Region

DUBAI — A Yemeni soldier was killed and two others wounded Saturday in a drone attack launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the war-torn country's south, a government official told AFP.

A military source in the besieged government-held city of Taez confirmed the casualties, the latest in renewed fighting in Yemen despite diplomatic efforts to halt the long-running conflict.

The drone attack targeted a military checkpoint "before the passage of a convoy carrying Defence Minister Mohsen Al Daari, accompanied by chief of staff General Saghir Bin Aziz, who were heading towards the city of Taez," the government official said, also requesting anonymity.

Taez, Yemen's third largest city, is controlled by the Saudi-backed government but surrounded by Houthi rebels, who have seized large swathes of the country in almost a decade of war.

Clashes on Monday in oil-producing Marib province, one of the main battlegrounds and the government's last stronghold in the north, killed 10 soldiers, military sources told AFP.

The flare-up comes amid growing international efforts to end the war that has ravaged the Arab world’s poorest country.

The Houthis seized control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa in late 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.

Since the first air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on March 26, 2015, the war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly, and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Earlier this month, Riyadh and Tehran agreed to restore diplomatic ties after a seven-year rupture, spurring some hope it would lead to calm in Yemen, where the regional heavyweights back opposing sides.

But analysts had warned that the surprise March 10 announcement was unlikely to bring an immediate end to the conflict.

TUNIS — Thirty-four migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were missing off Tunisia's Mediterranean coast on Friday after their boat capsized, a court official said, the latest in a string of tragedies this month.

The boat carrying 38 people had set off on Thursday from near Sfax and was attempting to reach Italy, said Fawzi El Masmoudi, a court spokesman in the port city.

Sub-Saharan African migrants residing in Tunisia have been living in fear since an incendiary speech by President Kais Saied speech last month, in which he accused them of representing a demographic threat and causing a crime wave. 

The North African country's population of 12 million hosts an estimated 21,000 migrants from other parts of Africa, representing 0.2 per cent of the population.

Earlier Friday, Alarm Phone, a charity monitoring migrant boats, said that 40 people were at risk on a "boat in distress trying to escape Tunisia". 

Those on board reported that “so-called Tunisian coast guards have removed their engine, beaten some of them, and abandoned them at sea”, the group said.

The latest deadly shipwreck off Tunisia, one of at least four this month, comes two days after five Sub-Saharan African migrants drowned and another 28 went missing when a boat carrying 38 mostly Ivorian migrants capsized.

In the days after Saied’s speech, slammed by rights groups as “racist hate speech”, migrants reported an upsurge in racist attacks and many were evicted from their accommodation by landlords fearing large fines or prison for housing them.

Those working informally in construction and other sectors also lost their jobs, and thousands rushed to their embassies to be repatriated.

While some migrants arrive in Tunisia to study, many use the country as a springboard for attempts to reach Europe by sea. European governments have pressured Tunis to rein in the flow.

Parts of Tunisia’s coastline are within 150 kilometres of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

A spokesman for the Tunisian National Guard said on Friday that in 24 hours, the coast guard had intercepted more than 1,000 migrants, 25 of them Tunisians.

Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned Friday that Tunisia’s “serious financial problems” risked sparking a “migratory wave” towards Europe.

She also confirmed plans for a mission to the North African country involving the Italian and French foreign ministers.

Meloni echoed comments earlier in the week by Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, who warned Tunisia risks economic collapse that could trigger a new flow of migrants to Europe, fears Tunis has since dismissed.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned this week that Tunisia urgently needs to reach a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund. 

MOGADISHU — At least 14 people have been killed in southern Somalia after torrential rains triggered flash floods that have caused havoc in several towns and villages.

Bridges, roads and houses have been damaged or destroyed and many people have been forced to flee their homes in search of safer ground.

In the town of Baardhere in Jubaland state, 14 people were killed including three members of the same family, district commissioner Mohamed Weli Yusuf told reporters.

“Most of the casualties were caused after the victims were trapped across a bridge in the town Thursday evening which was swept up in the floods,” he said.

“It was very difficult to rescue these people because of the time the incident happened and the lack of resources in the town.”

The rains signal the early start of the April-June rainy season, and have brought some relief to areas of the country suffering from the worst drought in four decades.

But the UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA warned in a statement on Saturday of the risk of an increase in diseases such as cholera as living conditions likely deteriorate.

Baardhere resident Ahmed Omar said there had been heavy rains in the region over the past three days.

“Floods devastated Baardhere town, my house was destroyed and most of my belongings swept away by the flood. Thanks to God my family survived but five people died in my neighbourhood including children and women,” he told AFP.

“Now the whole town is under water and most families fled to higher ground,” he added.

Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam on Saturday sent condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives and called for urgent assistance to be sent to those affected by the disaster.

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, and extreme weather events are occurring with increased frequency and intensity.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation warned that nearly 100,000 people in Somalia were facing catastrophic levels of hunger due to the worst drought to hit the region in four decades.

Tulkarem, Palestinian territories — Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the first killing in the occupied West Bank during Ramadan as the army said it targeted an armed suspect.

Amir Imad Abu Khadija, 25, was killed by "the Israeli occupation bullets during their aggression on Tulkarem," the ministry said in a statement.

He was shot in the head and lower limbs, the statement added.

