Region

AL-BU MUSTAFA, Iraq — Iraqi villager Omar Ziad gazes at the cracked and barren earth where his fish farm once stood, lost to water conservation efforts during a devastating four-year drought.

As the alarming water crisis blamed mostly on climate change drags on, officials see the need for trade-offs in an effort to meet the country's demands.

Drastic government measures have restricted water use for some purposes, including crop irrigation, and authorities have cracked down on illegal practices they long ignored.

Since late May, unauthorised fish farms like Ziad's have become a target.

"I've worked in this industry since 2003," the 33-year-old said at his village of Al Bu Mustafa in Iraq's central Babylon province.

He had watched helplessly as officials from the water resources ministry sealed his family's seven fish ponds.

Surrounded by fields and majestic palm trees, this was where Ziad, his father and seven brothers would rear carp, which Iraqis use to make their beloved grilled fish dish known as masguf.

At full capacity, the farm held about 50,000 fish and earned the family the equivalent of $1,300-2,600 a month, far more than many in the country.

"We would share the revenues", said Ziad, who also works as a teacher.

He added that they sold their fish "cheaply", but since all but five of the village's 80 fish ponds shut down, the price of carp has almost doubled, now selling at more than 8,000 dinars (around $6) per kilogramme, he said.

'Strategic reserves' 

From a bird's-eye view, the backfilled dry patches of land that replaced the ponds are marked out by unpaved roads.

The monotony of the barren landscape is occasionally interrupted by ponds that still hold water. These were spared because their owners had the necessary permits, according to Ziad.

Water supply in Iraq, which the United Nations ranks as one of the five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change, is in a dire state.

Declining rain over the past four years coupled with rising temperatures has brought water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to staggering lows, for which Baghdad also accuses upstream dams built by neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

"The strategic water reserves in Iraq are at their lowest point" in nearly a century, said Khaled Shamal, spokesman for the water resources ministry.

Some of Iraq's 43 million inhabitants share the blame, he told AFP, due to water-intensive "irrigation practices".

Shamal justified the crackdown on unauthorised fish farms by saying the ponds "increase the water surface susceptible to evaporation", provoke seepage into the soil, and contribute to "environmental pollution".

About half of Iraq's estimated 5,000 "unlicensed" fish farms have been closed, Shamal said, pointing out that authorities still allow mobile fish tanks which are submerged in rivers.

Plunging output 

Ayad Al-Talibi, president of the Iraqi association of fish farmers, said he accepted the shutting of unauthorised ponds but questioned whether the water that has been saved was "properly used".

Before the May crackdown, Iraq produced nearly 1 million tonnes of fish per year, but Talibi told public broadcaster Al Ikhbariya that output has now plunged to 190,000 tonnes. 

According to him, the sector employs two million Iraqis. "All of these families will migrate to the cities" which might struggle to accommodate them, he predicted.

The water crisis has also affected river fishing.

In Iraq's far south, high salinity has harmed fishing in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the Tigris and Euphrates converge before spilling into the Gulf.

As the flow of fresh water from the north decreases every year, the riverbed gradually fills with salt water.

Sailing the waters of Shatt Al Arab, fisherman Khdeir Aboud, 71, casts his net but expects no major catch.

Fresh water would once carry "all types of fish" but "with the salt water, there's nothing left", said the white-bearded man.

The meagre pay he now makes "can't support a household", he lamented.

"Most fishermen have quit the trade for odd jobs. There are only a few old people left."

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s interior minister said on Monday that deadly violence at a Palestinian camp had abated, in a bid to ease fears after Gulf states warned citizens against travel to the country.

“The situation in Ain Al Helweh camp has now calmed down,” Bassam Mawlawi said referring to south Lebanon’s restive Palestinian camp.

“Security and intelligence services... have no information that the situation could spin out of control and spill over to other camps,” the interior minister told reporters.

Thirteen people were killed in several days of violence that erupted on July 29 — the worst in years — pitting members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fateh movement against Islamists.

Last week, Arab Gulf countries — some of which have already banned their citizens from travelling to Lebanon — issued warnings urging their nationals to exercise caution in the country, or emphasising travel restrictions.

The moves caught Lebanese by surprise, coming after a cautious calm returned to Ain Al Helweh, where outbreaks of violence are common.

Saudi Arabia called on citizens to avoid areas where clashes erupted, and to leave Lebanon immediately, recalling a travel ban already in place.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain followed suit, while Qatar, Kuwait and Oman urged their citizens to exercise caution and avoid unsafe areas.

Mawlawi said on Monday that it was “perfectly normal” for countries to take measures “to ensure the security of their citizens”.

