Region

CAIRO — The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity on Wednesday warned it may suspend support to one of the last fully-functioning hospitals in war-torn Sudan if its workers are not given visas.

With only a quarter of the country’s healthcare facilities still open after nearly four months of war, the charity said it has been waiting “for more than eight weeks” for visas for its staff to be processed.

Other aid groups have also reported visa and other bureaucratic hurdles, and have sought urgent safe passage and access for their staff since the start of the conflict between army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

“Without visas being urgently granted by the Sudanese authorities, Medecins Sans Frontieres may soon be forced to withdraw our support to the Turkish Hospital in Khartoum,” it said.

“The visas of many of the staff currently running the hospital are close to expiring,” MSF said.

“As a result, MSF’s support to the ministry of health in the facility — which is one of the few hospitals in the whole of Khartoum that is providing round-the-clock care — will soon have to end.”

The war has decimated the country’s health infrastructure and killed more than 3,900 people, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

“The MSF team who are currently present inside the hospital have worked tirelessly with our partners in the Ministry of Health for more than two months to keep the facility open,” said Claire Nicolet, MSF’s emergency manager for Sudan.

Rising hunger 

The charity said it treated more than 3,800 patients, including over 200 children, in the Turkish Hospital between mid-June and the end of July.

Sudan was one of the world’s poorest countries even before the war erupted in mid-April and plunged it into further chaos and destitution.

The charity Save the Children on Tuesday warned the country is at risk of major disease outbreaks, with thousands of unburied corpses remaining out in the open and the country’s health and sanitation infrastructure destroyed.

MSF noted that visas can only be collected in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which has been spared the fighting but is difficult to reach from battle-scarred areas like the capital and the western Darfur region.

The country’s rainy season began in June, adding to health challenges, and World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “more than 40 per cent of the population of Sudan is now in hunger — double the number since May last year”.

More than 4 million people have been internally displaced by the war or fled to neighbouring countries.

As they try to flee, “They are vulnerable to abuse, theft and harassment during their journeys to safer areas,” the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said in a statement.

“The parties to the conflict in Sudan must ensure the safe passage of civilians fleeing violence,” she said.

CAIRO — War-torn Sudan is at risk of major disease outbreaks, with thousands of unburied corpses remaining out in the open and the country’s health and sanitation infrastructure destroyed, Save the Children warned on Tuesday.

Residents say Khartoum is littered with dead bodies from fighting between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

With thousands of corpses decomposing on the streets of the capital and morgues overflowing four months into the conflict, the London-based charity raised the alarm about “the risk of major disease outbreaks in the city”.

Sudan has seen repeated cholera outbreaks in recent years, and doctors have warned of a renewed threat as a result of the war.

“A horrifying combination of rising numbers of corpses, severe water shortages, non-functioning hygiene and sanitation services, and lack of water treatment options are also prompting fears of a cholera outbreak in the city,” Save the Children said.

Without a functioning public health laboratory for testing, the non-governmental organisation said it was difficult to assess whether Sudan was experiencing a cholera outbreak.

The conflict which erupted on April 15 has prevented victims and families from reaching hospitals, 80 per cent of which the World Health Organisation says are out of service.

In addition, “prolonged power shortages have left the city’s morgues without refrigeration, leaving bodies to decompose in the heat,” said Save the Children.

“The inability to give those who have died a dignified burial is yet another element of the suffering of families in Khartoum,” said Bashir Kamal Eldin Hamid, a doctor with the organisation.

Fighting has killed at least 3,900 people nationwide, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

More than 4 million people have been uprooted from their homes, the UN’s refugee agency said on Tuesday.

The United Nations says more than six million people are “just one step away from famine”, as aid groups struggle to deliver life-saving assistance through bureaucratic hurdles, security challenges and targeted attacks.

Since the conflict began, Khartoum has not gone a day without the sound of heavy artillery, air strikes or gunfire rattling terrified civilians, trapped at home and rationing water and electricity.

On Tuesday, witnesses reported clashes in central Khartoum, while a medical source in the capital’s northwest told AFP the fighting had killed 13 civilians.

The source requested anonymity for their protection, as medical personnel have been targeted.