The Israeli forces raided the village of Shufa, near Tulkarem, in pursuit of Abu Khadija who was allegedly involved in multiple shootings targeting Israelis.

"During the arrival of the forces and surrounding of the building, the wanted suspect drew a gun within the apartment at the forces, who responded with live fire. A hit was identified," an army statement said.

The killing is the first fatality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Thursday.

The Tulkarem Brigade claimed Abu Khadija as one of its "leaders and founders."

"He will be the first to bid us farewell in this holy month," the group said in a statement.

The latest deadly Israeli raid in the West Bank came just days after Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Egypt in a bid to reduce tensions, amid a surge in violence.

Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 87 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.

The United Nations Middle East peace envoy, Tor Wennesland, said on Wednesday that Israeli operations and subsequent clashes “have led to a staggering number of Palestinians killed and injured”.

“I am deeply disturbed by the intensifying cycle of violence that threatens to plunge Palestinians and Israelis deeper into deadly crisis,” he told the UN Security Council, while also condemning attacks on Israelis.

BEIRUT — Crisis-hit Lebanon is "at a very dangerous moment", a visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation said on Thursday, criticising slow progress on reforms needed to unlock billions in loans.

Lebanon and the IMF reached a conditional agreement in April 2022 on a $3-billion-dollar loan needed to save the country's economy, in free fall since 2019.

But nearly a year after Beirut signed the agreement, officials have yet to enact the substantial changes required to kickstart the 46-month financing programme.

Since last year, the country has had no president and only a caretaker government, amid persistent deadlock between rival factions while the country plunges deeper into a crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the mid-19th century.

"We think Lebanon is at a very dangerous moment, at a crossroads," said Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, who headed the IMF delegation to Beirut.

He warned the continued "policy of inaction is going to leave Lebanon in a never-ending crisis".

"Time has gone by. It's almost a year since we have reached an agreement," Rigo added, urging leaders to implement the reforms swiftly.

"The country is in a significant crisis. One would have expected a lot more in terms of implementation and approval of legislation," added Rigo.

In September he had already warned of tardiness in implementing reforms, "despite the urgency".

Lebanon's meltdown has pushed most of the population into poverty while the political elite, widely blamed for the country's financial collapse, has failed to take action.

If the status quo persists, the country could see hyperinflation, “in a worst case scenario” Rigo said.

‘Very slow’ 

The IMF had conditioned the funds on a series of measures, notably unifying the country’s plethora of exchange rates, a reformed bank secrecy law as well as restructuring the banking sector and the implementation of formal capital controls.

The Lebanese have progressed, Rigo said, but “the progress is very slow”.

Lebanon has implemented some reforms demanded by the IMF including passing a 2022 budget as well as a revised bank secrecy law.

Rigo said any solution for Lebanon must include an adjustment of “fiscal policies”, address “banking sector losses” and strengthen anti-corruption measures.

Lebanese banks have imposed draconian withdrawal restrictions — essentially locking depositors out of their life savings.

“Small depositors are the ones hit the hardest... They are suffering more than they should,” he said.

“The loss is so large that unfortunately there will have to be a redistribution between the government, banks, and depositors.”

As reforms drag, the market value of the Lebanese pound reached historic lows against the US dollar this month, prompting hundreds to take to the streets and protest deteriorating living conditions on Wednesday.

Many of the demonstrators were retired servicemen whose army pensions have lost most of their value, and depositors locked out of their savings by cash-strapped banks.

Security forces fired tear gas as some tried to push through barriers to reach the Beirut compound which houses government offices, while other protesters hurled stones.

“I used to make around $4,000. Now my pension is worth $150,” one retired general told AFP.

The pound has been trading on parallel markets at more than 100,000 against the greenback — a dizzying plunge from 1,507 before the economic crisis hit in 2019.

Lebanon defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in 2020.

Yet over the years the government has opened lines of credit from the central bank, “something that we have recommended should not be happening”, Rigo said, urging authorities to stop borrowing from the central bank.

Activist group Kulluna Irada, which met with the IMF delegation, denounced “a lack of real intention to reform” on behalf of Lebanon’s ruling class.

RIYADH — The Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers spoke by phone to mark the beginning of Ramadan, vowing to meet “soon” to implement a landmark bilateral reconciliation deal, Riyadh said on Thursday.

The Saudi minister, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, called Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the pair “exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan”, which begins on Thursday in both countries, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter.

“The two ministers agreed to hold a bilateral meeting soon in order to pave the way for the reopening of embassies and consulates between the two countries,” the statement said.

Saudi officials have said the ministers’ expected meeting is the next step in a surprise Chinese-brokered rapprochement announced on March 10 intended to fully restore diplomatic ties seven years after they were severed.

Riyadh cut relations after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in 2016 following the Saudi execution of Shiite cleric Nimr Al Nimr — just one in a series of flashpoints between the two longstanding regional rivals.

The deal is expected to see Shiite-majority Iran and mainly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia reopen their embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation deals signed more than 20 years ago.

On Sunday, an Iranian official said President Ebrahim Raisi had favourably received an invitation to visit Saudi Arabia from King Salman, though Riyadh has yet to confirm.

Amir-Abdollahian told reporters the same day that the two countries had agreed to hold a meeting between their top diplomats and that three locations had been suggested, without specifying which.

The detente between Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and Iran, strongly at odds with Western governments over its nuclear activities, has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterised by turbulence for decades.