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KHARTOUM — Sudanese authorities have released several civilian leaders detained since last month's military coup, one of the former captives said Monday, amid efforts to restore a fragile transition process towards full democracy.

"I was released late yesterday evening," following a deal to reverse the military takeover, the head of Sudan's Congress Party, Omar Al Degeir, who was among civilians arrested in the army's October 25 power grab, told AFP.

"I was in solitary confinement and completely cut off from the world throughout this period."

The Congress Party, however, slammed Sunday's deal, saying it "explicitly legitimised the continuation of the coup regime".

Other civilian politicians were also released, including Sedeeq Al Sadiq Al Mahdi of the Umma Party, Sudan's largest political group.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's adviser Yasser Arman, a leading figure of Sudan's mainstream civilian bloc, Forces for Freedom and Change, was among those freed, according to Degeir.

But other key civilian figures and ministers deposed in the coup have yet to be freed.

Top general Abdel Fattah Al Burhan last month declared a state of emergency and ousted the government, in a move that upended a two-year transition to civilian rule.

It triggered a wave of mass street protests in which at least 41 people have been killed, according to a pro-democracy doctors’ union.

But on Sunday, Hamdok, who had been placed under effective house arrest, was released.

He and Burhan then formally signed the 14-point deal that provided for the premier’s reinstatement and for political detainees to be freed.

However, analysts warn the move simply “whitewashes” the coup, as it remains unclear how much power Hamdok’s government will yield.

The Cabinet will moreover still be under oversight of a ruling council led by the military.

Thousands of demonstrators in multiple rallies rejected the deal, shouting, “No to military power” and demanding that the armed forces fully withdraw from government.

The deal was welcomed by the international community, including the United Nations and African Union, as well as the so-called Troika of Britain, Norway and the United States.

It was also greeted by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which have strong ties with the Sudanese military.

The deal raises hopes the strife-torn African country will be able to return to its tenuous transition process that started after the 2019 ouster of veteran autocratic president Omar Al Bashir following months of street protests.

Britain’s minister for Africa, Vicky Ford, said she was “pleased” at Hamdok’s return but warned that the “military must deliver on their commitment to a genuine partnership with civilians”.

AL BAB, Syria — Syria’s decade-long conflict forced 15-year-old Mohammad Makhzoum out of the classroom and into a scrapyard, where the orphan works 12 hours a day to support his younger siblings.

Mohammad, who has been working since he was nine, leaves home everyday at dawn for a basic foundry where he helps melt metal amid thick and toxic black fumes.

He said he wanted to make sure his sister and two brothers avoid a fate that has beset so many of Syria’s children.

“I am their mother and father,” he said, his face covered in soot, speaking from the run-down scrapyard in the northern city of Al Bab.

“I work so that they can continue their studies, because... they shouldn’t be denied an education like I was.”

An estimated 2.5 million children in Syria are out of school, with another 1.6 million at risk of dropping out, according to the UN’s children agency UNICEF.

It estimates that nine in ten children in Syria live in poverty and more than 5,700 children — some as young as seven — have been recruited to fight.

Worsening situation 

There is no official data in Syria on child labour rates. But they are believed to have steadily increased throughout the course of the conflict, with the coronavirus pandemic and an economic crisis fuelling further spikes over the past year.

“It is evident that child labour has increased in Syria...because of COVID-19 and the worsening economic crisis,” UNICEF spokesperson Juliette Touma said.

“Children in Syria, when they are involved in labour, are exposed to conditions that are absolutely horrific,” she said.

Mohammad, who originally hails from the town of Maarat Al Numan in Idlib district, dropped out of school at the age of nine to support his family after his father was killed by artillery shells.

Two years ago, his mother was killed in the same area.

He fled with his siblings to Al Bab, where they live in a small bullet-riddled flat, furnished with nothing but thin foam mattresses.

His weekly income of five dollars barely covers their food needs, but Mohammad still manages to source enough for his siblings’ school supplies.

“I work for their sake... I like to see them comfortable,” he said. “I want to see them become doctors or teachers, without having to suffer like I had to.”

But few of Syria’s children currently stand a chance of getting a decent life.

‘War destroyed our dreams’ 

At a makeshift oil refinery in Al Bab, 12-year-old Amer Al Shayban knelt in the freezing mud as he packed handfuls of charcoal in a plastic bag.

Then he dragged the heavy bag — nearly half his size — to feed a furnace that emits toxic fumes.

“I am forced to work... it’s not in my hands,” Amer said, explaining that he is the main breadwinner for his family.

“I work summers and winters in the refinery to support my parents... my chest hurts regularly because of the smoke and fumes.”

When Amer finishes his shift, he washes off soot from his hands and walks to a nearby displacement camp, where he lives with his parents and five younger siblings.

His father suffers from diabetes and clogged arteries, leaving the family mostly reliant on Amer’s monthly income of five dollars.