“These clashes are the heaviest since the war began,” a bus driver told AFP, adding he had been prevented from navigating the capital’s northwest.

DUBAI — Two years ago, Dubai’s skyscraper-studded skyline welcomed a Ferris wheel touted as the world’s largest, but it mysteriously stopped turning just months after opening.

The much-touted Ain Dubai (Dubai Eye) was designed as a tourist-luring landmark in the United Arab Emirates’ glam-hub, which is home to the world’s tallest building.

But now it stands idle for undisclosed reasons, its extravagant light fixtures the only parts seemingly still working.

“Ain Dubai remains closed until further notice,” says an official website for the attraction.

“We continue to rigorously work on completing the enhancement works that have been taking place over the past months.”

The wheel was supposed to close for just a month but its reopening has since been postponed indefinitely.

Those behind the project inaugurated in 2021 have failed to reply to enquiries.

At restaurants, shops and cafes built around the attraction, employees remain sceptical that the structure, which took around six years to build, will ever turn again.

“Last year they promised us that in winter it will be open, even now, they are saying that in [the coming] winter it will be open again,” said one employee at a nearby shop.

“But we’re not sure... it will,” said the man who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisal.

‘Too slow’ 

The Dubai Eye, built by a consortium of international companies, is located in Bluewaters — a man-made island designed as a retail, residential and entertainment hub.

For more than a year, the main entrance to the attraction has remained closed and ticket booths abandoned. Only a slow trickle of tourists visit the site, snapping pictures of LED lights mounted on its exterior.

“I asked a security guard here about it and he told me that it doesn’t work,” said Marwan Mohammad, an Egyptian tourist.

“I asked him for the reason but he did not give me an answer,” said the 33-year-old business consultant.

In a city filled with record-breaking landmarks, the Dubai Eye stands at a height of 250 metres, each of its legs the length of 15 London buses, according to Dubai’s tourism department.

Nearly twice as tall as the London Eye, it is the largest of its kind in the world.

Its 48 passenger cabins, all of them air-conditioned, can carry around 1,750 passengers on a single ride.

Ticket prices range between 100 dirhams (about $27) and 4,700 dirhams (about $1,280), with luxury passes and private cabins on offer.

“The view was very beautiful from above,” said Mohammad who experienced the 38-minute ride before it closed, adding however, that it moved “too slowly”.

‘Heavier than island’ 

With no official explanation, rumours are rife on the Ferris wheel’s apparent technical issues, especially among employees at Bluewaters.

They all spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from authorities or their employers.

“This is a man-made island. I heard that [the wheel] is heavier than the island itself, that’s why it is very dangerous,” said a waiter at a nearby restaurant, adding that it had been noisy during its few months of operation.

“Now... it’s only for show, just for the lighting and that’s it”.

The giant wheel, made of more steel than the Eiffel Tower, features prominently on the list of Dubai’s top tourist attractions.

They include the Dubai Frame monument and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

Patrick Clawson, research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said official silence on the Ferris wheel suggested a complicated problem.

UAE authorities are generally “quick to provide information if they” have a solution, he said.

But with the Dubai Eye, “whatever the problem, the authorities are not confident they have a solution”, he told AFP.

BEIRUT — Four Syrian soldiers and two Iran-backed fighters were killed on Monday in pre-dawn Israeli strikes near Damascus, a war monitor said, in the latest deadly Israeli air raid to hit war-torn Syria's capital.

The air strikes targeted Syrian army forces, and military positions and weapons depots used by armed groups supported by Tehran, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

During more than a decade of war in Syria, neighbouring Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, reportedly targeting Iran-backed forces and Hizbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the observatory, told AFP that "four Syrian soldiers including one officer, as well as two Iran-backed fighters were killed in air strikes on Tehran-supported groups' positions and warehouses for ammunition and weapons."

Two army troops and five foreign fighters were wounded in the strikes, he added, saying four of them were in critical condition.

The Israeli strikes hit areas near Damascus International Airport, Dimas Airport and Kisweh, all close to the capital, destroying weapons and ammunition depots belonging to Iran-backed groups, said the Britain-based monitor which relies on a wide network inside Syria.

