Region

QAMISHLI, Syria — Kurdish protesters in northeastern Syria demonstrated outside UN offices on Sunday against what they say is the continued recruitment of teenage girls for combat, an AFP correspondent reported.

A decade of war in Syria has seen all parties to the conflict recruit minors, both boys and girls.

A report published by the United Nations in May said that more than 400 children were recruited between July 2018 and June 2020 by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia, and its affiliates in northeastern Syria.

The YPG is the dominant force in the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led autonomous administration's de facto army.

On Sunday, nearly 30 people gathered outside a UN building in the city of Qamishli to demand action after a number of girls were reported to have been recruited into fighting, some of them allegedly by force.

The protesters carried banners saying: "Bring back our children" and "Child recruitment sows panic in the heart of mothers."

Mohammad Sharif said his 16-year-old daughter had been missing for almost a week.

"I want my daughter to come back home," he told AFP, adding that he believes she could be with the Women's Protections Units (YPJ), sister organisation of the YPG.

Balqis Hussein, 45, said her daughter had been missing for eight days.

She said she didn't know if her child had been abducted by a Kurdish militia or joined voluntarily.

"We fear for the future of our children, they should not be recruited or made to hold weapons," she said.

In June 2019, Kurdish authorities signed a joint action plan with the UN to end and prevent child recruitment.

But since its signing, the UN has confirmed at least 160 cases.

Khaled Jabir, the co-head of the Kurdish administration’s child protection unit, said his office had “recently received a number of complaints regarding child recruitment into combat”.

“There are several attempts to return children to their families,” he told AFP. “We categorically reject child recruitment by any party.”

Jabir said more than 213 children recruited by Kurdish militias have been returned to their families, including 54 who were handed over in the past month.

ALGIERS — Algerians voted Saturday in local elections seen as key in President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's push to turn the page on the two-decade rule of late president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

But despite official campaigns urging Algerians to "make their mark", the vote for municipal and provincial councils sparked little public interest.

The election is the third vote in Algeria under Tebboune, who has vowed to reform state institutions inherited from Bouteflika, an autocrat who ruled the country for two decades.

Observers are predicting a low turnout, in the same manner as the other poorly-attended elections held since Bouteflika was driven from power by the Hirak pro-democracy protest movement in April 2019.

Two hours into the vote, turnout was running at about four per cent, the election authority ANIE said.

The North African country's rulers are trying to "impose their will despite the embarrassing results of previous elections", said analyst Mohamed Hennad.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) and were scheduled to close at 7:00 pm.

More than 23 million people are eligible to vote, with 115,230 candidates standing for municipal and provincial councils.

Results are expected on Sunday.

Tebboune, members of his family as well as the army's chief of staff and other government officials were among the first to vote.

Campaigning had been muted despite calls by authorities on Algerians to take part if they "want change" and "institution building".

But Omar, an engineer, said he would not cast a ballot.

"Nothing will change," he said.

Yacine, a teacher, said he would be voting for rivals of the current Algiers mayor "even if I have no illusions" that they will be better.

Tebboune was elected in a contentious, widely boycotted 2019 ballot months after Bouteflika stepped down under pressure from the army and Hirak rallies.

He has vowed to break with the past manner of holding local and regional elections marred by widespread claims of fraud, as they were in the era of Bouteflika, who died in September at the age of 84.

In a televised interview on Friday, Tebboune, a former prime minister under the late autocrat, called on Algerians to participate in large numbers in the vote.

“If the people want change, it is time they do something about it themselves by voting,” he said.

Algeria’s local assemblies elect two-thirds of members of the national parliament’s upper house, with the president appointing the remainder.

Redouane Boudjemaa, a journalism professor at the University of Algiers, said the vote was simply “an attempt to clean up the facade of local councils by changing their members, to benefit the ruling class”, he said.

“Politics at the moment is limited to slogans proclaiming that the country has entered a new era, while all indicators point to the contrary,” Boudjemaa added.

‘No vision’ 

Tebboune pushed through an amended constitution in November 2020, approved by less than 24 per cent of the electorate, and oversaw a parliamentary election that saw just 23 per cent of voters take part.

His rule has seen a crackdown on journalists and Hirak activists, even as he has packaged major policy moves in response to calls by the protest movement for reform.

He has also faced one diplomatic crisis with Algeria’s ex-colonial ruler France, and is embroiled in another with neighbouring Morocco.

Algiers severed diplomatic ties with Rabat in August over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Boudjemaa said the main issue at stake was the “huge economic and social challenges of the coming year”.

“Several indicators show that the pouvoir [ruling elite] has neither the vision nor the strategy to respond to the crisis,” he said.

Hennad, the analyst, said that the elite, in power since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, was using slogans around change to impose its agenda without truly engaging other political forces.

Despite a declared boycott by the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy, party activists stood on independent lists.

KHARTOUM — Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said Saturday he has replaced Sudan's police chiefs after more than 40 people were killed in a crackdown on protests following last month's military coup.

Military chief General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan seized power and detained Hamdok on October 25, but after international condemnation and mass protests he reinstated the premier in a November 21 deal.

Medics say at least 42 people were killed as security forces sought to crush weeks of anti-coup demonstrations, with protests continuing even after Hamdok's release from house arrest and return to his post last week.

On Saturday, Hamdok said he had sacked the director general of the police, Khaled Mahdi Ibrahim Al Emam, and his deputy, Ali Ibrahim.

In their place, he appointed Anan Hamed Mohamed Omar with Abdelrahman Nasreddine Abdallah as his deputy, the premier said in a statement.

Medics have accused security forces of targeting protesters in the "head, neck and torso" with live ammunition, as well as with rubber-coated bullets and tear gas canisters.

