Region

KHARTOUM — Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan sacked his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo on Friday, as forces loyal to the feuding generals pressed on with fighting in both Khartoum and Darfur.

The United Nations, meanwhile, warned that humanitarian needs are increasing in Sudan, with aid chief Martin Griffith allocating $22 million in emergency funds to help Sudanese fleeing the violence.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says more than 1 million people have been displaced by the power struggle between Burhan and Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting, which has now raged for more than a month.

On Friday, witnesses reported exchanges of fire both in the capital Khartoum and in the troubled Darfur region, where armed civilians have also entered the fray, stoking ethnic and tribal rivalries.

In Central Darfur, RSF fighters are trying to push Burhan’s military from its headquarters in the capital Zalingei, residents said.

In South Darfur capital Nyala, fighting killed 18 people on Thursday, Sudan’s doctors syndicate said. Witnesses told AFP clashes were ongoing on Friday.

Ceasefire efforts 

The persistent violence has defied regional and international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Sudan has been gripped by economic and political turmoil since veteran leader Omar Al Bashir was ousted by the military in 2019.

Two years later, a coup by Burhan and Daglo derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule and forces loyal to the two men have been fighting relentlessly since April 15.

Representatives of the warring generals have been in Saudi Arabia, which hosted an Arab summit on Friday and has been trying to hammer out a humanitarian ceasefire.

Asked about those talks, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the focus was “on reaching a truce that allows Sudanese civilians to take a breather”.

Neighbouring South Sudan on Friday defended its own efforts to broker an end to the conflict after the Sudanese foreign ministry protested its hosting of a delegation from Daglo earlier this week.

South Sudan’s government “has continued to play its part within [East African bloc] IGAD with absolute impartiality”, the foreign ministry in Juba said in a statement.

Daglo’s envoy Yusif Isha held talks with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and IGAD officials in Juba on Wednesday.

With neither side appearing to have the upper hand, on Friday Burhan sacked Daglo and appointed three allies to top jobs in the military.

“General Burhan has issued a constitutional decree assigning Malik Agar to the post of vice-president of the ruling transitional Sovereignty Council, effective today,” the council said on its Facebook page.

The military also reported that Burhan named Gen. Shamsedding Kabashi to be his deputy, and chose two other loyal officers to be his assistants.

Emergency aid 

Agar, a former rebel leader and governor of Blue Nile state on the South Sudan border, signed a peace deal with Khartoum in 2020 and was appointed to the Sovereignty Council in February 2021.

He leads one wing of the SPLM-North, formed in 2011 by northern fighters of the movement which led South Sudan to independence that year.

Observers consider Agar’s promotion as a symbolic move which is not expected to impact the power struggle between Burhan and Daglo.

The United Nations has voiced fears the crisis in Khartoum could spread to neighbouring countries now flooded with Sudanese fleeing the violence. It renewed its appeals for the safety of civilians caught in the crossfire to be respected.

“Over a month since the fighting started, UNHCR... is making an urgent appeal for the safety of civilians and to allow humanitarian aid to move freely in Sudan,” Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, said on Friday.

He said more than one million people have been displaced within Sudan or as refugees in neighbouring countries.

“Inside Sudan, people are braving danger, moving notably from Khartoum, Darfur and other unsafe areas,” Saltmarsh said.

UN aid chief Griffiths said on Twitter he was “allocating $22 million... to support relief efforts in Chad, the Central African Republic, Egypt and South Sudan”, where Sudanese have sought refuge.

The United States on Friday promised $103 million for Sudan and neighbouring countries to support displaced people.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Jerusalem police and residents were bracing for extremist ministers and their supporters to rally on Thursday in an annual flag-waving march commemorating Israel's capture of the Old City.

Palestinians in Jerusalem, who tend to close their shops and are banned from the social hub of Damascus Gate to make way for the marchers, view the parade as provocative.

In late morning, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Jerusalem celebrations were being held "3,000 years after being established by King David, 75 after it was reestablished as the capital of the reborn state of Israel, and 56 years after being reunited".

Two of his extreme-right Cabinet members, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, were expected to attend Thursday’s rally, one of the events marking what Israelis refer to as Jerusalem Day.

Thursday’s rally takes place days into a ceasefire which ended deadly cross-border fighting with Islamic Jihad fighters in Gaza.

Thirty-three people including multiple civilians were killed in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Hamas which rules the coastal territory said ahead of the march it “condemns the campaign of the Zionist occupation [Israel] against our Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem”.

Two years ago, after weeks of violence in Jerusalem in which scores of Palestinians were wounded, a war between Hamas and Israel erupted during the march.