Gulf nations have issued travel warnings over security incidents in Lebanon in the past.

Relations between Beirut and Gulf Arab states have at times been strained over the growing regional influence of Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hizbollah.

Since 2021, Saudis have had to obtain their government’s permission before travelling to Lebanon due to strained bilateral ties.

Riyadh returned its ambassador to Beirut in April 2022, just over five months after recalling him amid a diplomatic dispute pitting Lebanon against several Gulf monarchies.

Riyadh also suspended fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon in April 2021, saying shipments were being used for drug smuggling and accusing Beirut of inaction.

RABAT — One of Morocco's worst-ever road accidents left 24 people dead on Sunday in the central province of Azilal, officials said.

They were killed when a minibus carrying passengers to a weekly market in the town of Demnate overturned on a bend, the local authorities said.

They added that an investigation has begun.

Accidents are frequent on the roads of Morocco and other North African countries, which see thousands of road deaths annually. 

In March 11 people, mostly agricultural workers, died when their minibus slammed into a tree after the driver lost control in the rural town of Brachoua, local officials said at the time.

Many poorer citizens use coaches and minibuses to travel in rural areas.

In August last year, 23 people were killed and 36 injured when their bus overturned on a bend east of Morocco's economic capital Casablanca.

An average of 3,500 road deaths and 12,000 injuries are recorded annually in Morocco, according to the National Road Safety Agency, with an average of 10 deaths per day.

The figure last year was around 3,200.

Authorities have set out to halve the mortality rate by 2026 ever since the worst bus accident in the country's history left 42 dead in 2012.

On July 19 in neighbouring Algeria 34 people were killed when a passenger bus collided head-on with a pickup truck carrying fuel cans and burst into flames, deep in the southern Sahara region, officials said.

The North African country's deadliest road crash in years also left 12 others injured, many with severe burns, Algeria's civil defence agency said.

National gendarmerie official Samir Bouchehit said the truck was carrying cans of gasoline and driving on the wrong side of the road. 

Libya's roads have ranked among the deadliest in the world.

The Libyan interior ministry's traffic department recorded 4,115 road accidents across the country in 2018, killing 2,500 people and injuring more than 3,000 others.

One of Tunisia's worst road accidents occurred in 2019 when at least 24 Tunisians were killed and 18 injured when a bus plunged into a ravine.

About 7,000 people lost their lives on the roads of Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, in 2020, according to official figures.

Sudan recorded around 10,000 annual traffic fatalities between 2016 and 2019, according to the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli forces on Sunday killed three Palestinians in the West Bank, the army said, the latest deaths in a surge of violence rocking the occupied territory.

An army statement said its forces “operated to prevent an immediate threat” and described one of the dead as a “leading military operative” from the Jenin refugee camp.

Since early last year, the West Bank has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities and repeated Israeli forces raids.

Israeli forces on Sunday said that “a vehicle carrying a squad of terrorists from the Jenin refugee camp was identified while on its way to carry out an attack”.

Soldiers opened fire and killed three passengers, the statement said, including the suspected squad leader, 26-year-old Nayef Abu Swiess.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the deaths of three “young men by occupation [Israeli] bullets” in the incident near the town of Arraba in the Jenin area.

Deputy governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu Al Roub, told AFP the Israeli forces had “taken the car and the bodies”.

“The car had an Israeli licence plate,” he said.

Abu Swiess, according to the army statement, was “involved in military action against Israeli forces and advancing military activity directed by terrorists in the Gaza Strip”, the coastal enclave controlled by Palestinian fighters group Hamas.

Rising violence

Jenin refugee camp, one of the most crowded and impoverished in the West Bank, has become synonymous with Palestinian militancy and resistance against Israel, which views it as a “terrorist hub”.

In recent years it has been the site of fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups.

Over the past 18 months, the security situation in the camp has deteriorated with repeated Israeli raids which security forces say are to pursue militants.

In July, the Israeli army carried out its biggest operation there in years which killed 12 Palestinians including militants and children.

One Israeli soldier was also killed in the two-day operation.

The camp was established in 1953 to house some of those among the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during what Palestinian call the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, the 1948 war that coincided with Israel’s creation.

Today some 18,000 people live in the camp.

Sunday’s deaths are the latest in a surge of bloodshed to hit the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the June War of 1967.

Excluding occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

BEIRUT — Lebanon marked three years since one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut with hundreds of protesters marching alongside victims' families Friday to demand long-awaited justice. 

Nobody has been held to account for the tragedy as political and legal pressures impede the investigation.

On August 4, 2020, the massive blast at Beirut port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a vast stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been haphazardly stored for years.

Three years on, the probe is virtually at a standstill, leaving survivors still yearning for answers.

