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GENEVA — Four months into Sudan’s conflict, the situation is spiralling out of control, with mass displacement and millions on the verge of famine, humanitarian organisations warned on Tuesday, urging immediate international action.

Since Sudan’s conflict erupted on April 15, the country has been plunged into a dire humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations also warning of arbitrary killings and rampant sexual abuse.

In a joint appeal, the heads of 20 global organisations pointed out that “more than 6 million Sudanese people are one step away from famine”.

“The situation is spiralling out of control,” said the statement, signed by the heads of numerous United Nations agencies, along with organisations including Save the Children and CARE.

The signatories pointed out that more than 14 million children need humanitarian aid and over four million people have fled the fighting, either within the war-ravaged country or as refugees to neighbouring states.

At the same time, they warned, “time is running out for farmers to plant the crops that will feed them and their neighbours”.

They decried the lacklustre international response four months into the fighting between Sudan’s army, led by General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

‘No excuse’ 

“There is no excuse for waiting,” said the statement, pointing out that two appeals for aid to help some 19 million Sudanese “are just over 27-per cent funded”.

“Please change that.”

The UN said it so far had received just a quarter of the $2.57 billion it has appealed for to help people inside Sudan, and just 31 per cent of the $566 million requested to help those who have fled as refugees to neighbouring countries.

The signatories assured the people of Sudan that their organisations would “continue to push for access to all people and in all areas of Sudan to bring humanitarian supplies and essential services”.

They called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”, and demanded that the parties to the conflict “grant us safe and unfettered access” to provide desperately needed aid.

They highlighted reports of widespread attacks on civilians, looting of humanitarian supplies, targeting of aid workers, civilians assets and infrastructure, including hospitals, and the blocking of humanitarian assistance.

Such acts, they warned, “may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

The UN human rights office said its figures, which are surely an undercount, indicate that more than 4,000 people have so far been killed in the fighting, including 28 humanitarian and health workers and 435 children.

Sexual violence 

The UN voiced particular concern for women and girls caught up in the conflict, amid “shocking incidence of sexual violence, including rape”.

“We’ve seen an increase of more than 900 percent in the conflict areas of gender-based violence,” Laila Baker of the United Nations Population Fund told reporters in Geneva via video link from Cairo.

“Those women are incredibly at risk,” she said.

The victims of such violence, which in a number of cases end up pregnant, find themselves with little or no access to assistance and care, she warned.

UN rights chief Volker Turk, meanwhile, said in a statement that his office had “received credible reports of 32 incidents of sexual violence against 73 victims as of 2 August”.

“This includes at least 28 incidents of rape. Men in RSF uniform were implicated in at least 19 incidents as perpetrators,” he said, stressing that “the actual number of cases is likely much higher”.

HABBANIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi merchant Mohamed has never seen such a grim tourist season: Years of drought have shrunken the majestic Lake Habbaniyah, keeping away the holidaymakers who once flocked there during summer.

"The last two years, there was some activity, but now there's no more water," said 35-year-old Mohamed, asking to be identified by his first name only.

He laid out inflatable water floats, nets and shirts in front of his lakeside shop, but expected few if any customers.

"This year, it's dry, dry!" Mohamed told AFP, his shirt soaked in sweat in the inhospitable heat of nearly 50ºC.

Shorelines at Habbaniyah, about 70 kilometres west of the capital Baghdad, have receded by several dozen metres after four consecutive years of drought ravaged parts of the country.

The United Nations ranks water-stressed Iraq as one of five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change.

When full, as it last was in 2020, the lake can hold up to 3.3 billion cubic metres of water, said Jamal Odeh Samir, director of water resources in Anbar province, where Habbaniyah is located.

But now "the lake contains no more than 500 million cubic metres of water", he told AFP.

Shops like Mohamed's and holiday homes by the lake now sit empty in the height of summer. On the beach, stray dogs wander between unused umbrellas.

To get to the water, visitors must walk through foul-smelling mud that was once submerged under the lake surface.