The police have denied reports they opened fire using live bullets.

In addition, hundreds of political activists, journalists, protesters and bystanders watching the rallies have been arrested in recent weeks, and remain in custody.

While several civilian leaders have been released since last Sunday's deal, key figures are also still in detention.

The deal raised hopes for some that Sudan will be able to return to its tenuous transition process.

But critics slammed the agreement as "whitewashing" the coup, with some protesters accusing Hamdok of "treason" by signing it.

Hamdok, who has headed a transitional government since the 2019 ouster of long-time autocratic ruler Omar Al-Bashir, said Wednesday he partnered with the military in order to "stop the bloodshed" and "not squander the gains of the last two years".

The deal he signed with Burhan lays down a "clear date" for Sudan's first free elections in three decades slated for July 2023, the premier said.

LUXOR, Egypt — Egypt unveiled on Thursday a road lined with hundreds of ram-headed sphinx statues dating back more than 3,000 years, in a grandiose night-time ceremony at Karnak Temple in archaeologically-rich Luxor.

Dubbed the “Rams Road”, the sandstone-paved path connecting the temples of Karnak and Luxor in the centre of the southern Nile city was officially opened by President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and a host of senior officials in a spectacular night-time ceremony.

The road is nearly 3 kilometres long and named “The Path of God” in ancient Egyptian mythology.

It is flanked on both sides by statues that were buried for centuries under desert sands before they were revived and restored for display by the country’s Egyptologists in recent years.

The ram is an embodiment of the ancient Egyptian deity Amun.

Karnak Temple was built around 2,000 to 4,000 years ago and is dedicated to Amun-Ra, an ancient Sun god. It covers an area of over 100 hectares.

Luxor Temple was constructed some 3,400 years ago by Amenhotep III and has been used as a site of continuous religious worship from the ancient Egyptians to Christian Copts and later Muslims.

Egypt’s tourism and antiquities ministry has vowed to make the Arab world’s most populous country a vaunted destination for tourists by boosting its reputation as “an open air museum”.

The tourism sector in Egypt employs two million people and generates more than 10 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

But it has taken a hit in recent years from political turbulence following the 2011 revolution, multiple terror attacks, and more recently the coronavirus pandemic.

In April, a procession of floats carried the mummified remains of 22 pharaohs through Cairo’s streets in a parade complete with a 21-cannon salute to the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation.

In the coming months, the country is due to inaugurate another new showcase, the Grand Egyptian Museum, near the Giza pyramids in Cairo.

KHARTOUM — Sudan's newly reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Wednesday ordered a halt to sackings and a review of all appointments made after his detention in last month's military coup.

Top General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan had grabbed power and detained Hamdok on October 25 but, following international condemnation and mass protests, reinstated the premier last Sunday.

After the coup Burhan had dissolved major institutions and dismissed the heads of state media, public companies and banks as well as many provincial officials.

Ambassadors who had announced their defections were also relieved of their duties.

Hamdok himself was placed under house arrest after the putsch, which sparked a wave of mass street protests that triggered a deadly crackdown by the security forces.

On Wednesday, Hamdok said in a statement that he had ordered “an immediate halt to dismissals and hirings in national and local public institutions until further notice”.

The prime minister, who is still without a cabinet after returning to his post in a controversial deal with Burhan, said “recent hirings and dismissals will be studied and reviewed”.

Twelve out of 17 ministers from Sudan’s bloc calling for a purely civilian government resigned on Monday, rejecting Hamdok’s strategy of engaging with the military.

Despite the agreement that led to the release of a handful of politicians, dozens of others remain in detention.

Protest organisers have accused Hamdok of “treason” and have vowed to maintain pressure on the military-civilian authority overseeing Sudan’s transition.

Activists have taken to social media to call for “Martyrs’ Day” demonstrations on Thursday in honour of the 41 protesters killed in the post-coup crackdown.

On November 11, Burhan formed a new Sovereign Council in which he and other military figures stayed on but members of the main civilian bloc were replaced.

Prior to the coup, the council had been charged with overseeing Sudan’s transition to civilian rule after the ouster of long-time autocratic president Omar Al Bashir in 2019.

DUBAI — The United Nations on Wednesday urged Yemen's warring sides to "de-escalate violence", a day after one of its agencies warned the conflict will have claimed 377,000 lives by year's end.

The Yemeni government, supported by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Iran-allied Houthi rebels have been embroiled in conflict since 2014, resulting in what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"There is no sustainable military solution to the conflict in Yemen," said UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg in a statement.

"All warring parties need to de-escalate violence and prioritise the interests of civilians over scoring military wins," he said after a regional tour which included visits to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt.

A UN Development Programme report said Tuesday that 377,000 people will have died by the end of 2021 through direct and direct impacts of the Yemen war.

Nearly 60 per cent of deaths will have been caused by consequences such as lack of safe water, hunger and disease, it said, suggesting that fighting will have directly killed over 150,000 people.

Projecting the impact of continued fighting into the future, the UNDP warned that 1.3 million people in total will have died by 2030.

Grundberg also said that recent developments, including the ongoing battle for the strategic city of Marib, had resulted in ripple effects across Yemen, which has long been the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

In recent weeks, fighting has escalated on several fronts, mostly near Marib city, the internationally-recognised government's last major stronghold in Yemen's oil-rich north.

Thousands of rebels and pro-government fighters have been killed in the battle for the city.

The Houthis this month also seized a large area south of Hodeida, a Red Sea port city where the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire in 2018, after loyalist forces withdrew.

Yemen's grinding conflict has displaced millions, and more than 80 per cent of the population of around 30 million require humanitarian assistance.