Region

KHARTOUM — Hundreds of Sudanese protesters on Wednesday demanded the dismissal of the United Nations mission chief, who is working to resolve a political crisis sparked by last year's military coup.

Wednesday's protests, outside the mission's headquarters in the capital Khartoum, criticised efforts by UN special representative Volker Perthes, who heads the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan (UNITAMS).

Many of the protesters were supporters of Islamist groups, and come a day after Islamist leader Mohamed Ali Al Gizouli accused Perthes of "interfering" in Sudan's internal affairs during a seminar titled "the negative impact of the UN mission on the launch of Sudanese dialogue".

"Volker, you German, the crisis will be solved by the Sudanese," protesters chanted. Others called on Perthes to "leave".

The rallies come as the UN Security Council mulled over extending the mission's mandate beyond June 3.

Sudan has been rocked by deepening unrest since an October 25 coup staged by army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, which sparked regular anti-coup protests across much of the country. 

The power grab derailed a fragile power-sharing agreement between the army and civilians negotiated after the 2019 ouster of long-time autocrat Omar Al Bashir.

A violent crackdown on the anti-coup protests has left nearly 100 people killed, according to pro-democracy medics.

Some protesters on Wednesday said they were angry that the UN were involving the civilian alliance known as the Forces of Freedom and Change in talks.

"Volker came to involve parties [of the FFC]... Sudanese society is against these parties," protester Ahmed Ali said.

'Heavy socioeconomic toll'

In March, Perthes told the UN Security Council that Sudan was heading towards "an economic and security collapse" unless its civilian-led transition was restored.

In April, Burhan threatened to expel Perthes over alleged "interference" in the country's affairs. 

Last month, Perthes said the political stalemate was "impacting the security situation" and "continues to exact a heavy socio-economic toll" in Sudan. 

Meanwhile, military officials from Sudan’s ruling sovereign council met with UN representatives, as well as officials from the African Union and the regional bloc IGAD.

The meeting discussed “the launch of direct talks” among Sudanese factions next week, a statement by the sovereign council said.

The UN mission, along with the AU and IGAD, have been pushing to facilitate Sudanese-led talks to resolve the crisis.

Western governments have backed the mediation efforts and urged Sudanese factions to participate in the process. 

On Sunday, Burhan lifted the state of emergency imposed since the coup to set the stage for “meaningful dialogue that achieves stability for the transitional period”.

The decision came after a meeting with senior military officials, that also recommended that people detained under an emergency law be freed.

The UN mission welcomed Burhan’s decision, urging Sudanese authorities to “complete the release of detainees”. 

Sudanese authorities have since April released a number of anti-coup civilian leaders and pro-democracy activists arrested in the crackdown.

SANAA — A fragile UN-brokered truce between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels hung in the balance on Wednesday as talks on renewing it hit trouble, threatening the humanitarian gains of the past two months.

Aid agencies and Western governments have urged Yemen's warring parties to extend the truce, which has significantly reduced the intensity of fighting in a conflict the United Nations says has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

But with just one day before the truce expires, there was no sign of any breakthrough in UN-backed talks.

A Yemeni aircraft left the rebel-held capital Sanaa for Cairo on the first commercial flight between the two cities since 2016, the latest gain from the truce deal.

The office of the United Nations special envoy for Yemen told AFP there were 77 people on board the Yemenia flight from Sanaa airport, which has been closed to commercial flights for nearly six years. 

It is the seventh such flight since the truce went into effect on April 2. The six previous flights had all been to the Jordanian capital Amman.

Yemen has been gripped by conflict since the rebels overran Sanaa in 2014, triggering a Saudi-led military intervention in support of the beleaguered government the following year.

On May 16, a Yemenia plane carrying 126 passengers, including critically ill hospital patients and their relatives, became the first commercial flight to leave Sanaa since August 2016.

Air traffic into the rebel-held capital has been largely halted by a Saudi-led blockade, but there have been exemptions for aid flights that are a key lifeline for the population.

Despite accusations of violations from both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels, the truce has significantly reduced levels of violence.