'Only place to relax' 

The resort was created around the artificial lake in 1979, becoming a popular destination for tourists from across the Middle East in the following years.

Declining rainfall over the past four years and rising temperatures have hit Habbaniya,  alongside much of the rest of the country, hard.

Baghdad blames upstream dam construction by Turkey on a staggering low water level in the Euphrates river, which feeds the lake and also runs through Syria.

“The strategic water reserves in Iraq are at their lowest point” in nearly a century, Khaled Shamal, spokesman for the water resources ministry, has warned.

Last week during a visit to Baghdad, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk warned that “rising temperatures plus the drought, and the fact that the loss of diversity is a reality, is a wake-up call for Iraq and for the world”.

Sada’a Saleh Mohamed, a local official overseeing finances at the Habbaniyah resort, said “the lake has receded” and tourism has become “really very weak”.

“The lake has become a pond of stagnant water, unsuitable for consumption or for swimming,” he said.

When evening fell and temperatures dropped slightly, a few people finally arrived to barbecue on the beach.

Qassem Lafta came with his family from the nearby city of Fallujah.

“Before, we would come here and it was much better, the water was higher,” said the 45-year-old merchant.

He said he hoped authorities would revive the lake.

“It’s the only place where people from Anbar, southern Iraq and Baghdad can come to relax.”

TARHUNA, Libya — A photograph of Mourad Allafi hangs in the family farmhouse in western Libya three years after he was found in a mass grave. His father wants his killers dead.

Mohamad Allafi believes the prison terms of six years to life handed down by a military court in February to 30 people convicted of murder are not enough.

And relatives of the hundreds of others who were tortured, killed and dumped in row upon row of mass graves in Tarhuna agree with him.

The families who lost relatives in the mass killings say that only the death penalty can ease the pain of those who have lost children murdered “in cold blood”.

Capital punishment is still legal in Libya, but the ultimate penalty is not often applied.

Many families in Libya are still reeling from the years of violence and injustice that followed the toppling and killing in 2011 of Muammar Qadhafi.

The dictator’s demise plunged the North African country into chaos.

Tarhuna, a town some 80 kilometres south of the capital Tripoli with a population of 40,000, stands out because of the atrocities committed there.

A feared militia called the Kaniyat, named after the six brothers who ran it, seized Tarhuna in 2015 and set about systematically silencing opponents and often their entire families.

Lions that the Al Kani brothers kept during their reign of terror were rumoured to feed on the flesh of their victims.

Mohamad Allafi will never forget the day the Kaniyat abducted his 30-year-old son in 2019.

“I called him dozens of times that night, but in vain,” he said in a trembling voice.

Searching for bodies 

Mourad had “stayed well away from politics and militias”, his father insists.

His only crime, in the Kaniyat’s eyes, was holding an ID card that showed he belonged to the Na’aji tribe which opposed the militia’s violent grip on the town.

For a time, the Al Kani brothers sided with militias based in Tripoli.

But when eastern-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an assault on the capital in 2019, the clan switched sides and offered him Tarhuna as a rear base.

When Haftar’s forces were routed a year later, the Al Kanis disappeared.

Three of the brothers, including Mohamed their leader, were killed, and locals in Tarhuna believe the other three are now hiding.

With the Al Kanis gone from Tarhuna, residents started looking for mass graves. They chipped away at the hard ochre earth with spades, desperate to find signs of the many disappeared.

The body of Mourad Allafi was one of 350 to be discovered.

Libya’s authority for the disappeared has so far identified 226 sets of remains, and is still searching for more in three main sites.

A second trial of dozens of others suspected of involvement in the Tarhuna killings is expected to conclude in the coming weeks, the justice ministry said.

But many of the townspeople are sceptical that this will bring them closure.

Three demands 

“The military prosecutor’s office tried people for the crimes in Tarhuna and delivered unjust and insufficient verdicts,” said Mossab Abou Kleich of an association of victims’ families, referring to February’s verdict.

