Region

KHARTOUM — The United States and Saudi Arabia on Sunday made a renewed push for truce talks between Sudan's warring generals as deadly fighting has raged into its eighth week.

Multiple ceasefires have been agreed and broken, and Washington slapped sanctions on the two warring generals last week, blaming both sides for the "appalling" bloodshed.

Envoys of Sudan's regular army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have remained in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah despite the earlier collapse of ceasefire talks, the kingdom's foreign ministry said.

The foreign mediators called for "the parties to agree to and effectively implement a new ceasefire, with the aim of building to a permanent cessation of hostilities", Riyadh said.

A five-day extension of a US- and Saudi-brokered truce formally expired on Saturday with no signs of the conflict abating and fears that the rival sides were poised for an escalation.

Upwards of 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, and the UN says 1.2 million have been displaced with more than 425,000 fleeing abroad.

The RSF on Sunday claimed it had shot down a fighter jet after the army "launched an audacious airborne assault upon our forces' positions" in northern Khartoum.

A military source told AFP a Chinese-made jet crashed near Wadi Seidna base north of Khartoum because of a "technical malfunction".

Witnesses said they saw an aircraft travelling from the south to the north of the capital with flames erupting from it.

Other witnesses spoke of air strikes on RSF positions in the east of the city, with some civilian casualties reported.

The fighting erupted on April 15 in the Sudanese capital between the army led by de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and the RSF commanded by his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Deadly battles have since gripped Khartoum and the war-scarred Darfur region in the west, forcing residents to flee or camp out for weeks as supplies of food and other vital goods have been depleted.

The governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abakar, said Sunday there was “complete lawlessness” in the state.

“Armed men have taken over everything, and the situation is completely out of control,” he said.

Darfur Governor Mini Minawi, a former rebel leader now close to the army, on Twitter denounced “looting” by armed groups, declared Darfur a “disaster zone” and appealed for help from the community international.

Sunday’s Saudi statement comes two days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in the Gulf kingdom, with discussions on Sudan expected to be on the agenda.

The last truce was agreed to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into areas of Sudan ravaged by the fighting, but like all those that preceded, the accord was routinely violated by both sides.

The Sudanese army on Wednesday withdrew from the talks in Jeddah.

A day later, the US-Saudi mediators declared the talks officially suspended, with Washington saying it was ready to resume the talks once the parties were “serious” about a ceasefire.

Both Burhan and Daglo have pledged repeatedly to protect civilians and secure humanitarian corridors.

But civilians reported escalated fighting after the army quit the Jeddah talks, including one army bombardment Thursday that a committee of human rights lawyers said killed 18 civilians in a Khartoum market.

Some 25 million people — more than half Sudan’s population — are now in need of aid and protection in what was already one of the world’s poorest countries before the conflict, according to the UN.

KHARTOUM — Blasts rocked the Sudanese capital on Saturday, as fighting between warring generals entered its eighth week, with volunteers forced to bury 180 bodies recovered from combat zones without identification.

Witnesses told AFP of "bombs falling and civilians being injured" in southern Khartoum, while others in the city's north reported "artillery fire", days after a US- and Saudi-brokered ceasefire collapsed.

Since fighting between Sudan's warring generals erupted on April 15, volunteers have buried 102 unidentified bodies in the capital's Al-Shegilab Cemetery and 78 more in cemeteries in Darfur, the Sudanese Red Crescent said in a statement.

Both regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, have issued repeated pledges to protect civilians and secure humanitarian corridors.

But civilians reported escalated fighting after the army quit ceasefire talks on Wednesday, including a single army bombardment that killed 18 civilians in a Khartoum market, according to a committee of human rights lawyers.

Both sides have accused the other of violating the ceasefire, as well as attacking civilians and infrastructure.

Washington slapped sanctions on the warring parties on Thursday, holding them both responsible for provoking “appalling” bloodshed.