Protesters, many of them wearing black and carrying photographs of the victims, marched towards the port shouting slogans including: "We will not forget".

Some protesters waved a Lebanese flag covered in blood-like red paint while others carried an enormous flag covered in a written pledge to keep fighting for justice.

"The blast investigation is hampered by the political elites and certain judges who are on their side," said lawyer Cecile Roukoz, who lost her brother in the explosion.

She said that after three years, the international community needed to take action. "Please, it's time to act."

The blast struck amid an economic collapse which the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of corruption and mismanagement.

‘Until our last breath’ 

Since its early days, the probe into the explosion has faced a slew of political and legal challenges.

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence.

But as political pressure mounted, Sawan was removed from the case.

His successor, Tarek Bitar, unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to lift parliamentary immunity for MPs who were formerly Cabinet ministers.

The powerful Iran-backed Hizbollah group has launched a campaign against Bitar, accusing him of bias and demanding his dismissal.

The interior ministry has refused to execute arrest warrants which the lead investigator has issued.

In December 2021, Bitar suspended his probe after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

But in a surprise move this January, Bitar resumed investigations after a 13-month hiatus, charging eight new suspects including high-level security officials and Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat.

Oueidat then charged Bitar with insubordination and “usurping power”, and ordered the release of all those detained over the blast.

Bitar has refused to step aside, but has not set foot inside Beirut’s justice palace for months.

“Work [on the investigation] is ongoing,” said a legal expert with knowledge of the case, requesting anonymity due to its sensitivity.

Bitar is determined to keep his promise to deliver justice for victims’ families, the expert added.

Paul Naggear, who lost his three-year-old daughter in the blast, said he had “not been able to grieve for three years”. 

“We will keep demanding justice until our very last breath,” he said.

Rima Al Zahed, whose brother was killed in the explosion, said the judiciary was “shackled” but “the truth does not die so long as there is someone to demand it”.

Accountability 

French President Emmanuel Macron, told Lebanese: “I am thinking of you.”

“Lebanon was not alone then, and it isn’t alone now. You can count on France,” he posted.

Washington condemned the long delay in holding those responsible to account.

“The lack of progress towards accountability is unacceptable and underscores the need for judicial reform and greater respect for the rule of law in Lebanon,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

On Thursday, 300 individuals and organisations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, renewed a call for the United Nations to establish a fact-finding mission, a demand Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected.

“If those responsible are not held accountable, it will put the country on a trajectory that allows this kind of crime to be repeated,” HRW’s Lama Fakih told AFP.

BURQA, Palestinian Territories — Mourners on Saturday attended the funeral of a Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, after the UN warned of a dramatic spike in such cases.

The Palestinian health ministry in a statement late Friday announced the death of Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, saying he was “shot dead by settlers in the village of Burqa”, east of Ramallah.

At the funeral procession, Maatan was wrapped in a black and white keffiyeh head covering and Palestinian flag. Mourners carried his body through the village streets before his burial, said an AFP journalist at the scene.

Since early last year, the West Bank has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities and regular raids by Israeli forces who say they are pursuing militants.

In a statement on Saturday, Israeli forces cited Palestinian reports and witnesses as saying clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli civilians who were herding sheep near Burqa village.

Both sides threw rocks, the Palestinians let off fireworks and “Israeli civilians shot towards the Palestinians”, the army said.

“As a result of the confrontation, a Palestinian was killed, four others were injured and a Palestinian vehicle was found burned. Several Israeli civilians were injured from rocks hurled at them,” it said, adding security forces arrived after the shooting.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 June War.

Excluding occupied East Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

Incidents rising 

The last major case of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians occurred in June.

Revenge attacks on the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya and others followed the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen, which militant group Hamas said was in response to an Israeli forces raid on Jenin refugee camp which killed six Palestinians.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA on Friday said it had recorded 591 settler-related “incidents” in the West Bank in the first six months of 2023 resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both.

“That’s an average of 99 incidents every month, and a 39 per cent-increase compared with the monthly average of the whole of 2022, which is 71,” spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

Also on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli soldiers shot dead Mahmoud Abu Saan, 18, in the West Bank community of Tulkarm. The Israeli army said “suspects fired and hurled explosives and stones” at patrolling soldiers “who responded with live fire”.

Friday’s killings came three days after a Palestinian gunman wounded six people in a shooting at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank before being shot dead himself.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza residents took their seats in front of a large projector screen set up on a sandy beach, a rare event in the Islamist-ruled blockaded enclave that has no operating cinemas.

Over two weeks in summer, the "Cinema of the Sea" festival which ended Monday screened some 15 films, many of them with Palestinian actors or producers.