“They should have been sentenced to death,” he said.

“No family is satisfied with just prison sentences for those proven to be directly responsible for murdering hundreds of civilians,” Abou Kleich added.

He called for punishment “commensurate with the crime that was committed”.

Abou Kleich said the families’ three main demands are “finding the missing, pursuing and prosecuting the criminals, and reparations”.

He says the government should prioritise compensating the families whose property was destroyed, which will help ease tribal tensions in Tarhuna and bring an end to this bloody chapter in the town’s history.

Whatever the outcome of the court proceedings, the tragedy of Tarhuna will continue to affect people’s lives.

“Since Mourad’s killing, my wife and I have been sick. I have diabetes and hypertension, and my wife is bedridden from the unbearable pain,” said Allafi, his younger son Abdelhakim by his side.

Four years later, Mahmoud al-Marghani still can’t explain to his nieces and nephews — aged seven, 10 and 14 — why their father Khaled disappeared in June 2019.

The 59-year-old was abducted by three unidentified men from his home and forced into a large 4X4. He is still missing.

“He went on a trip,” Marghani tells them when they ask about their father.

He cannot bring himself to tell them that one of the “criminals admitted torturing and killing him”.

TUNIS — At least five people died on Monday and seven others are missing after their Europe-bound migrant boat sank off Tunisia’s coast, a judicial official in the city of Sfax told AFP.

Sfax has emerged as a major hub for migrants from Tunisia and other parts of Africa attempting perilous voyages across the Mediterranean, often in rickety boats in hopes of a better life.

Court spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi said “35 people, most of them Tunisians” including women and children were on board the boat that went down “shortly after departing from the coast of Sidi Mansour” near Sfax.

The deaths include at least one child and two women, Masmoudi said, adding that “23 people have been rescued”.

The boat sank “less than an hour after departure”, according to the spokesman.

Last week judicial officials reported the deaths of at least 11 migrants in a shipwreck off Sfax, as the North African country sees a spike in attempted sea crossings.

The eastern Tunisian port city is located about 130 kilometres from the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The court has launched an investigation into the latest shipwreck, Masmoudi said, as search operations were under way.

More than 1,800 people have died this year in shipwrecks on the central Mediterranean migration route, the world’s deadliest — more than twice as many as last year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Growing numbers 

The Tunisian coastguard says it intercepted 34,290 migrants in the six months to June 20, most from sub-Saharan African countries, compared with 9,217 over the same period in 2022.

The number of people from sub-Saharan African countries trying to make the crossing has spiked since Tunisian President Kais Saied alleged in a February speech that “hordes” of irregular migrants were causing crime and posing a demographic threat to the mainly Arab country.

Many have also fled since hundreds of migrants were arrested or chased into the desert after the deadly stabbing of a Tunisian man in a brawl with migrants in Sfax on July 3.

Tunisians have opted for the sea journeys in growing numbers as the country faces a grinding economic crisis and severe shortages of basic staples.

On Saturday, at least two Tunisians including a baby died when their boat sank soon after leaving the coast in Gabes, south of Sfax, the coastguard said.

Italy says about 95,000 migrants have arrived on its shores since the start of the year — more than double the number for the same period in 2022.

Tunisians are the fourth-largest group among them, behind migrants from the Ivory Coast, Guinea and Egypt.

Mouhamed Borhen Chamtouri, a commander of the coastguard in Sfax, told AFP on Thursday that this month the force had intercepted about 3,000 migrants in just 10 days, 90 per cent of whom were from other parts of Africa.

In July, the European Union signed an agreement with Tunisia that provides for 105 million euros ($115 million) in direct European aid to prevent the departure of migrant boats and combat smugglers.

AMMAN — Rising Stars Arabia (RSA), the first fighting series of its kind in the UAE and the MENA region, is set to host a milestone event on September 9 at Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Arena, showcasing the best of Arab boxing talent to an international and regional audience 

The event is promoted by AAM Seddiqi Sports and sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), according to a statement from the event’s organisers.