Not allowed in 

In negotiations in Saudi Arabia last month, the warring parties had agreed to “enable responsible humanitarian actors, such as the Sudanese Red Crescent and/or the International Committee of the Red Cross to collect, register and bury the deceased”.

But volunteers have found it difficult to move through the streets to pick up the dead, “due to security constraints”, the Red Crescent said.

Aid corridors that had been promised as part of the truce never materialised, and relief agencies say they have managed to deliver only a fraction of needs, while civilians remain trapped.

Over 700,000 people have fled the capital to other parts of Sudan that have been spared the fighting, in convoys of buses that regularly make their way out of Khartoum.

But on their way back, bus drivers were shocked to find they “were not allowed into the capital”, one told AFP on Saturday, with others confirming authorities had blocked access since Friday, ordering the drivers to turn back.

The army had earlier on Friday announced it had brought in reinforcements from other parts of Sudan to participate in “operations in the Khartoum area”.

That sparked fears it was planning “to launch a massive offensive,” according to Sudan analyst Kholood Khair.

So far neither side has gained a decisive advantage. The regular army has air power and heavy weaponry, but analysts say the paramilitaries are more mobile and better suited to urban warfare.

The RSF announced on Saturday its political advisor Youssef Ezzat had met with Kenyan President William Ruto in Nairobi, as part of his visits to several “friendly countries to explain the developing situation in Sudan”.

“We are ready to engage all the parties and offer any support towards a lasting solution,” Ruto said on Twitter.

Blackout in Darfur 

More than 1,800 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Entire districts of the capital no longer have running water, electricity is only available for a few hours a week and three quarters of hospitals in combat zones are not functioning.

The situation is particularly dire in the western region of Darfur, which is home to around a quarter of Sudan’s population and never recovered from a devastating two-decade war that left hundreds of thousands dead and more than 2 million displaced.

The RSF is descended from the Janjaweed, a militia armed in 2003 to quash ethnic minority rebels in Darfur.

Renewed clashes were reported on Saturday in the town of Kutum in North Darfur, according to witnesses.

Amid what activists have called a total communications “blackout” in huge swathes of the region, hundreds of civilians have been killed, villages and markets torched and aid facilities looted, prompting tens of thousands to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad.

According to aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF), those crossing the border report horrific scenes of “armed men shooting at people trying to flee, villages being looted and the wounded dying” without access to medical care.

The UN says 1.2 million people have been displaced within Sudan and more than 425,000 have fled abroad — more than 100,000 west to Chad and 170,000 north to Egypt.

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s shrunken and conflict-scarred Christian community is launching a new television channel as part of efforts to save their dying language, spoken for more than 2,000 years.

Syriac, an ancient dialect of Aramaic, has traditionally been the language spoken by Christians in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, mostly in homes but also in some schools and during church services.

However, Syriac-speaking communities in the two countries have declined over the years, owing to decades of conflict driving many to seek homes in safer countries. In Iraq, the Christian population is thought to have fallen by more than two-thirds in just over two decades.

“It’s true that we speak Syriac at home, but unfortunately I feel that our language is disappearing slowly but surely,” said Mariam Albert, a news presenter on the Syriac-language Al Syriania television channel.

Iraq’s government launched the channel in April to help keep the language alive. It has around 40 staff and offers a variety of programming, from cinema to art and history.

“It is important to have a television station that represents us,” said Albert, a 35-year-old mother.

Many programmes are presented in a dialect form of Syriac but Albert said the channel’s news bulletins are broadcast only in classical Syriac, a form not widely understood by everyone.

The goal of Al Syriania is “to preserve the Syriac language” through “entertainment”, said station director Jack Anwia.

“Once upon a time, Syriac was a language widespread across the Middle East,” he said, adding that Baghdad has a duty “to keep it from extinction”.

“The beauty about Iraq is its cultural and religious diversity,” he said.