Earlier Monday, state media said four Syrian soldiers were killed and four others wounded in the strikes, citing a military source.

"At 2:20 am [2320 GMT Sunday], the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting areas in the vicinity of Damascus," official news agency SANA reported.

The raid killed "four soldiers and wounded four others", it said, reporting unspecified material damage and adding that Syrian air defences intercepted some Israeli missiles.

An AFP correspondent in the capital reported hearing the sound of explosions.

Israel rarely comments on strikes it carries out on Syria, but it has repeatedly said it would not allow its archfoe Iran to expand its footprint there.

'Criminal' 

On July 19, Israeli air strikes near Damascus killed three pro-government fighters and wounded four others, the Syrian Observatory said at the time.

SANA had reported two soldiers were wounded in those strikes. It quoted a military source as saying the bombing targeted “certain positions in the vicinity of Damascus”.

Syria’s foreign ministry had condemned that attack “in the strongest terms”.

In a statement carried by SANA, it called on the United Nations and the Security Council to “take immediate action” to oblige Israel “to desist from these criminal policies”.

Early last month, state media said Israel had carried out air strikes near the government-held city of Homs.

The Israeli army later said it struck an anti-aircraft battery after rocket fire.

On June 14, Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus wounding a soldier, according to SANA.

Those strikes came after others which in late May hit the Damascus region, with the Observatory reporting five wounded in attacks on air defence sites that host fighters from Lebanon’s powerful pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim movement Hizbollah.

Previous Israeli strikes have put both Damascus and Aleppo airports out of service.

And in late March and early April, Israel stepped up its strikes on Syria with four raids on government-held areas in less than a week, targeting positions of Syrian government forces and pro-Iran groups.

TUNIS — Sixteen migrants have died in shipwrecks off the coasts of Tunisia and Western Sahara, officials said on Monday, as North Africa faces a spike in Europe-bound sea crossings.

Much of the North African coast has become a major gateway for irregular migrants and asylum seekers primarily from other parts of the continent, attempting perilous voyages in often rickety boats in the hopes of a better life.

At least 11 migrants died in a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia's second city of Sfax, said local court spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi, revising an earlier toll of four fatalities.

Another 44 are missing while two others were rescued from the boat that had 57 people on board, all of them from sub-Saharan African countries, Masmoudi added.

Survivors of the sinking, near Tunisia's Kerkennah Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, said the makeshift boat had departed over the weekend from a beach north of the coastal city of Sfax.

Masmoudi told AFP coastguard units were searching for more survivors.

The distance between Sfax and Italy's Lampedusa island is only about 130 kilometres.

Authorities in Morocco meanwhile said the bodies of five migrants, all from Senegal, had been recovered while 189 had been rescued after their boat capsized off Western Sahara.

The five bodies as well as 11 migrants in "critical condition" were transferred to a hospital in Dakhla, the disputed Western Sahara's second city on the Atlantic coast, a military source told Rabat's state-owned MAP news agency.

According to the source, the boat had embarked from "a country located south of the kingdom" and was headed towards Spain's Canary Islands before being discovered off the coast of Guerguart, just north of Mauritania.

It was in a "difficult situation", the source added.

The migrants who were rescued, including at least one woman, were taken to Dakhla on Sunday and handed over to Moroccan authorities, according to the source.

Migrant deaths have surged in recent years as thousands flee war or crushing poverty, seeking to cross the Mediterranean in the hopes of finding better lives in Europe.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), outbreaks of cholera and measles have already been reported in parts of the country that have been nearly impossible for relief missions to access.

More than 80 per cent of Sudan’s hospitals are no longer in service, the WHO said, while the few health facilities that remain often come under fire and struggle to provide care.

The conflict, which erupted in the capital Khartoum on April 15, has displaced more than three million people internally with many in urgent need of aid, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Nearly a million others have fled across borders seeking safety, it said.

Aid groups repeatedly complain of security challenges, bureaucratic hurdles and targeted attacks that prevent them from delivering much-needed assistance.

Again on Monday, Khartoum’s densely populated neighbourhoods were pummelled by rockets and heavy artillery fire, witnesses told AFP.

The fighting between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed more than 3,900 people, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.