Region

AL MAJAR AL KABIR, Iraq — Thousands of dead fish have washed ashore in southeast Iraq, prompting an official investigation into the wildlife disaster that officials said on Monday may be linked to drought conditions.

An AFP photographer saw thousands of small fish washed up on the banks of the Amshan River in Majar Al Kabir, an area in Maysan province that borders Iran.

The region is home to fabled marshes in the floodplain of the Tigris River, already suffering from the effects of global warming.

Iraq’s agriculture ministry on Sunday announced it was forming a committee to look into the causes of the fish deaths, according to state news agency INA.

Environmental campaigner Ahmed Saleh Neema said “a rise in temperatures” leading to increased evaporation, coupled with reduced water flow contributed to “a lack of oxygen and high salinity” in the river.

Largely arid Iraq is ranked by the United Nations as one of the world’s five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change.

It endures blistering summer heat and frequent dust storms. Declining rain over the past four years as well as upstream dams have reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where ancient civilisations flourished.

Khodr Abbas Salman, a Maysan province official overseeing its marshes for the Iraqi environment ministry, told AFP that “according to terrain analyses we have conducted, the level of oxygen [in the water] is zero, in addition to a rise in salinity levels”.

He joined a mission on Monday to inspect the deaths of “tonnes” of fish, he said, noting the Amshan’s waters are home to nine species.

The fish “keep dying even now”, he said.

Samples from both the fish and the water will be “analysed... to determine if there is any presence of chemical substances”, Salman added.

But the high salinity levels may be enough to cause considerable damage.

The water can no longer “be used for agriculture. It would scourge the land if farmers use it for irrigation”, Salman said.

He warned of further risks of pollution in the water and surrounding lands the more animals die.

“Any dead animal rots... which raises the level of pollution,” he said. “The water’s toxicity might increase and infiltrate the land too.”

In a similar phenomenon in 2018, fishermen in the central province of Babylon found dead carp in their thousands, but an investigation failed to discern what had caused it.

KHARTOUM — Fierce fighting between the forces of rival generals shook the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Sunday as disease and malnutrition threatened the rising number of displaced.

Khartoum residents said they were shaken awake by warplanes and "violent fighting" between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Witnesses told AFP a police base and the state television building in the capital's northwest were under attack by the RSF, who said they had shot down an army MiG fighter.

In central Khartoum, others saw "scores of RSF vehicles" driving towards the vicinity of "the Armoured Corps".

Since April 15, the war between Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed nearly 3,000 people and displaced 2.2 million within the country, with another 645,000 fleeing across borders, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

"The situation is grave," the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement detailing the hardships of displaced Sudanese stuck in nine camps in White Nile State which borders South Sudan.

In addition to Khartoum, the worst fighting has been in the western region of Darfur where residents, as well as the United Nations, United States and others, say civilians have been targeted and killed for their ethnicity by the RSF and allied Arab militias.

The death toll is believed to be much higher than recorded, as the World Health Organisation says about two-thirds of health facilities are "out of service" in combat-affected areas.

Many injured people are unable to reach hospitals, and bodies lie rotting in the streets of Khartoum and Darfur.

A record 25 million people in Sudan need humanitarian aid and protection, the UN says.

“Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them women and children”, pack camps that stretch out from the south of Khartoum all the way to the border with South Sudan, MSF said.

“There are suspected cases of measles, and malnutrition among children has become a vital health emergency.

“From June 6 to 7 we treated 223 children with suspected measles, 72 were hospitalised and 13 have died,” MSF said.

The war has smashed the country’s already fragile infrastructure, leaving residents short of water and electricity in the oppressive summer heat.

Numerous ceasefires, including some negotiated by the United States and Saudi Arabia, have failed to hold.

Fighting continued during the just ended Eid Al Adha holiday for which the warring sides announced separate unilateral truces.

The worsening situation in Darfur is a bleak reminder of the region’s painful history.

In 2003, former strongman Omar Al Bashir armed and unleashed the RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, against Darfur’s non-Arab ethnic minorities in violence that killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.

The International Criminal Court charged Bashir and others with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

A UN official has warned of possible new “crimes against humanity” in the current fighting in Darfur.

Dozens of women have been sexually abused in Darfur and elsewhere, a government unit monitoring such offences has said.

In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, at least 25 “conflict-related sexual assaults” were recorded, in addition to 21 in West Darfur capital El Geneina and 42 in Khartoum.

Most survivors in Khartoum, and “all in Nyala and Geneina” identified the perpetrators as RSF fighters, the unit said.