‘Sidelined’ but not dead 

Iraq is known as a cradle of civilisations, including the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, who produced the earliest known written legal code. The country was also home to the city of Ur, which the Bible cites as Abraham’s birthplace.

Today, the country is overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim but also home to Sunni Muslims, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis and other minorities, while Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages.

Before the 2003 United States-led invasion of the oil-rich country, Iraq was home to around 1.5 million Christians.

In the 20 years since, which included the brutal onslaught of the Daesh that swept the country in 2014, their population has declined to roughly 400,000, mostly living in the north.

The Syriac language has been “sidelined”, according to Kawthar Askar, head of the Syriac language department at Salahaddin University in erbil, in the autonomous Kurdistan region.

“We can’t say it’s a dead language... [but] it is under threat” of disappearing, he said.

The cause is migration, Askar said, adding that families who emigrate often continue speaking Syriac among themselves but later generations abandon it.

Askar’s department teaches the language to around 40 students, with more studying it in Baghdad.

Syriac is also taught at around 265 schools across Iraq, according to Imad Salem Jajjo, responsible for Syriac education within the education ministry.

‘Our mother tongue’ 

The earliest written record of Syriac dates to the first or second century BC and the language reached its peak between the fifth and seventh centuries AD, Askar said.

At its height, Syriac was spoken in everyday conversation, used in literature, the sciences and within public administration.

With the seventh-century Islamic conquests, more people in the region began speaking Arabic.

By the 11th century, Syriac was clearly in decline.

Despite the decades of conflict that have ravaged Iraq, hundreds of Syriac books and manuscripts have survived.

In 2014, days before Daesh fighters seized swathes of northern Iraq, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul left the city, salvaging a trove of centuries-old Syriac manuscripts from the invading terrorists.

Around 1,700 manuscripts and 1,400 books — some dating to the 11th century — are now conserved at Arbil’s Digital Centre for Eastern Manuscripts, which is supported by the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Dominican order.

The conservation will “preserve the heritage and guarantee its sustainability”, archbishop Michaeel Najeeb told AFP.

Syriac “is our history, it is our mother tongue”, said Salah Bakos, a teacher from Qaraqosh, a town near Mosul, which adopted the language into its curriculum 18 years ago.

“Teaching Syriac is important, not only to children but all segments of our society... even if parents say it is a dead language that serves no purpose”.

AMMAN — The  UAE has won the bid to host the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2025 in Abu Dhabi. The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) submitted the bid on behalf of Abu Dhabi and the UAE government.

The results were announced on May 25, following approval of the IUCN’s bid evaluation committee recommendations to the IUCN Governing Council at its meeting held in Gland, Switzerland from 23-25 May 2023, according to a statement made available to The Jordan Times. 

The IUCN Council is chaired by the president and consists of elected members from across all the regions as well as a Chair of Commissions and is the body responsible for the oversight and general control of all IUCN affairs. 

The successful bid to host the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2025 further reaffirms the UAE and its leadership’s commitment to environmental conservation, climate change action and sustainability. Abu Dhabi continues to be at the forefront of nature conservation by building strong relations with key international environmental organisations such as the IUCN, the statement said.

The agency’s Managing Director, Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, is the current President of the IUCN, while EAD’s Secretary General, Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, is a Global Councillor.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative for Al Dhafra Region and Chairman of EAD, said: “Winning the bid to host the IUCN Congress in 2025 is significant and a reflection of the vision of our President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It will be an opportunity to showcase UAE’s conservation leadership in protecting and restoring endangered species, both in the country and globally.

“We will make the IUCN 2025 Congress one of the most impactful, effective, and decisive congresses to date. We will work with the conservation community to protect our planet to avert biodiversity and climate crises.”

Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, affirmed that the selection of Abu Dhabi as the host city for the 2025 International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conference is another honour added to the UAE’s record full of accomplishments, particularly in the field of environmental, natural and climate preservation, during the Year of Sustainability.