‘Acquiescence’ to extremists 

Some 2,500 troops were securing the march, which begins in the western part of the city at 4:00 pm (13:00 GMT), proceeds through the Old City and ends at the Western Wall plaza.

On Thursday morning, an AFP journalist saw tourist groups walking through the historic gateway, while Palestinians sold bread from a stall and opened their shops before the afternoon shutdown.

Later in the day, the vast majority of shops in the Old City were closed, with Palestinian resident, Abu Al Abed, 72, saying he wanted “to go home”.

The marchers “are harmful, they’re walking and start to hit the doors of the shops and the doors of our houses”, he told AFP.

Scuffles between Jewish and Palestinian youths were taking place as early marchers arrived in the Old City, with police saying that in some cases forces “were required to act to prevent friction and provocations”.

Prior to the march, dozens of Jews, including at least three lawmakers from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and a minister from Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power faction, visited Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site.

Jews, who call it the Temple Mount and revere it as their religion’s holiest site, are allowed to visit but not pray.

One of them, Tom Nissani, was sitting at Jaffa Gate with an Israeli flag, awaiting the march.

“It’s our capital city, we have to show it, to enjoy it, to fight for it”, the 34-year-old West Bank settler who works for an organisation promoting Jewish presence on the Temple Mount told AFP.

“Israel is not stable enough to be naive about the capital or the whole country, we still have to fight... many forces that are trying to prevent us from making roots in the land of Israel,” he said.

Transport Minister Miri Regev, from Netanyahu’s Likud, was among Israelis waving flags at Damascus Gate hours before the official rally.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Israel “against insisting on organising the provocative flag march”.

Pushing ahead with the parade “confirms the acquiescence of the Israeli government to Jewish extremists”, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Wednesday.

Since last year’s rally, Israel’s leadership has taken a marked shift to the far-right.

Ben-Gvir, the country’s national security minister who is expected to attend, was convicted in 2007 of supporting a terrorist group and inciting racism.

Far-right ally Smotrich holds the finance portfolio along with some powers in the occupied West Bank, and also has a history of inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.

QSARNABA, Lebanon — On a gentle slope looking out over Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, villagers work their way across pink-dotted terraces, gathering perfumed Damask roses that are used for essential oils, sweets and cosmetics.

The rose harvest “gives you a bit of hope, it makes things beautiful, it calms you down — it gives you strength to carry on”, said Leila Al Dirani, picking the flowers from her family’s land in the village of Qsarnaba.

A soft bag tied around her waist and her hands scratched from the thorns, the 64-year-old plucks the small, pink buds from their bushes as their rich and heady scent wafts across the hill.

The oil derived from the famed Damask rose —- named after the ancient city of Damascus located just across the mountain range separating Lebanon and Syria — is a staple of perfumers.

Experts swear by the flower’s therapeutic properties in fighting infection and as a relaxant, while rose water is used across the Middle East both as a refreshing drink, in sweets such as Turkish delight, to scent mosques and even to bestow luck at weddings.

After a morning collecting roses, the workers in Qsarnaba drop their fragrant bundles at a warehouse in the village where they are paid based on their harvest.

At the facility carpeted with pink petals, Zahraa Sayed Ahmed — whose first name means “flower” — buys the raw materials to produce her rose water, syrup, tea and jam.

Around four years ago, she set up a small workshop at her house, using a traditional metal still that “belonged to my grandfather”, said Sayed Ahmed, 37.

‘Roses help put food on the table’ 

With a kilogramme of rose petals, she said she can make up to half a litre of rose water.

She then also bottles and labels her modest production by hand, putting it on limited sale locally.

“The production of rose water is a part of our heritage,” said Sayed Ahmed. “In every home in Qsarnaba there is a still, even if it’s just a small one.”

The rose season only lasts a few weeks, but it is a busy time for Qsarnaba’s residents.

“This year is the first year that we didn’t bring workers to help us because the production is low and we couldn’t afford it,” said Hassan Al Dirani, 25, who has been picking the flowers alongside his mother, Leila.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been grappling with a devastating economic crisis that has seen the local currency collapse and pushed most of the population into poverty.

“The rose harvest and all other harvests have lost about 80 percent of their value... because of the economic crisis,” said local official Daher Al Dirani, who hails from the extended family that is the biggest in Qsarnaba.

“But the roses help people put food on the table,” he added.

Exported from Syria to Europe for centuries since the time of the Crusades, the ancient Damask rose is also cultivated in countries including France, Morocco, Iran and Turkey.