“I dream of carrying a pen and a notebook and going to school,” he said. “That is better than the furnaces, the diesel and this smell.”

Nadim Al Nako, aged 12, has given up hope of ever returning to school, after he dropped out two years ago.

Nadim works with a blowtorch most of the day — without any safety googles — in his father’s workshop to make pots and pans.

His salary goes entirely to household expenses, he said.

“War destroyed our dreams,” he said. “I don’t care anymore about school or anything of the like the only thing I care about is this profession.”

MOSUL, Iraq — From the rubble of Iraq’s war-ravaged city of Mosul arises the sight of androids gliding back and forth in a restaurant to serve their amused clientele.

“Welcome”, “We wish you a good time in our restaurant”, “We would be happy to have your opinion on the quality of the service”, chime the automated attendants, red eyes blinking out of their shiny blue and white exteriors.

“On television, you see robots and touch-screen tables in the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Japan,” said Rami Chkib Abdelrahman, proud owner of the White Fox which opened in June.

“I’m trying to bring these ideas here to Mosul.”

The futuristic servers are the result of technology developed in the northern city, erstwhile stronghold of the Daesh terror group.

“We saw the concept on social media in more than one restaurant,” said Abdelrahman, a dentist by profession.

Voyage to space 

Occupied by Daesh between 2014 and 2017, the northern metropolis of Mosul still bears the scars of war.

But at dinnertime, patrons of the restaurant that is packed every night can escape from the city on a voyage through space.

An astronaut floating across the muralled wall sets the scene and views of Earth and other planets as seen from space give customers the sense of peering out through the portholes of a spaceship.

The ceilings are speckled with glowing constellations.

But the star attractions remain the two androids, sporting a scarf and black beret, shuttling back and forth across the restaurant on rails to deliver orders.

As they approach, smartphones come out and children promptly line up next to them for a souvenir snapshot.

Time for a selfie 

The robots are imported, Abdelrahman explained without giving the source, adding that everything in the restaurant is digital, including the 15 touch-screen tables with built-in menus.

A team from the University of Mosul’s department of mechatronics — integrating several fields of engineering as well as robotics — was in charge of programming and connected a network and server to the restaurant.

Humans have not been completely replaced by machines.

Four young waiters are busy picking up the dishes from the robots’ trays and placing them on the tables.

Having dinner with his wife, Bashar Mahmud was won over. He took a selfie, smiling broadly.

“I’ve travelled abroad and I’ve never seen anything like this, not in Turkey, Jordan or Saudi Arabia,” exclaimed the 50-year-old blacksmith with a salt-and-pepper beard.

KHARTOUM — Sudan's top military leader and the prime minister he ousted almost a month ago have reached a deal for the premier's return to government and the release of civilian leaders, mediators said Sunday.

But while Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was liberated from weeks of effective house arrest, thousands of protesters again rallied in several cities as security forces in the capital fired teargas at demonstrators.

General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan on October 25 declared a state of emergency and ousted the government in a move that upended a two-year transition to civilian rule and sparked international condemnation.

The power grab triggered a wave of mass street protests in which 40 demonstrators have been killed, according to medical sources.

But after weeks of intense internal and international pressure, mediators on Sunday announced that the military had reached an agreement to reinstate Hamdok as premier.

"A political agreement has been reached between General Burhan, Abdalla Hamdok, political forces and civil society organisations for Hamdok's return to his position, and the release of political detainees," senior Sudanese mediator Fadlallah Burma, acting head of the Umma party, told AFP.

The developments have raised hopes the strife-torn northeast African country will be able to return to its fragile transition process toward full democracy that started after the 2019 ouster of veteran autocratic president Omar Al Bashir.

An official from the premier's office confirmed that Hamdok's "house arrest ... has been lifted and the forces guarding his house have withdrawn".

Hamdok later arrived at the presidential palace in Khartoum, the seat of government, state TV announced.

Opposition reject deal 

A group of Sudanese mediators including politicians, academics and journalists who have been locked in crisis talks in recent weeks, released a statement outlining the main points of the deal.

It included the restoration of Hamdok as prime minister, the release of all detainees and what it said was the resumption of the constitutional, legal and political consensus governing the transitional period.

However, the main civilian bloc which spearheaded the anti-Bashir protests and signed a 2019 power-sharing deal with the military rejected Sunday’s agreement.

“We affirm our clear and previously declared position that there is no negotiation, no partnership, no legitimacy for the coup,” said the mainstream faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change in a statement.

The deal announcement came as pro-democracy activists launched the latest in a wave of mass protests to denounce the coup and the ensuing crackdown, in which medics say 16 people were killed last Wednesday alone.

Police deny firing live ammunition and insist they have used “minimum force” to disperse the protests. They have recorded only one death, among demonstrators in North Khartoum.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters also gathered in Khartoum’s twin city Omdurman, as well as in the eastern state of Kassala, the restive eastern coastal city of Port Sudan and the northern city of Atbara, according to witnesses.