Talks in 'trouble'

The Houthis have said they are considering renewing the ceasefire amid UN efforts to extend the truce.

But on Tuesday, the United States warned the truce talks were in "trouble" as it pushed for an extension to help support millions of people at risk.

Talks on extending the ceasefire "haven't ended yet but seem to be in a bit of trouble", the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said.

Aid agencies have urged Yemen’s warring parties to extend the truce, saying it had “positive humanitarian impacts”.

“As organisations working across Yemen, we have seen the positive humanitarian impacts of the truce,” more than 30 aid agencies, including Save The Children, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a joint statement.

They said the reopening of Sanaa airport to commercial flights had allowed hundreds of patients in “critical need of lifesaving medical treatment outside of the country” to finally receive it.

The truce has also seen oil tankers docking in the rebel-held port of Hodeida, potentially easing fuel shortages in Sanaa and elsewhere. 

But a provision for the rebels to ease their siege of Yemen’s third-largest city Taez has yet to be implemented, to the anger of both the government and residents, who have held repeated protests in recent weeks.

The head of Yemen’s presidential leadership council, Rashad Al Alimi, discussed the implementation of the truce with UN chief Antonio Guterres by telephone on Tuesday. 

He urged the UN chief to “redouble the pressure on the Houthi militia to abide by its commitments to the truce, including opening roads to Taez”, the official Saba news agency reported. 

Taez has been largely cut off from the rest of government-held territory since 2015, with all supplies coming in by a single tortuous road through the mountains.

The war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced millions of civilians, according to the UN.

WASHINGTON — Iranian government-backed hackers tried to attack a leading US hospital for children in 2020, but were deterred after American authorities learned of the plan, FBI Director Chris Wray said Wednesday.

“In the summer of 2020, hackers sponsored by the Iranian government tried to conduct one of the most despicable cyber attacks I’ve ever seen... when they decided to go after Boston Children’s Hospital,” Wray said in a speech on cyber threats at Boston College.

Wray said that US authorities received a report from an intelligence partner that the hospital was about to be targeted.

“Understanding the urgency of the situation, the cyber squad in our Boston field office raced out to notify the hospital,” he said.

“Right away, we were able to help them identify and then mitigate the threat.”

Wray did not provide details on what part of the Iranian government was behind the threat, or how it would have damaged the hospital if successful.

But he said it was an example of a rise in state-backed actors targeting adversaries’ institutions and infrastructure with cyber attacks.

Wray said the FBI was working at a “combat tempo” to deal with Russian threats related to the Ukraine war, noting it was able to deter a potentially devastating attack on US businesses and institutions by the GRU military intelligence agency in March.

“We’re watching for their cyber activities to become more disruptive as the war keeps going poorly for them,” he said. “We’ve seen the Russian government taking specific preparatory steps towards potential destructive attacks.”

Wray said that China is studying the Ukraine conflict for information that would support its own cyber warfare.

“They’re trying to figure out how to improve their own capability to deter or hurt us in connection with an assault on Taiwan,” he said.

“We need to study what is going on with the Russia-Ukraine conflict and learn from it because we’re clearly not the only ones paying attention,” he added.

CAIRO — A presidential pardon on Wednesday saw Egyptian opposition figure Yahya Abdelhadi released from jail after three years, a lawyer said, making him the country’s latest political prisoner to have his sentence curtailed.

The pardon for Abdelhadi — a key figure in the Kefaya (Enough) movement that helped topple longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak — comes after an announcement days earlier that 11 political prisoners would be released by an order from the prosecution.

Lawyer Tareq al-Awadi, a member of a committee formed in April to review the cases of prisoners eligible for presidential pardons, announced Abdelhadi’s release in a Twitter post, with a picture showing him standing outside the prison gates.

A critic of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s administration, Abdelhadi had been sentenced on May 23 to four years in prison for “spreading false news”, after having been arrested in January 2019.

The latest series of releases comes after Sisi called in April for a “political dialogue” and reactivated the previously dormant presidential pardon committee. Some 41 political prisoners had also been released from remand earlier that month.

Among the 11 prisoners released this week was translator and researcher Kholoud Amer, who was arrested in April 2020 for criticising the government response to the coronavirus pandemic.