AAM Seddiqi Sports founder, Ahmed A. Seddiqi, said: “It’s time to show the world that in addition to hosting major events in the region, we also have homegrown talents that can perform at the highest level of boxing and become superstars of the sport. We are proud to host this monumental event in Abu Dhabi and would like to thank DCT Abu Dhabi for believing in us and putting their trust in the RSA platform.”

Sanctioned by the Middle East Professional Boxing Commission, the RSA event will be broadcasted live on regional and international platforms such as Abu Dhabi Sports TV and ESPN Knockout, further bolstering Abu Dhabi’s reputation as the combat sports capital of the Arabian Peninsula.

Saleh Al Geziry, Director General for Tourism at DCT Abu Dhabi, said: “The arrival of Rising Stars Arabia in the emirate further cements Abu Dhabi’s status as a regional hub for combat sports and other major athletic events and franchises. We remain committed to enabling the development of homegrown talent and are proud to support this impressive line-up of Emirati and Arab fighters who are helping to promote and elevate the sport in the UAE and wider region. With this ground-breaking fight series, not only are we nurturing a sport, we are proving once again that Abu Dhabi is a premier tourism destination offering diverse and exciting entertainment experiences to our residents and visitors from around the world.”

Headlining the first event is the fight between Moroccan talent Moussa Gholam (20-1-0, 12KOs), currently ranked 14th in WBC, against former world title challenger Matias Carlos Adrian Rueda (37-2-0, 32KOs). This fight marks Gholam's debut in the Middle East, and both fighters are world title contenders. 

The co-main event will feature the UAE’s own Sultan Al Nuaimi (9-0-0, 6KOs) in a 10-round bout, where he will take on Jemsi Kibazange (18-6-2, 5KOs) from Tanzania. Sultan, known for his speed and agility, made waves with his impressive performance at the last event promoted by Matchroom Boxing in Abu Dhabi. Nuaimi is one of only a few professional boxers in the country, is a previous UAE champion in the amateurs, and is expected to put on a thrilling show for his home crowd.

Bader Samreen is a titan from Jordan’s professional boxing scene and a bronze medallist in the amateur world champions. He boastseight wars and eight wins -sevenclaimed by delivering jaw-dropping knockouts, each more electrifying than the last. Samreen will be stepping into the ring against tough and experienced Mexican fighter Jose Gonzales, with 16 wins to his name, ensuring a fight to remember.

The event will also feature Jordanian boxer Bishara Sabbar (6-0-0, 4KOs) and India’s Mohd Azahar (8-5-1, 7KOs) going head-to-head for the WBC Youth World Title. Other notable fighters participating in the event include two youth Olympian boxers from Egypt Cruiser weight, Youssef Karrar (1-0-0, 0KO), and Marwan Mohamad Madboly (2-0-0, 1KO). Other bouts will include fighters from Iran, Bahrain and Morocco.

AAM Seddiqi Sports has been promoting and managing fighters in the region for 10 years, and has a stable of more than 30 regional and global talents. Events include five world title shows that have been broadcasted globally on ESPN, Sky Sports and other major networks.

DCT Abu Dhabi is responsible for promoting, protecting and progressing the emirate by driving the strategic and sustainable growth of Abu Dhabi’s culture and tourism sectors. As part of its mandate, the department is responsible for promoting regional and global sporting events in the emirate.

Tickets to Rising Stars Arabia are on sale now at abu-dhabi.platinumlist.net. Leading up to the event, fans can find updates on the AAM Seddiqi Sports Instagram channel @seddiqiboxing.

WAD MADANI, Sudan — Attacks by Sudanese paramilitaries on Sunday sent hundreds of civilians fleeing a major city in Darfur, residents told AFP as battles against the regular army intensify in the restive western region.

Darfur as well as Sudan's capital Khartoum have borne the brunt of nearly four months of fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by rival generals vying for power.

One resident told AFP hundreds of people have been displaced from Nyala, Sudan's second largest city and capital of South Darfur state, where "rockets are falling on houses".