In early June, Darfur governor and ex-rebel leader Mini Minawi, who is now close to the army, declared Darfur a “disaster zone”.

Aid organisations are repeating their appeals to the warring sides to open up secure corridors so they can reach the injured and those displaced by the fighting.

These appeals have taken on increased urgency with the start of the rainy season in Sudan, which is usually accompanied by floods that bring water-borne diseases.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — The armed wing of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas has put its weapons on public display for the first time, drawing hundreds of Palestinians including children brandishing rocket launchers for selfies.

Dressed in black balaclavas and tactical camouflage suits, members of the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades mingled with young men and women at the exhibition in Gaza City's Unknown Soldier's Square.

"Resistance is an image and a memory. Take souvenir photos with many of Al Qassam's weapons," the group said in an invitation on social media and posters in mosques.

The event was the first at which Hamas has allowed the public to take photos of weapons.

It follows the latest surge in worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence, which cost 16 Palestinian and four Israeli lives in the occupied West Bank over six days in late June.

In May, militant groups in Gaza and Israel traded cross-border fire for five days, killing 34 Palestinians, among them six commanders of the Islamic Jihad, fighters from other Palestinian armed groups and civilians including children. One Israeli woman died.

Among the Hamas weapons on display in Gaza City on Friday were a range of locally manufactured missiles, "Shihab" drones, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and Russian-made "Kornet" missiles.

Exhibitions are also scheduled to take place on Saturday in the north and centre of the Gaza Strip, where people are normally forbidden to approach and photograph military sites.

At the entrance to the Gaza City exhibition a banner welcomed visitors, some of whom had come with their families and children, an AFP correspondent said.

Dozens of uniformed Al Qassam Brigades members were on hand.

'Proud of the resistance' 

A young boy in fatigues and wearing a green Brigades headband smiled for the cameras as a man propped a rocket launcher on his shoulder.

Another held the controls of an anti-aircraft gun as young men posed in front of a display of rockets on stands.

“I came with my family to take photos with the weapons and reinforce the spirit of resistance in our children,” said Gaza resident Abu Mohammed Abu Shakian.

The exhibition is “encouraging and means that the liberation of our land is near”, added Shahadeh Dalou, who also came with his children.

Bassam Darwish, 58, said people wanted to show their support for the Al Qassam Brigades.

“Everyone is happy and proud of the Al Qassam exhibition. We are here because we’re proud of the resistance,” he said.

Around 2.3 million Palestinians live in the impoverished Gaza Strip which has been under a crippling Israeli-led blockade since Hamas seized power in 2007.

Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza have fought several wars since.

MINA, Saudi Arabia - Vast crowds of worshippers hurled pebbles in the "stoning of the devil" ritual on Wednesday as the biggest Hajj pilgrimage since the Covid pandemic draws to a close in Saudi Arabia.

From dawn in Mina, hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims began pelting three concrete monoliths representing Satan under soaring temperatures before heading to Mecca for a final "tawaf" -- circling the Kaaba, the giant black cube at the Grand Mosque.

More than 1.8 million people are taking part in the first unrestricted Hajj since Covid struck in 2020. About 2.5 million, the most on record, joined the pilgrimage in pre-pandemic 2019.

As well as crowds at every turn, the visitors have had to contend with ferocious temperatures at the Hajj, which currently coincides with the Saudi summer.

Temperatures peaked at 48 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, when the pilgrims prayed for hours at Mount Arafat. The mercury hit 47 degrees on Wednesday.

In Mina, some sought shelter from the sun by lying under parked trucks, while civil defence volunteers inspected tents to check on pilgrims.

"I will not think of doing Hajj again until it takes place in winter," said Farah, a 26-year-old Tunisian who did not want to give her full name.

"My body is melting," she said.

As helicopters buzzed overhead, pilgrims flooded the streets around Mina. In Mecca, the Grand Mosque was packed from the early morning with circling pilgrims, who loudly congratulated each other on completing the rituals.

This year's attendance figure, announced by Saudi officials on Tuesday, falls well short of their predictions of beating the 2019 record, possibly because of the heat or the cost, at around $5,000 per person just to attend.

The overwhelming majority of the 1.8 million pilgrims -- more than 1.6 million -- are foreigners, coming from about 160 countries.

