Region

BRUSSELS — The UN's food aid arm, the World Food Programme, says it is being forced to cut rations to millions of starving people in war-ravaged Yemen in order to feed those starving to death there.

The WFP's director for the Middle East and North Africa region, Corinne Fleischer, told AFP in an interview on Friday that donor money is drying up despite Yemen going through what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"We have a big funding crunch," she said.

Donor money so far only covers 18 per cent of the nearly two billion dollars WFP needs for its Yemen operations, she said.

"We need $806 million more in the next six months to feed 13 million people," Fleischer said.

The shortfall is already giving the UN organisation no choice but to ringfence money for five million people in Yemen "on the brink of famine", meaning that the other 8 million suffering inadequate food supplies are getting half rations from the WFP.

"One parents told us that they haven't eaten for two days, to give the food to their children. Many say now they will have to return back to eating only bread and drinking tea. That's clearly not enough for a healthy diet," she said.

"And then the most heartbreaking we've heard is that people start collecting leaves," to eat.

The WFP, Fleischer said, managed to avert famine last year because of donors' generosity in giving $1.4 billion.

But the money given has plunged precipitously this year, which Fleischer attributed to needs globally that have gone up "drastically" as conflicts, climate change and COVID all dealt their impact.

"Those who really need food assistance has gone from 115 million to 280 million. So of course, the needs have been growing," she said.

"Donors... have been generous, but also have to deal with their own issues around COVID and their economies. And so there is simply not much more money available."

The top donors to the WFP for its Yemen operations are the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Germany, the European Union, Sweden, Canada and Switzerland.

Conflict in Yemen 

Yemen, where a seven-year civil war has raged between pro-government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels, is one of many conflicts flaring around the planet.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been waging war on the Houthis since 2015 with the aim of reinstalling in Sanaa the internationally recognised government.

The Houthis have responded to the missiles and air strikes with drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and coalition partner United Arab Emirates.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed directly or indirectly in the conflict, while millions have been displaced.

Fleischer said that “conflict is a main driver of food insecurity, the main driver of hunger... we have to stop conflict around the world so that people can go back to their homes, and you know, have a normal life”.

TRIPOLI — Thousands of Libyans on celebrated for a second day Friday 11 years since the revolt that toppled Muammar Qadhafi, despite political tensions in the divided country.

The anniversary comes as the country finds itself with two rival prime ministers based in the capital Tripoli.

It also follows a failed bid in December to hold national elections, with the vote postponed indefinitely amid bitter wrangling over the legal basis of the polls.

Thousands of vehicles converged on the centre of Tripoli on Friday, creating huge traffic jams, as motorists honked their car horns in celebration, an AFP journalist reported.

Festivities were held in the capital’s iconic Martyrs’ Square where Qadhafi once gave a famous, desperate speech before the “February 17 revolution” swept him from power.

Concerts and fireworks were organised but Libyans had to wait hours before entering the square as security was heavy and metal detectors slowed down the process.

The celebrations had been due to take place on Thursday but most were pushed back a day due to bad weather.

Earlier this month the east-based parliament voted to appoint influential ex-interior minister Fathi Bashagha to replace the interim unity government.

Incumbent Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, appointed as part of a United Nations-driven peace process, has insisted he will only hand over power to an elected government.

Analysts have warned that the uptick in tensions could threaten what has been a long period of relative peace, since a landmark ceasefire in October 2020 formally ended eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar’s ruinous year-long bid to seize the capital.

Since Qadhafi’s ouster, Libya has had no fewer than nine governments and two full-scale civil wars but has yet to hold a presidential vote.

Since the revolt, Libyans have also been grappling with huge financial hardship despite the country’s vast oil wealth.

AL QURAYYAH, United Arab Emirates — Far from Dubai’s gleaming skyscrapers and renowned camel races, a bullfight is under way in the emirate of Fujairah, where the tradition continues unbeknown to most in the United Arab Emirates.

“Look at them fight!” a commentator shouts into a microphone as the first bovine battle of the day kicks off, sending up clouds of dust in the village of Al Qurayyah.

Two bulls, each weighing in at hundreds of kilogrammes, charge at each other while assistants hold ropes attached to their necks or legs for safety.

Sometimes the huge animals come dangerously close to the spectators, sending them fleeing from their chairs.

About 200 men, women and children are gathered in a large field to watch, with children perched on the roofs of 4X4 vehicles and pick-ups.

Trucks carrying bulls have converged from all over the region on the arena, a dirt field wedged between rocky mountains and the Gulf of Oman.

About 50 of the beasts are scattered around, and their bellowing echoes across the area.