“Our village produces the most roses out of any village in Lebanon” and more than half of the country’s rose water, Sayed Ahmed claimed proudly, as the captivating scent lingered in the air.

“Qsarnaba is the village of roses.”

ANKARA — Turkey's opposition leader vowed on Thursday to send back millions of migrants in a strident message aimed at winning the backing of an ultra-nationalist who helped push last weekend's presidential vote to a runoff.

Secular opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu delivered his first public address since a landmark election on Sunday in which he came almost five points behind President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kilicdaroglu gave the opposition's best performance in Erdogan's two-decade rule.

But it fell short of expectations set by pre-election polling and left the opposition visibly depressed.

The 74-year-old has since revamped his campaign team and toughened his message to win over Turkey's right-wing voters in the May 28 runoff.

He also plans to meet Sinan Ogan — a far-right figure who picked up 5.2 per cent of the vote and is still weighing his endorsement.

Kilicdaroglu tried on Thursday to toughen his message considerably from the more inclusive tone he set in the first stage of the campaign.

"Erdogan, you did not protect the borders and honour of the country," the former civil servant said.

"You have deliberately brought more than 10 million refugees to this country... As soon as I come to power, I will send all the refugees home."

Ogan has said he will only back a candidate who cracks down on migrants and fights “terrorism”, a code word in Turkey for Kurdish militants.

Veteran Turkey watcher Howard Eissenstat of the Middle East Institute said Kilicdaroglu was wooing nationalists by attacking Syrians because Kurds made up an important part of his base.

“The Kurds are a big part of his coalition,” Eissenstat said. “But the Syrians are a relatively safe target because, for the large part, they cannot vote.”

‘Syrians are our brothers’ 

Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted party were lionised across swathes of the Muslim world for their more embracing stance towards those fleeing conflicts in countries such as Syria.

Turkey’s five-million-strong refugee and migrant population became the world’s largest in the past decade.

A separate 2016 deal between Ankara and the European Union helped stem the continent’s migrant crisis by allowing those trying to reach Western Europe to settle in Turkey.

Turkey won billions of euros in funding from Brussels for the programme.

But an economic crisis that gathered pace as the election neared sent anti-migrant sentiment soaring.

Erdogan’s government has tried to find a middle ground.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Thursday that Turkey had already sent more than half a million Syrians back.

“We are not going to make Turkey into a refugee warehouse, and we have not done so to date. But the Syrians are our brothers,” Soylu said.

“We cannot send them to their deaths. And we have not. Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t want to be remembered as a leader who sent Syrians to their deaths.”

Eissenstat said Erdogan looked comfortable heading into the runoff and did not need to radically change his tone.

“He felt like he was in danger before Sunday,” the analyst said. “I don’t feel like he feels that way anymore.”

GENEVA — The United Nations said Wednesday that $3.03 billion would be needed to provide urgent aid to people in conflict-ravaged Sudan and to over one million expected to flee into neighbouring countries this year.

Needs have soared since a bloody conflict erupted in Sudan on April 15, the UN said, revising up its response plan for the country.

"Today, 25 million people, more than half the population of Sudan, need humanitarian aid and protection," Ramesh Rajasingham, head of the UN humanitarian agency's Geneva bureau, told reporters.

Battles erupted on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Around 1,000 people have been killed, mainly in and around Khartoum as well as the ravaged state of West Darfur, according to medics.

The fighting has deepened the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, where one in three people already relied on humanitarian assistance before the war.

The UN said a full $2.56 billion is now expected to be needed to provide assistance inside Sudan — up from the $1.75 billion estimated at the end of last year.

Those funds will allow aid agencies to reach 18 million of the most vulnerable people inside the country, Rajasingham said.

At the same time, the UN refugee agency said $470.4 million would be needed to assist those fleeing the country, adding that it was now planning for up to 1.1 million people to cross out of Sudan this year alone.

Just two weeks ago, UNHCR had said it would need $445 million through October to address the needs of as many as 860,000 people who might flee the country.

"So far, the crisis, which has just started a month ago, resulted in massive outflows into neighbouring countries of about 220,000 refugees and returnees who have been seeking safety in Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Central African Republic and Ethiopia," Raouf Mazou, assistant chief of operations at the UN refugee agency UNHCR told reporters.

In addition, more than 700,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan by the fighting.

"Countless people remain trapped and terrified inside Sudan, innocent victims of this indiscriminate fighting," Mazou said.

At the same time, "those who have fled across the country's many borders are shattered, often having left behind or lost loved ones and finding themselves in places where access is extremely hard and resources are minimal."