But their release comes as an Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced former presidential candidate Abdelmoneim Aboul Fotouh to 15 years in prison for “spreading false news” and “incitement against state institutions”.

He was sentenced alongside 24 others, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood group, who received penalties ranging from 10 years to life in prison.

Amnesty International on Tuesday called on the Egyptian authorities to exclude security agencies from the process of reviewing decisions on whether to grant political prisoners pardons.

“We welcome the long overdue release of those detained solely for exercising their human rights — and the promise to free more,” said Amna Guellali, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Yet thousands of opponents and critics continue to languish in Egyptian jails, while fresh arrests and prosecutions continue unabated,” she said, calling on the authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release anyone detained solely for exercising their human rights”.

Rights groups estimate that some 60,000 political prisoners are being held in Egypt.

DUBAI — Aid agencies urged Yemen's warring parties to extend a two-month UN-brokered truce on Tuesday two days before it was set to expire, saying it had "positive humanitarian impacts".

A brutal seven-year conflict pitting Yemen's Saudi-backed government against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left millions on the brink of famine.

On April 2, the first nationwide truce since 2016 came into force, but that runs out on Thursday.

"As organisations working across Yemen, we have seen the positive humanitarian impacts of the truce," said a joint statement by over 30 aid agencies, including Save The Children, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Earlier this month, NRC said the number of civilian casualties in Yemen had dropped by more than half since the truce took effect.

"We... urge you to extend the truce agreement, build further on the gains you have made possible over the past two months, and work towards peace for the people of Yemen," they added.

The Houthis seized control of the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention to support the government the following year, and igniting a war that has caused what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"Don't let June be the month where fighting resumes, public services fail, and more innocent lives are lost," the aid agencies said.

Under the truce, which expires on June 2, more than 1,000 passengers have flown between Sanaa and Jordan, and preparations are underway to start flights to Egypt.

The aid agencies said that the reopening of Sanaa airport to commercial flights had allowed hundreds of patients in "critical need of lifesaving medical treatment outside of the country" to finally receive it.

Last week, the UN special envoy, Hans Grundberg, also urged both sides to renew their two-month truce.

"The truce has presented a window of opportunity to break with the violence and suffering of the past and move towards a peaceful future in Yemen," Grundberg said. "The parties need to seize this opportunity."

Earlier this month, Houthi rebels said they were considering renewing the ceasefire.

BEIRUT — Lebanese lawmakers re-elected Nabih Berri as parliament speaker Tuesday for a seventh consecutive term, cementing his reputation as an immovable centrepiece of the country's political landscape.

Berri's candidacy went largely unchallenged but the 84-year-old clinched only the bare minimum number of votes needed for a win — one of his lowest counts since he first rose to the helm of parliament 30 years ago.

Some lawmakers spoilt their ballots by writing slogans blaming the ruling class that Berri embodies for the successive crises that have hit Lebanon, from the 2020 Beirut Port explosion to political assassinations and an ongoing economic meltdown.

“I will put the insults behind me... and approach blank ballots with a blank heart,” Berri said after his victory, in one of his trademark quips.

He said he would extend his hand to all lawmakers so that, together, they can streamline overdue reforms and facilitate the appointment of a prime minister and a new president.

“The Lebanese, and the rest of world, are looking to you as a beacon of hope, possibly the only one,” Berri told lawmakers. “We all live if Lebanon lives.”

Aged 84, Berri is one of the longest-serving chiefs of any parliament in the world.

Spoilt ballots 

An ally of the powerful Shiite militant group Hizbollah, Berri has weathered decades of turbulence and shifting political tides, including the current economic crisis and a 2019 protest movement demanding wholesale political reform.

Even after parliamentary elections in May yielded modest but unprecedented gains for independent candidates, Berri’s position remained largely unchallenged.

He clinched a new four-year term during parliament’s opening session on Tuesday with the votes of just 65 of parliament’s 128 members. That was down from the 98 votes he secured in 2018.

Opponents spoilt their ballots with a variety of political slogans.