“There are no rules,” explained Issa, 34, whose family owns a nearby farm and has been involved in bullfighting for decades.

“The winner is the one that shows the most courage and doesn’t run away,” added the man whose nephews stream the bouts on TikTok and Instagram.

In the better-known emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, camel beauty contests and races are popular, but “here it is the bullfights”, said Majid, 36, whose animal scored a draw in the fight.

Cruel and abusive? 

Unlike the bullfights popular in Spain and Mexico, where the animals are typically slain by matadors, in Fujairah two beasts go head-to-head with far less fatal consequences.

The competition typically ends after about an hour, with each fight lasting just one or two minutes.

Animal welfare groups have, however, denounced the sport as cruel and abusive.

Elsayed Mohamed, the regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, argued that just because something has been part of a society for so long does not make it right.

“Every culture has many bad traditions, but because it’s a tradition, we have to follow?” he asked, noting that animal fights are prohibited under UAE law.

Those who promote the fights, he said, argue that “it is ‘not a bloody’ competition... comparing these fights to the ones in Spain that end with the killing of the animal”.

“Even if they are taking precautions to prevent any harm, wounds will happen,” said Mohamed.

Standing in the audience at the recent bullfight event was a German tourist couple who had learnt about it in an “alternative tourist guide book”.

“We thought it would be interesting to see that — it’s unusual for us,” said Gunter Beelitz, who works in theatre.

“This is a bit like the fights in Spain except that here it is just one bull against one bull and not a man,” he said. “And the bull doesn’t die. We don’t like the Spanish bullfights.”

Family tradition 

The bulls were once imported from South Asia for agricultural work, but the emergence of new technologies has rendered them obsolete to farming.

Issa’s family breed the animals or buy them for between 5,000 and 40,000 dirhams (about $1,360 to $10,900).

With help from a number of farm employees he readied about 17 beasts to fight every Friday after prayers.

He said he has been preparing bulls for battle since he was “just a child”.

“We go to the animals, we check if they are okay... we take their temperatures and we feed them,” he said.

He rolled up his sleeves and dipped his arm into a large pot of bovine powerfood — a boiled mixture of wheat, dates, herbs and fish.

“This is what gives the bulls their strength,” said Issa, clad in a traditional Emirati “kandoura”, an ankle-length shirt.

Issa and his family said they have no intention of ending the pastime that has been passed down from generation to generation.

“People did not have much to do, and they would get the animals and get them to fight, a form of entertainment,” said Issa.

“It would bring people together,” he continued, adding that he plans to pass the practice down to his six children.

MOGADISHU — Al Shabaab militants launched simultaneous attacks on police stations around Somalia’s capital Mogadishu overnight, killing two girls and wounding over a dozen people, security officials said on Wednesday.

Heavily-armed men stormed a police station in Kaxda district in the middle of the night, exchanging gunfire with security forces.

“Terrorists using a vehicle loaded with explosives attacked the police station in Kaxda district and inflicted casualties on the civilian population around the area,” police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters.

The gunmen also seized a police vehicle, he added, with officers setting off in pursuit of them.

In a second attack overnight, militants targeted the Darussalam suburb on Mogadishu’s outskirts, he said.

“Two young girls died in the incident while sixteen other civilians and three members of the security forces were wounded,” he added.

Anxious residents spent a sleepless night as the sound of gunfire reverberated across the neighbourhoods under attack, with some telling AFP the explosions caused tremors inside their homes.

“This was a horrible incident; everybody got panicked and my children started crying after the blast shook our house,” said Fadumo Idris, a Mogadishu resident.

“The heavy exchange of gunfire continued for more than 30 minutes before the situation returned to normal, we have not seen such fighting in Mogadishu recently.”

Kaxda resident Hassan Mohamud said the militants “briefly entered the police station after it was badly destroyed in the explosion, there was enforcement by the police and they later retreated”.

Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they had targeted six locations in and around the capital.

Mogadishu has seen a spate of attacks in recent weeks as Somalia limps through a political crisis caused by long-running disagreements over delayed polls.

Somalia’s president and prime minister have been at loggerheads over the election process, which is more than a year late and has been marred by violence.

The impasse has worried Somalia’s international backers, who fear it distracts from the battle against Al Shabaab, an Al Qaeda-linked terror group which has been fighting the weak central government for over a decade.

Al Shabaab were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 after an offensive by an African Union force, but still control vast swathes of rural Somalia from where they launch regular attacks.

TEHRAN — Iran's top security official said on Tuesday a "guarantee" and "verification" would be needed for Vienna talks to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, in apparent reference to any US commitments.

"Verification and providing a guarantee is an integral part of a good deal," the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, wrote in a Twitter post.