ISTANBUL — Turkey's opposition tried on Wednesday to recover from a crushingly disappointing election performance and launch a new attack aimed at beating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a May 28 run-off.

Secular leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu huddled with the other five heads of his alliance on Wednesday to plot a harder-edged strategy for ending Erdogan's two-decade domination of Turkey.

Media reports said he had fired his PR team and planned to tap Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a feisty figure with a history of bad blood with Erdogan — to spearhead his campaign.

The reported promotion of Imamoglu and the mayor's lauded strategist Canan Kaftancioglu marks a reversal for Turkey's grandfatherly opposition leader.

The 74-year-old former civil servant tried to run an inclusive campaign that addressed voters in chatty clips recorded from his kitchen and ignored Erdogan's personal barbs.

That approach worked, up to a point.

The opposition deprived Erdogan of a first-round victory for the first time and collected more votes than in any point of his rule.

But Kilicdaroglu's 44.9 per cent still trailed Erdogan's 49.5 per cent of the votes.

Pre-election polls showed Kilicdaroglu leading and possibly even winning outright last Sunday.

Kilicdaroglu's fightback began with a video on Tuesday in which he stared straight into the camera and slapped his desk a few times after banging his heart with his fist.

"I am here! I am here!" he shouted. "I am here!"

Erdogan looked far more relaxed as he assessed his performance on late-night television on Tuesday.

The 69-year-old conceded that his Islamic-rooted party had lost a few seats in parliament and suffered from "slight deficiencies".

Provisional results showed his conservative alliance's share falling from 333 to 322 in the 600-seat parliament.

"Unfortunately, my party suffered some declines, there is a slight deficiency," Erdogan said in the interview.

"We need to make our preparations to eliminate them. We will do our internal accounting and take the necessary steps."

It was a rare admission for Turkey's longest-serving leader.

But he spoke in measured tones befitting an incumbent who is entering the second round as the overwhelming favourite.

The remaining votes went to a little-known ultra-nationalist who has much more in common with the right-wing Erdogan than the leftist Kilicdaroglu.

Erdogan said he would visit south-eastern regions this weekend that were hit by a catastrophic February quake in which more than 50,000 lost their lives.

The president retained strong support in the area despite initial anger at the government's delayed search and rescue work.

Erdogan added that his team will be meeting with younger voters in Istanbul and Ankara to try and win in Turkey's two most important cities.

Imamoglu and Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas beat out Erdogan's allies in 2019 municipal polls.

The campaign's second stage is being accompanied by Turkish market turmoil that has seen the lira near historic lows against the dollar.

Investors are starting to price in an Erdogan victory and the long-term continuation of his unconventional economic policies.

The cost of insuring exposure to Turkey's debt is rising out of fears that the country's once-vibrant banking sector could soon experience serious difficulties.

Erdogan's decision to force Turkey's central bank to fight historically high inflation with lower interest rates has put unprecedented pressure on the lira.

Analysts believe Erdogan tried to prop up the lira ahead of elections through indirect market interventions that drained Turkey's hard currency reserves.

His government also introduced rules that required banks to purchase more and more liras with their foreign currencies.

Some analysts warn Turkey might have to impose capital controls if Erdogan, who has pledged to keep interest rates low as long as he remains in office, does not reverse course.

"Our focus after the election will be whether the policy mix becomes more credible and consistent," the ratings agency Fitch said.

CAIRO — Egyptian luxury brands are harnessing traditional craftsmanship from jewellery design to carpet weaving to bring the country's ancient cultural riches to the world.

Experts in the sector say the global appeal of Arab and Islamic designs from other countries shows Egypt could do more to promote its rich, millennia-old artistic heritage.

One pioneer has been master jeweller Azza Fahmy, whose signature Islamic art-inspired pieces have graced the world's rich and famous including US pop star Rihanna and Jordan's Queen Rania.

Fahmy, who started off in an Old Cairo workshop about 50 years ago, said her focus has been designs that "resonate with Egyptian identity".

Artists and artisans in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, draw from a history that spans ancient Pharaonic times, the Mamluk, Ottoman and modern eras.

"We are lucky to be able to draw on 6,000 years of history," said textile designer Goya Gallagher, founder of Cairo-based Malaika Linens, which makes high-end household pieces.

"The main challenge is making sure our pieces are timeless, that they're very well made and always hand-made," she said at the company workshop on the western outskirts of Cairo.

Myriad challenges 

But while Egypt boasts some business success stories, many more luxury goods makers say they labour against myriad odds to eke out a market both locally and internationally.