Almheiri said: "Since its inception, the UAE has prioritised environmental conservation and has made tremendous local and international efforts to enhance biodiversity and protect endangered species. Hosting this conference is a crowning achievement for the UAE and underscores our leading global status in taking on larger responsibilities in these areas. Our role as host of this year's Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) reiterates the UAE's influential position as a leading global partner in steering efforts to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our times — climate change, environmental preservation and the prevention of natural resource wastage.

"We look forward to the successful orchestration of the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conference in 2025 and extend our warm welcome to delegates from diverse nations across the world to converge in the UAE and find practical and decisive solutions for the challenges of biodiversity and the protection of living creatures. This will contribute to preserving our natural heritage for future generations and building a sustainable future for humanity."

Mohamed Ahmed Al Bowardi, Minister of State for Defence Affairs and Vice Chairman of EAD, said: “I am delighted with the news of Abu Dhabi winning the bid to host the IUCN Congress in 2025. Our work on species conservation over the last four decades in Abu Dhabi and globally is exemplary and helped us improve the status of some of the most threatened species, a testimony to the commitment and support of our leadership.”

Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak said: “As a President of the IUCN I am delighted that my home country has won the bid to host the next IUCN Congress. Global biodiversity loss and climate change impacts are unprecedented environmental emergencies and need an equally unprecedented response. IUCN with its global experts, convening power and knowledge products has a major role to shape such a response.”

Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary General of EAD, said: “To win the bid to host the biggest gathering of conservationists, leaders, decision makers is a major milestone in Abu Dhabi’s and the UAE’s conservation journey.

“I am grateful to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Rulers’ Representative for Al Dhafra Region and Chairman of EAD, for their patronage, leadership, and support.

“This is a big win for the UAE, and I would like to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Abu Dhabi Executive Office, Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism and Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre for their partnership and support throughout the bid process. This support and cooperation from over 20 Abu Dhabi government entities and the hotel and airline industries were key to us winning the bid.

Mohammed Algeziry, Director General of the Department of Culture and Tourism, said: "As a key partner in this bid process we are delighted with the outcome. We will work with EAD and other partners to ensure its successful organisation. The Congress will further add to Abu Dhabi’s growing reputation as a leading tourism and business destination in the region.”

IUCN is a membership-based organisation, composed of both government and civil society organisations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of more than 1,400 member organisations and the input of over 18,000 experts. This diversity and vast expertise make IUCN the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

The body is a democratic union that brings together the world’s most influential organisations and top experts, in a combined effort to conserve nature and accelerate the transition to sustainable development. 

The World Conservation Congress of the IUCN, held every four years is the highest organ of the Union and sees duly accredited delegates of the members of the IUCN meeting in session. One of the key functions of the Congress is to elect the President, Treasurer, Regional Councillors and Chairs of Commissions, who will make up the IUCN Council. 

The agency’s relationship with IUCN began in 2000 as an IUCN Framework Partner. In addition, EAD has supported the work of its Species Survival Commission and has hosted the Reintroduction Specialist Group Chair for over 15 years. In 2013, EAD became an official IUCN member and continues to work and support IUCN’s biggest commission: the Species Survival Commission.

The UAE has full IUCN membership. It has the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) as State Member and Mohamed Bin Zayed Conservation Fund, Emirates Environment Group and Emirates Nature as NGO members. Dubai Desert Conservation Centre (DDCR), International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) and EAD are government members. All these members make up the UAE IUCN National Committee.

The IUCN WCC bidding process is very stringent and runs for almost a year through three phases, including a site visit by an international panel of evaluators to evaluate the infrastructure, transport, government support and other services. The bid submission process was earlier approved by the Abu Dhabi Government and was also included among 24 national initiatives, approved by the UAE Cabinet.

To win the bid to host such a major global event is the culmination of efforts by EAD’s partners and supporting entities and is a validation that Abu Dhabi offers world-class facilities and infrastructure to such an important global event, the statement said. The IUCN WCC 2025 will be held in Abu Dhabi in October 2025 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).