The hajj is a major revenue-earner for Saudi Arabia, which is trying to pivot its oil-reliant economy in new directions including tourism. The kingdom makes an estimated $12 billion a year from the Hajj and year-round umrah pilgrimages.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman issued a message wishing "well-being and prosperity on our country, on Muslims and the world" and announced he would pay for sacrificial animals for nearly 5,000 of the poorest pilgrims.

Wednesday's devil-stoning marks the start of the three-day Eid Al Adha holiday, celebrated by Muslims by buying and slaughtering livestock to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.

'Very exhausted'

The scorching conditions have been perhaps the biggest challenge for this year's worshippers, including many elderly after a maximum age limit was scrapped.

In recent years the Hajj, which follows the lunar calendar, has fallen in the Saudi summer, at a time when global warming is making the desert climate even hotter.

Experts have warned that temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius could become an annual occurrence in Saudi Arabia by the end of the century.

As protection from the heat, many pilgrims have been walking with umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun, while others carry their folded prayer blankets above their heads.

One security guard was seen fanning a seated pilgrim, apparently overcome by the heat at Mina. According to official figures, at least 287 people have been treated for heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

Sitting under a white umbrella, Shahinar Mustafa said enduring the heat only gave more weight to her prayers.

"I don't dwell on whether it’s hot or cold," said the 57-year-old Egyptian school teacher.

"The hotter the weather, the better my deeds" appear in the eyes of God, she said.

The rituals started on Sunday at Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, before an overnight stay in tents and then the prayers on Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final sermon.

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims walked or rode buses on Monday to a giant tented city near Mecca for the climax of the annual Hajj that Saudi officials say could break attendance records.

After performing the ritual circumambulation of the Kaaba, the giant black cube at Mecca's Grand Mosque that Muslims pray towards each day, worshippers set off for Mina, about seven kilometres away, in suffocating heat.

Pilgrims in robes and sandals, many carrying umbrellas against the beating sun, undertook the journey on foot or crowded onto hundreds of air-conditioned buses provided by Saudi authorities.

They will spend the night in white tents in Mina, which every year hosts the world's largest encampment, before the Hajj's high-point on Tuesday: prayers at Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammed is said to have delivered his final sermon.

"My dream has come true," said Jamila Hammoudi, a 62-year-old Moroccan school teacher. "I will pray for everyone," she told AFP after arriving in the tented city.

Shortly after midday, pilgrims packed most of the tents, which contain two to three beds and are fitted with water and food.

Many were overcome by the experience as they fulfil a lifelong dream at the sites where Islam began.

Saudi officials say this year’s Hajj — one of the five pillars of Islam — could be the biggest in history. After 2.5 million attended in 2019, numbers were capped in 2020, 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID pandemic.

The pilgrimage has seen multiple crises over the years, including militant attacks, deadly fires and a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 people. There have been no major incidents since.

As part of the safety measures, helicopters and AI-equipped drones have been deployed to monitor the flow of traffic towards Mina, which sits in a narrow valley flanked by rocky mountains.

A small fleet of self-driving buses, seating up to 11 people, is in operation between the sites of the rituals, including Mecca — Islam’s holiest city — Mina and Muzdalifah.

One of the biggest risks this year at the Hajj, which follows the lunar calendar, is heat, especially after maximum age restrictions were removed.

Habbia Abdel Nasser, a Moroccan woman who was performing the rituals with her husband, needed urgent medical treatment near the Grand Mosque because of the heat.

“The weather is very hot here compared to Morocco, and we feel exhausted,” said her husband, 62-year-old businessman Rahim Abdel Nasser, as he poured water on her head to cool her down.

The health ministry has recommended pilgrims use umbrellas during the day and has told the sick and elderly to stay indoors around midday to “avoid sunstroke”.

Four hospitals and 26 clinics are ready to deal with ailing pilgrims in Mina, and more than 190 ambulances have been deployed, officials said.

On Tuesday, the pilgrims will pray and recite the Koran for several hours at Mount Arafat and spend the night nearby. The following day, they will gather pebbles and hurl them at three giant concrete walls for the symbolic “stoning of the devil” ritual.

The last stop is back in Mecca, where they will perform a final circumambulation of the Kaaba, which according to Muslim tradition had been built by Abraham and his son, Ishmael.

All Muslims who are capable are expected to perform the Hajj at least once. About 1.6 million foreigners had arrived for the pilgrimage by Friday evening, officials said.

“It is an experience that is worth it,” said Salim Ibrahim, a 39-year-old Nigerian, when asked about temperatures that have touched 46ºC.

“Even if the heat gets stronger, I will repeat the Hajj again,” he added.