The war erupted in Khartoum on April 15 between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

At least 3,900 people have been killed nationwide, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

More than four million people have been uprooted from their homes, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Witnesses said on Sunday that RSF paramilitaries had attacked Nyala with “dozens of military vehicles” and that “hundreds of residents are fleeing intense artillery fire”.

The vast region of Darfur has a bloody history. It is where Sudan’s former strongman Omar Al Bashir in 2003 unleashed Arab tribal militia in a scorched-earth campaign to quash a non-Arab rebellion against perceived inequalities.

It is a stronghold of the RSF which emerged from the notorious Janjaweed militia that had spearheaded Bashir’s deadly onslaught.

Fighting in the latest conflict has concentrated on El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, where the United Nations suspects that crimes against humanity have been committed.

Several sources allege there have been massacres of civilians and ethnically motivated killings in Darfur, attributed to paramilitary forces and allied Arab militias.

Researchers at Yale University in the United States say that at least 27 villages in Darfur have been razed to the ground by the RSF and its allies since April.

“The ferocity and volume of the violence at least equals the genocide in 2003-2004,” Nathaniel Raymond of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health told AFP.

“The RSF and Arab allied militias are moving methodically and quickly without impediment. They chose the time and place and attack to liquidate civilian communities,” he said.

Fighting was also reported on Sunday in Khartoum’s battle-scarred sister city of Omdurman just across the Nile, where one resident reported “artillery fire”.

TEHRAN — A shooting on Sunday at a Shiite Muslim shrine in Iran’s south killed at least one person and wounded eight others, state media reported, revising down a previous toll of four fatalities.

The attack comes less than a year after a similar one on the same holy site, the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in the Fars province capital Shiraz.

“One person has been killed and eight others wounded in the attack,” official news agency IRNA reported, quoting Deputy Fars Governor Esmail Ghezel Sofla.

The wounded “have been transferred to medical centres and are undergoing treatment”, IRNA said.

Earlier, it said four people were killed but has retracted the initial report.

The death toll of one was confirmed by the Fars commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yadollah Bouali, speaking on state TV.

Iranian media outlets have provided different accounts of the attack and varying casualty tolls.

Bouali said that one gunman was behind it and arrested shortly after.

“A terrorist entered the gate of the shrine and opened fire with a battle rifle,” Bouali said.

Fars province Governor Mohamed Hadi Imanieh told state TV the attack occurred around 7:00pm (1530 GMT).

Footage carried by state TV showed ambulances rushing to the site of the attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Shah Cheragh mausoleum is home to the tomb of Ahmad, brother of Imam Reza — the eighth Shiite imam — and is considered the holiest site in southern Iran.

On October 26, a mass shooting at the revered shrine left 13 people dead and 30 wounded, in an attack later claimed by Daesh  group extremists.

Iran hanged two men in public over the October attack, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website reported last month, identifying them as Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeem Hashem Qatali but not revealing their nationalities.

Authorities had previously said the attack involved people from other countries including neighbouring Afghanistan.

The pair were hanged at dawn on July 8 on a street near the shrine in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province, IRNA reported at the time.

Mizan said they had been convicted of “corruption on earth, armed rebellion and acting against national security” as well as “conspiracy against the security of the country”.

According to Mizan, Rashidi had confessed to having collaborated with Daesh to carry out the shooting.

Three other defendants in the case were sentenced to prison for five, 15 and 25 years for being members of Daesh, Fars Chief Justice Kazem Moussavi said.

The main assailant — who Iranian media had identified as Hamed Badakhshan, a man in his 30s — died of injuries sustained during his arrest, authorities said.

In November, Tehran said 26 “takfiri terrorists” from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan had been arrested in connection with the attack.

In Shiite-dominated Iran, the term takfiri generally refers to extremists or proponents of radical Sunni Islam.

Last year’s attack occurred as Iran was gripped by nationwide protests following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested for an alleged breach of strict dress rules for women.