"Proven American malpractice is the most important threat to any agreement," he said, adding that "the real lifting of sanctions means that #Iran will enjoy credible and sustainable economic benefits".

The accord offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, but the US unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and reimposed heavy economic sanctions, prompting Iran to begin rolling back on its commitments.

The Vienna talks, which involve Iran as well as Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly and the United States indirectly, resumed in late November after a pause following the election of ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi in June.

Irish Foreign and Defence Minister Simon Coveney, whose country acts as facilitator for UN Resolution 2231 endorsing the 2015 deal, visited Tehran on Monday.

Coveney said he believed the Western parties to the accord are "deeply committed to making this work", while addressing reporters alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollhain.

The Iranian top diplomat said he believed an agreement was "at hand", provided the US and European parties "are serious" about returning to full compliance with the deal.

The Vienna talks aim to return the US to the nuclear deal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure Tehran's full compliance with its commitments.

Raisi, who also discussed the progress of the talks with Coveney, said "sanctions must be truly lifted" and "the rights of the Iranian people must be respected" in any agreement.

Also on Monday, EU foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell tweeted that "I strongly believe an agreement is in sight", following a call with Iran's foreign minister.

MOSCOW — Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Syria for talks with President Bashar Al Assad and to inspect a Russian air base in the war-torn country, his ministry said on Tuesday, amid heightened tensions between the West and Moscow over Ukraine.

During in a meeting in Damascus, Shoigu "informed the Syrian president about the exercises of the Russian navy in the eastern Mediterranean", Russia's defence ministry said in a statement.

The two discussed “military-technical cooperation as part of the joint fight” against international terrorism and Russian humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria “suffering from the prohibitive sanctions of the United States and Western countries”.

Shoigu also inspected Russia’s Hmeimim Air Base in western Syria, the statement said.

It wasn’t clear from the statement precisely when the meeting took place.

Moscow has been a key ally of the Assad regime throughout the Syrian conflict that erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

Russia’s military intervention in 2015 helped turn the tide of the war in Assad’s favour and Moscow maintains military bases in the country.

Russia’s political and military support for Syria has been a particular sticking point in Moscow’s relations with the West, which has imposed sanctions on Moscow for bolstering the Assad regime.

Tensions between Moscow and the West have soared in recent, with the West accusing the Kremlin of amassing troops on its border with Ukraine in advance of a possible invasion.

NABI SALEH, Palestinian Territories — A Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, both sides said, during what witnesses described as a confrontation between protesters and Israeli forces.

The Palestinian health ministry said only that a Palestinian “citizen” was killed by Israeli fire in Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah.

Residents identified the victim as Nehad Bargouthi, 19, who was shot as local youths hurled stones at Israeli forces.

He “was assassinated in cold blood and in broad daylight”, his brother Ihab Bargouthi said.

The Israeli forces said in a statement that the incident began when “dozens of Palestinians approached a manned military post adjacent to a main road and the community of Nabi Saleh”.

“The Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli forces who were stationed at the post,” it said.

“The troops responded with riot dispersal means to restore order, including with live fire in order to stop a suspect, in accordance to the procedures,” the statement said, noting the incident was “under review”.

People from Bargouthi’s village of Kafr Ein, which is a short distance from Nabi Saleh, said he had been imprisoned in 2018 and was recently released.

According to his brother, he is “a former prisoner and wounded person... the occupation knows him well”.

Ihab Bargouthi added: “There were confrontations in the village of Al Nabi Saleh. Nihad goes to participate in any confrontations he hears about.”

Another teen killed 

The killing comes less than two days after another teenager was killed by Israeli gunfire near the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin.

Mohammed Abu Salah, 17, was shot during clashes that erupted as Israeli forces late Sunday were destroying the home of a Palestinian they accused of carrying out the December killing of a Jewish settler in the West Bank.

In another case last week, special Israeli forces killed three Palestinians during a daytime raid against what Israel described as a “terrorist cell”, leaving a vehicle in the West Bank city of Nablus riddled with bullet holes.

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

About 475,000 Jewish settlers now live in the territory, in communities widely regarded as illegal under international law, a situation which also fuels tensions with the West Bank’s nearly 2.9 million Palestinians.

Deadly incidents are common, often during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is the former head of a settler lobbying council who opposes Palestinian statehood.

He has ruled out any formal peace talks with Palestinians during his tenure but said he will work to improve economic conditions in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has civilian control over parts of the West Bank. Ties between the Authority, led by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, and Israel remain fraught. There have, however, been signs of a thaw in recent months following a series of high-level meetings, including Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz hosting Abbas at his home.