“Justice for the victims of the Beirut blast,” read one ballot, referring to a 2020 explosion at the capital’s port that killed more than 200 people.

“Lokman Slim,” read several ballots, referring to a Hizbollah critic who was found murdered in his car last year.

Berri will preside over a deeply fragmented parliament prone to the kind of deadlock that has paralysed Lebanese politics for decades.

Lawmakers will be called upon to push through long-overdue reforms to stem a financial crisis that has plunged most Lebanese into poverty.

Expected results 

Berri’s Amal Movement and Hizbollah hold all 27 Shiite-allocated seats in parliament but lack an overall parliamentary majority.

Berri’s reelection on Tuesday was largely expected and held within legal deadlines but intense political horse-trading is expected in the coming months.

Observers have warned of protracted deadlocks during consultations to name a new prime minister and in the run-up to an election later this year to replace President Michel Aoun.

Ahead of Tuesday’s session, independent lawmakers born out of the 2019 protest movement joined relatives of the victims of the Beirut port blast in a symbolic march from the docks to parliament.

They chanted “revolution” as they passed by Martyrs’ Square — the focal point of the 2019 protests.

“This square will be our reference,” said independent lawmaker Firas Hamdan, who stepped into parliament for the first time on Tuesday.

A lawyer by training, Berri won power as a militia leader during the 1975-1990 civil war and transitioned to politics as the war ended.

He was named minister several times between 1984 and 1992.

That year, in the first polls after the war ended, Berri was simultaneously elected a member and speaker of parliament, the highest post for a Shiite in the country’s sectarian political system.

TRIPOLI — Libyan Mohamed Abderraouf put a foot on his board and launched himself across Tripoli’s first skatepark, a welcome break in the conflict-battered capital with few facilities for bored young people.

“I can’t describe the joy,” said the 18-year-old, who bought his first skateboard in 2020 and had only been able to practice on street corners — until now. “I’m going to come a couple of times a week.”

The free, open-air facility opened over the weekend in central Tripoli, to the delight of young skaters who spent the afternoon sweeping up and down the halfpipes and taking selfies with their friends.

“I’m really happy, because before there wasn’t a dedicated place for skating,” said Rayan al-Omar, 18, who has been skating for a year.

The United States-funded facility was built by Make Life Skate Life, a charity that has set up “free-of-charge, community-built concrete skateparks” in Iraq, Bolivia and India.

Australian Wade Trevean, who designed the 800 square-metre Tripoli site, said volunteers had come from far and wide to help build it, a process that took about six weeks.

“There are people from New York, people from Belgium, Germany or Australia,” Trevean said. “The happiness and positivity here are amazing.”

Built on Qadhafi bodyguard base

Local skaters played a role in the project too, part of a seaside park that also includes a cycling route and five-a-side football pitches.

The rest of the complex was completed a year ago on the site of a former base of the “Amazons”, the entourage of female bodyguards of deposed dictator Muammar Qadhafi, and seen as a symbol of the tyrant’s extravagance.

Since he was overthrown and killed in a 2011 revolt, Tripoli has endured successive waves of violence, meaning few resources were put into leisure and cultural facilities — already almost non-existent under Qadhafi.

So almost two years since the guns fell silent following the last major battle on the edges of the capital, the opening of a skatepark in Tripoli generated a lot of attention.

For young Libyan skateboarders, interest in the sport reflects a yearning for normality, to be like other nations and other young people.

Abderraouf said such a project would have been “unimaginable” until recently.

“Thank God it is here now,” he said.

For Make Life Skate Life, the “overall goal” of the skatepark is “to create a safe community space where people from different backgrounds can come together and positively interact in a playful way”, the organisation said.

“Apart from creating immediate local employment, the skatepark aims to contribute to a healthier, more active, more engaged, and happier society,” it added.

The group say they will hold free weekly skate classes of 60 girls and boys — split equally — who would otherwise not be able to skate, with boards and safety gear available to use.

Trevean extolled the virtues of skateparks for building community.

“People are skateboarding but also people come here to hang out, exchange ideas, have conversation, meet new people,” he said.

“I know the benefits of skateparks, and I truly believe in them.”