Providing a respite from the heat, the waterfront "is the only outlet for the residents" in the impoverished territory, said Ali Muhanna, a theatre director involved in the initiative.

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

Sitting barefoot in a pink dress at the open-air cinema on Gaza City's beach, seven-year-old Salma Shamaleh was transfixed by the screen.

"I have never seen a TV this size," she told AFP as she watched "Ferdinand", an animated blockbuster that tells the story of a giant but soft-hearted black bull.

The first film screenings in Gaza date to the 1940s, with the opening of the Samer Cinema, whose building now houses a car dealership.

Cinemas were forced to close in the late 1980s during the first Palestinian uprising, or Intifada. They reopened following the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s but for years have largely been gathering dust.

In 1996, Islamists set a Gaza cinema ablaze.

While not explicitly banned, Hamas authorities fear cinemas may amplify what they view as foreign or Western beliefs that go against Islamic traditions.

There have been some outdoor screenings in recent years, most notably amid the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli air strikes during wars fought with Gaza militants.

Like across much of the eastern Mediterranean, Gazans have flocked to the seaside in recent weeks to escape soaring temperatures.

Shamaleh was thrilled by the cinematic experience. "Our house is nearby, I'll ask my mum for us to come every day," she said.

The festival’s programme featured “Farha”, a Jordanian film which, through a young girl’s perspective, depicts atrocities committed against Palestinians during the 1948 conflict that led to Israel’s creation.

The hard-hitting film resonated with Mona Hanafi, 50, who watched it with her daughter and dozens of other spectators.

“The film is brilliant in addressing a realistic Palestinian story... The performance and directing are impressive,” she said.

“Seeing the children and people watching the open cinema in Gaza made me happy,” added Hanafi.

Another audience member, Hadeel Hajji, said she had “never seen anything like that in my life”.

“I was with my family when I saw the screen from far away, so I came to watch,” she told AFP.

“Cinema of the Sea” was organised by Al-Bahr Elna Cooperative cafe in partnership with the culture ministry.

The cooperative was established in 2020 by a group of artists, with start-up funding from Palestinian institutions. Since that initial cash dried up, the group has relied on donations.

For Muhanna, the cafe’s founder, the festival has been an opportunity to show films which demonstrate how “Palestinians contributed to producing (cinema) and conveying the values of society”.

Atef Askoul, head of the Hamas-appointed body responsible for approving public art events, said Gazans who suffer from miserable living conditions under the blockade have “the right to watch films and cinema”.

WAD MADANI, Sudan — The UN sounded the alarm on Wednesday of impending famine in Sudan, where months of war have hit food supplies and pushed nearly four million people to flee the fighting.

"Over 20.3 million people, representing more than 42 per cent of the population in the country, are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation announced.

Half that number was already highly food insecure last year, before war broke out between army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In a new escalation of an already disastrous humanitarian situation, "6.3 million people are one step away from famine", the UN warned on Wednesday.

The fighting has destroyed critical infrastructure, severely hampered agriculture and blocked the delivery of crucial aid.

More than half of the population is "facing acute hunger" in West Darfur, which has seen some of the worst clashes, including civilians targeted for their ethnicity and mass sexual violence.

The latest figures from the International Organisation for Migration show that more than 3 million people have been internally displaced, with almost a million more fleeing across Sudan's borders.

The IOM figures show that upwards of 2 million people have fled Khartoum alone, 40 per cent of its estimated pre-war population.

For months civilians have been pleading for a reprieve from the ceaseless air strikes, artillery battles and gunfire that have turned cities including the capital into war zones.

No humanitarian corridors have materialised despite promises from the warring parties, preventing aid groups from delivering increasingly life-saving assistance.

Deadly urban battles continued in the war-torn capital on Wednesday, with an army spokesman announcing in a televised address that "dozens from the rebel militia" had been "killed and wounded" in an air strike in southern Khartoum.

The RSF, which has positioned itself as the saviour of democracy even as it is accused of atrocities, again accused the army of “conspiring” with the former regime of Omar Al Bashir.

Longtime autocrat Bashir was ousted in 2019 after popular protests. The fragile transition to civilian rule that followed was derailed by a 2021 coup led by Burhan, with Daglo as his number two.

When the two generals fell out in a bitter feud, Daglo accused Burhan’s government of starting the war in order to usher Bashir’s banned National Congress Party (NCP) back into power.

An RSF statement Wednesday said the army was “covering up” NCP officials’ activities across the country, particularly in eastern Sudan, and warned against “civil war”.

It accused the army of protecting members of the old guard who had escaped from prison early in the war, “with the express goal of again seizing the mantle of power in our country”.