The IUCN Congress, where IUCN Members set the global conservation agenda by voting on motions and guide the Secretariat’s work by passing resolutions and the IUCN Programme. The last Congress was held in Marseille, France, in September 2021.

The IUCN WCC in 2025 in Abu Dhabi is expected to bring an estimated 10,000-15,000 delegates from over 160 countries across the globe and will be an event which could galvanise conservation actions to protect our planet, amid local and global challenges.

Established in 1948, IUCN has evolved into the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network. Today the organisation is well known for its knowledge products, such as the Red List of Species, Red List of Ecosystems, Key Biodiversity Areas and the Green Lists which are widely used in setting conservation priorities for threatened species, ecosystems and in identification of important areas for protection.


BERLIN — Ryyan Alshebl fled war-torn Syria in 2015, arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos after a harrowing four-hour journey on a rubber boat. 

Eight years on, he is the mayor of a German village.

"It was dark and cold and there was not a single light to be seen on Lesbos," he recalls. 

"A few hours ago we had been in a normal Mediterranean town in Turkey. The environment had transformed with the cold and dark, and of course the feelings of fear that go with such a journey."

Alshebl, then barely 21, was among a large number of refugees who arrived in Europe that year.

After landing in Greece, he made his way through Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia by public transport and on foot, taking 12 days in total to reach Germany. 

He eventually ended up at a refugee centre at Althengstett, a rural region near the Black Forest.

"In the shared accommodation, where you cannot expect more than a bed, a roof and some food, for which you are still thankful, you can only do one thing: get back on your feet quickly and invest rapidly in your own future," he said.
Alshebl soon learned to speak German fluently — "if you are in the countryside you have no other choice" — and landed a traineeship as an administrative assistant at Althengstett town hall.

He earned German citizenship in 2022, a prerequisite for anyone who wants to stand in local elections in Germany.

'Taking responsibility' 


Now 29, he will take up his post as mayor of Ostelsheim, a village near Althengstett, in June.

He is believed to be the first Syrian from the refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015-16 to be elected to a political post.

Alshebl was joined by four friends on his journey to Europe. But he left behind his parents and one brother, though a second brother had already moved to Germany on a student visa.
He said his experience of fleeing Syria and having "to take responsibility not only for [myself] but also for the environment" had given him the drive to go into politics.

"To take on this responsibility at such an age, you learn a lot. Of course, it creates a new person, a new personality," he said.

Alshebl ran as an independent candidate in the election, winning 55.41 percent of the vote.

But he is also a member of the Greens, "because climate protection is very important" to him.

His victory is all the more striking given that Ostelsheim, a village of 2,700 people, is a traditionally conservative community.

Situated among a cluster of hills, the village is surrounded by rolling fields lined with dry stone walls and hedges.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party harnessed anger over the influx of asylum seekers in 2015-16 to win votes and ultimately enter parliament for the first time.

Openness 


But Alshebl said he has not seen right-wing extremism personally.

Alshebl believes he was elected because he listened to the people's concerns — from childcare to digitalisation issues.

He admits to not really "feeling anything" on hearing he had won the election in March as he was "overwhelmed".

But as congratulations poured in from around the world, it became clear that his story was "bigger than a mayoral election in a small community".

Alshebl believes the fact he triumphed against two other local candidates who grew up in the area says a lot about the mentality of the voters.

"It is a sign that people did not count the origin, but the qualifications. It is a sign of openness to the world," he said.

Alshebl's parents, a schoolteacher and an agricultural engineer, belong to Syria's Druze minority, but he describes himself as not religious.

He has "mixed feelings" about Syria, which he has not been able to visit since living in Germany.

"It is the country where you were born and raised... You long for the people you grew up with," he said.

"But I am happy that I got this chance to live here at all" when others have not, he said.