In the era of global mass production, Egypt's once expansive pool of skilled artisans has shrunk, with many young people turning their backs on family skills passed down through the ages.

As businesses struggle to fill the talent gap, they also face the headwinds of a painful economic crisis that has tanked the local currency and restricted raw material imports.

The state's efforts to support the handicrafts sector, meanwhile, have been "limited and sporadic", says the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

Culture consultant Dina Hafez agreed that Egypt offers little in the way of formalised arts and crafts training.

"The training of artisans is still essentially based on informal education and networks of apprenticeship," said Hafez of Blue Beyond Consulting.

"The sector lacks any structure. We need a real ecosystem. But for the moment, it's all based on personal initiatives."

She said Egypt could learn from Turkey and Morocco, "where the opportunities and obstacles look a lot like Egypt", but which had managed to launch "their designs onto the international scene".

'Soft power' 

Still, change is afoot.

Fahmy, the jewellery designer, said there is always space in the market for works made by skilled artisans and "good designers with creative minds and quality education".

Many designers hope to benefit from government initiatives to draw in investment and tourism revenue from its ancient wonders.

At the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the Giza pyramids, Egyptian luxury stores enjoy pride of place.

Although its official opening has been long delayed, the museum offers limited tours and events, and the shops already "showcase the best of Egyptian crafts", said the owner of one, Mohamed Al Kahhal.

In Cairo's historic centre, linen company Malaika trains women from marginalised backgrounds in embroidery and sells the wares to its customers and to other fashion and textile brands.

Carpet maker Hend Al Kahhal works in the same spirit, of bringing Egyptian identity to global frontiers.

Standing on the factory roof, where wool and silk creations hung out to dry, Kahhal said the family business works with designers "to give a contemporary touch to Pharaonic and Mamluk motifs".

The Egyptian Handicrafts Export Council, under the trade and industry ministry, has long been working to showcase such Egyptian creations internationally.

But Hafez, the culture consultant, said she hopes for more progress in future, as often "budget constraints, red tape and customs regulations don't exactly make things easier".

The question, she said, is whether Egyptian "authorities are really aware of the soft power these creators can have".

M’HAMID EL GHIZLANE, Morocco — In a Moroccan oasis town on the edge of the Sahara, nomads in turbans and tunics are thwacking a camel-wool ball across the desert in a traditional pastime: Sand hockey.

Similar in many ways to field and ice hockey, but played barefoot and with palm wood sticks, the ancient game is called “mokhacha” in the local Hassani Arabic dialect.

“We play mokhacha in our spare time,” said one participant, Hamadi Boudani, at the recent International Nomads Festival in the southern town of M’hamid El Ghizlane.

“Our ancestors were nomads and as soon as they pitched their camp somewhere they would first rest and then, to pass the time, they would start a game,” he said.

“This game is part of Saharan tradition.”

The players were cheered on by enthusiastic fans as they churned up the sand in what was once a stop on the storied caravan route to Timbuktu.

They were wearing the daraa, an ample tunic favoured by nomadic tribes, and the cheche cloth turban to cover their heads and faces from the desert sun.

The two teams, one in white the other in blue, had a go at it on May 1, during the annual Nomads Festival which also celebrates song and dance and other desert traditions.

Each team is made up of at least seven players, the outline of the pitch is crudely traced by hand in the sand, and the referee is simply known as the sheikh.

‘Ancestral heritage’ 

Sand hockey “is part of our ancestral heritage”, said Rachid Laghouanm who heads an association that promotes traditional sports and games in M’hamid El Ghizlane.

“It was handed down from father to son, and it is vital that it does not disappear,” he said.

But like other popular or traditional games and sports, “nomad hockey” as it is often called, is fading into oblivion.

“We are trying to create awareness about the game” by organising competitions and encouraging players to join them, said Laghouanem.

According to the UK-based Hockey Museum, which says it is “the first and only museum of hockey in the world”, sand hockey has been around as long as any form of hockey “has been in existence”.

Forms of sand hockey are also enjoyed in Ethiopia, where it is called Genna, and in Tunisia under the name of Oggaf, the museum says on its website.

These and the Moroccan version, it says, “date back over hundreds of years and a number of these games are still thriving, almost unchanged, to this day”.

Other experts believe that hockey’s precursor was a stick-and-ball game with origins as far back as ancient Greece and Egypt.

Boudani says he does not know which came first, sand, field or ice hockey. But what is clear to him is that “the nomads had no means of knowing that Westerners had a similar game”.