spread, with nearly half of the country’s 50 million people facing the prospect of extreme hunger.
“We need to be able to quickly move humanitarian assistance to where it is needed, including through front lines, across borders within contested areas, and without lengthy bureaucratic processes,” he said.
The WFP has managed to increase the number of people it is reaching to 3 million per month, he added, but hopes to increase the figure to 7 million in the coming months. The focus will be on those areas already suffering from famine or most at risk of falling into it, Hughes said.
Many aid operations in Sudan have been affected by the US government’s slashing of foreign aid budgets since President Donald Trump took office, but Hughes said funding for his agency’s work in the country had not been affected by this.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday released a report detailing the “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in Sudan.
It said attacks on hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have severely compromised access to essential services.
Migrant killed in clash at makeshift camp in Tunisia
Tunis: A man from Guinea died after migrants clashed at a makeshift camp in northern Tunisia, a parliamentarian who visited the site and the National Guard said on Thursday.
Tarak Mahdi, the MP for Sfax, around 30 km from camps set up in olive groves, said the violence began on Tuesday and that “dozens were wounded” by “machetes and knives.”
Mahdi said the violence erupted between two groups, one from Guinea and the other from the Ivory Coast, after a Champions League football match.
National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli said the dead man had been hit in the head by a stone and that six people have been arrested.
The clashes followed a significant security sweep last week to clear olive groves around El Amra, a town south of Tunis, where thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa had set up home a few kilometers from the coast.
Tensions between residents and migrants have been rising in Tunisia.
Tempers flared in 2023 after President Kais Saied said that “hordes of sub-Saharan migrants” threatened to change the North African country’s demographics.
On March 25, Saied called on the International Organization for Migration to accelerate voluntary returns for irregular migrants to their home countries.
Tunisia has, in recent years, become a key departure point for migrants making the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in hopes of reaching Europe.
People staged two protest rallies on Wednesday against what they say is the authoritarian rule of President Kais Saied and demanded the release of political prisoners, while six detained opposition figures held a hunger strike.
The rallies highlight the opposition’s growing concerns about what it sees as Saied’s muzzling of dissent and efforts to establish one-man rule, accusations he denies.
Amputees in Gaza face life in war zone with little hope
- Prosthetics and other aid hard to get into blockaded Palestinian territory
CAIRO/GAZA: Farah Abu Qainas hoped to become a teacher, but an Israeli airstrike last year injured her so severely she lost her left leg, throwing all her plans into doubt and adding the 21-year-old to a list of thousands of new amputees in devastated Gaza.
Still living in a temporary shelter, Abu Qainas attends physiotherapy sessions at a prosthetics center in the territory where she waits in a wheelchair for an artificial limb that could allow her some freedom again.
“That day, I lost more than just my leg. My dreams vanished,” she said.
“I longed to attend university and teach children. But this injury has stolen that future.”
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants carried out a cross-border attack on Israeli communities.
Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza, local health authorities say, and left most of the tiny, crowded coastal territory in ruins and nearly all its people homeless.
Many thousands more have suffered injuries that will change their lives for decades to come.
However, amid a conflict that has left the medical system barely able to function, estimates for how many Palestinians have lost limbs vary.
“Across Gaza, it is estimated that 4,500 new amputees require prosthetics, in addition to the 2,000 existing cases requiring maintenance and follow-up care,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported last month.
Ahmed Mousa, who runs the physical rehabilitation program in Gaza for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said at least 3,000 people had been registered in their program, of whom 1,800 have amputations.
Many thousands more Palestinians have suffered spinal injuries or lost their sight or hearing, according to OCHA and the ICRC.
The large number of injuries has slowed and complicated efforts to provide treatment.
ICRC officials said that getting artificial limbs into the Gaza Strip has been challenging.
“Accessing proper prosthetics or mobility aids is increasingly challenging in Gaza right now, and unfortunately, there is no clear timeline for many,” said Mousa.
Israel suspended all humanitarian aid to Gaza after the collapse of a two-month-old ceasefire last month.
Abu Qainas, who attends Mousa’s therapy program, said she does not know when she might get an artificial leg or treatment abroad.
“They told me to wait, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen anytime soon,” she said.
Israel’s military has said its bombardment of Gaza is necessary to crush Hamas, which it accuses of hiding among the general Palestinian population. Hamas denies this. Israel says it tries to reduce harm to civilians.
Children have not escaped the carnage.
An April study by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics said at least 7,000 children have been injured since October 2023, with hundreds losing limbs, sight, or hearing.
She said seven-year-old Shaza Hamdan had wanted to learn to ride a bike.
“My father asked (me) to join him for a walk, before shells began falling on us like rain. One hit my leg and cut it off, and another hit my father’s arm,” she said.