History of coups 

The return of Hamdok, a British-educated economist who has worked for the United Nations and African organisations, has been a key demand of international community.

“The agreement will be officially announced later today, after the signing of its terms and the accompanying political declaration,” the Sunday statement said.

Mediators said the deal was reached following talks among political factions, ex-rebel groups and military figures.

Sudan, which is mired in a dire economic crisis, has a long history of military coups, having enjoyed only rare interludes of democratic rule since independence in 1956.

Burhan, who served under Bashir’s three-decades long rule, become Sudan’s de facto leader after the army ousted and jailed the president in 2019.

The veteran general headed the Sovereign Council of military and civilian figures, with Hamdok as prime minister leading the Cabinet.

But deepening splits and long-simmering tensions between the military and civilians marred the transition, and last month Burhan led the army takeover.

Burhan has insisted that the military’s move “was not a coup” but a step “to rectify the transition”.

Earlier this month, he announced a new ruling council in which he kept his position as head, along with a powerful paramilitary commander, three senior military figures, three ex-rebel leaders and one civilian. But the other four civilian members were replaced with lesser known figures.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Posters of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi beam out over a site in the war-battered Gaza Strip where labourers and bulldozers are hard at work rebuilding.

After years of retreat, Egypt is making its presence felt again in the neighbouring Palestinian enclave, emerging as a key benefactor in the aftermath of the last bout of fighting between Hamas and Israel in May.

In the weeks following the deadly violence, a number of Egyptian workers crossed the border on a mission to lay down a coastal road in the Gaza's northern city of Beit Lahya.

"The president's instructions are to reconstruct the Gaza Strip. We are about 70 engineers, civil servants, lorry drivers, mechanics and workers," said a worker who preferred not to give his name.

He added that he was "happy to help Palestine".

During the 11-day conflict that erupted between Israel and armed Islamist factions in Gaza last May, the worst since 2014, Egypt worked behind the scenes to mediate a ceasefire.

Cairo also pledged a $500 million package to reconstruct the enclave which borders Israel and Egypt.

Relations between Cairo and Hamas, an offshoot of Egypt’s veteran Islamist opposition Muslim Brotherhood group, have been sour, particularly after the 2013 military ouster of late president Mohamed Morsi, also of the Brotherhood.

The sight of Egyptian workers rebuilding Gaza as Egypt invests millions in the enclave was “unexpected, unimaginable”, Palestinian Economist Omar Shaban said.

“Egypt and Hamas are not friends, but they have common interests,” he explained in his office in Al Rimal, a Gaza district that was heavily bombarded by Israel in May.

“Egypt wants to maintain the ceasefire by engaging in the after-war reconstruction efforts.”

Hamas is in desperate need of international aid for reconstruction, while positive relations with Egypt are an added benefit as it controls the Rafah border, often the only access point for much-needed construction material to the enclave.

Egypt, meanwhile, “understands that it doesn’t have a lot of options” in Gaza, where Hamas, nearly 15 years after seizing power from the Fateh movement and despite four wars with Israel, still holds firm, Shaban said.

Qatar vs Egypt? 

Over recent years, Qatar has become the prime donor of aid for the impoverished territory, but in the aftermath of the May fighting, the flow of cash came to a halt.

The energy-rich Gulf country, considered to be sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots, has dispensed tens of millions of dollars in aid to poor families in Gaza.

But a dispute arose over the distribution of salaries to Hamas officials as Israel objected to cash payments, suggesting that the Islamist movement could divert the money to its armed faction.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid as a result urged Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, both of which have formal ties with Israel, to step in to reconstruct and develop Gaza.

Hamas estimates the damage at about $479 million.

This comes on top of $600 million it says is needed for rebuilding efforts after previous combat that have yet to be realised, said Naji Sarhan, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Public Works in Gaza.

This is excluding considerations for the development needs of Gaza, including electricity, water and infrastructure. The territory is considered one of the most impoverished in the region.

“The Qatari aid is welcome and so is that of Egypt... We are coordinating between the countries,” Sarhan said. Doha announced on November 17th an agreement with Cairo “to supply fuel and basic building materials for the Gaza Strip”.

Ties between Egypt and Qatar soured for several years — in large part due to the Gulf state’s close ties with the Brotherhood — before they reconciled again earlier this year.

Sarhan added that the road being built by Egypt in the north will join with another funded by Qatar, creating a corridor along the coast between the north and the south of Gaza.

The road will however cut right through the Al Shati refugee camp, where the buildings have been reduced to rubble.

“They told us that we must leave this place, that we will have a new home,” said one resident, Roya Al Hassi, 83, seated on a rocking chair.

“I am not worried about leaving, so long as I can find a room, a bathroom and a place to make my tea.”

On the other side of the road, young businessman Maher Al Baqa looked out at the construction of his new cafe on the seafront.

The new seaside road “will attract the world”, he rejoiced. “But hey, it’s still Gaza, you never know when the war will restart.”