Region

RIYADH — The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Tuesday it has killed over 130 Houthi rebels in the past 24 hours in strikes in and near the northern pro-government bastion of Marib.

The Saudi-led coalition has been reporting high death tolls in almost daily strikes since October aimed at repelling a rebel offensive on the city of Marib, the government's last stronghold in the north.

The Iran-backed Huthis rarely comment on the tolls, which have exceeded 3,700 in the past weeks, and AFP cannot independently verify the coalition's figures.

“Sixteen military vehicles were destroyed and more than 130 terrorist elements eliminated” in the latest raids, the coalition said in a statement carried by the Saudi state news agency SPA.

It said the operations were carried out in Marib and Al Bayda provinces.

The Houthis began a major push to seize Marib city in February, and renewed their offensive in September.

There was also reported fighting on a separate front, along Yemen’s Red Sea coast after Houthi forces pushed south in recent days.

The coalition said Tuesday they targeted four Houthi positions along the western coast.

A Houthi advance near Yemen’s lifeline port of the western province of Hodeida and a Saudi pullback have displaced more than 6,000 people, according to the United Nations.

On Monday, the coalition said in a statement that the “redeployment and repositioning” of its troops and government forces last week was designed “to support the Yemeni government in its national battle on all fronts”.

Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions displaced in what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Wr-scarred Libya's eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar registered on Tuesday to run for president in a December 24 election also contested by a son of former leader Muammar Qadhafi.

"I declare my candidacy for the presidential election, not because I am chasing power but because I want to lead our people towards glory, progress and prosperity," Haftar said in a televised speech.

Haftar's announcement came two days after Seif Al Islam Qadhafi declared his own candidacy, a decade on from his father's death in a 2011 NATO-backed rebellion.

Both are deeply divisive figures.

Qadhafi is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, while many in western Libya despise Haftar after his year-long assault on Tripoli, accusing the military commander of seeking to establish a military dictatorship.

On Tuesday Haftar vowed to defend "Libya's unity, independence, sovereignty" and called for "reconciliation and peace, construction and stability".

Haftar later officially submitted his bid at an electoral board office, where he told journalists: "The next stage will be difficult. I call on all Libyans to make the right choice, one they will not regret."

His candidacy marks the latest stage in Haftar's dramatic trajectory from exile in the United States to becoming one of the most controversial figures in Libya's 10-year conflict.

From 2014, he led a three-year battle against extremists in Benghazi, establishing himself as the dominant power in the country's east.

In April 2019, backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, he launched an offensive on Tripoli on the pretext of rooting out militant groups.

The year-long battle left the outskirts of the capital in ruins and Libya more divided than ever. But a United Nations-brokered ceasefire in October last year paved the way for a peace process leading to elections set for December 24.

'Huge' problems 

In September, Haftar provisionally quit his military position in line with a controversial electoral law to allow him to run for president.

On Tuesday, wearing a formal suit and tie instead of his military uniform, he said the vote is "the only way to pull Libya out of chaos".

Libya's electoral process, already beset by disputes over who can stand and the legal basis for the polls, looks as shaky as ever just six weeks ahead of the vote.

On Monday evening, the head of the UN-backed unity government Abdulhamid Dbeibah said the process was facing "huge" problems given the lack of laws and consensus over a constitutional framework for the vote.

Last week, Haftar's forces said 300 mercenaries fighting on his side would leave Libya at the request of France in a "unilateral gesture", expecting nothing in return from the government in Tripoli.

But pro-Haftar forces remain in control of much of eastern and southern Libya, and some analysts have voiced scepticism over the chances of a free and fair vote.

Analyst Khaled Al Montasir said Haftar had "imposed himself on the political scene, but he will remain a controversial figure rejected by many in western and southern Libya".

"Moreover, there's no guarantee that any election process that brings him to power will be respected," he told AFP.

'Major threat' 

Other analysts warned of the potential for intimidation or worse from Haftar loyalists.

"Haftar's forces have by far been Libya's leading perpetrators of war crimes since 2014, and are bound to use intimidation or worse to influence the elections," tweeted Wolfram Lacher, a Libya specialist at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Next month's election is seen by the international community as a key step in restoring stability to Libya after a decade of conflict since the overthrow of Qadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising.

But the path to the ballot box has been lined with disputes over the constitutional basis for the polls and the powers to be given to whoever wins.

Many observers have warned there are no guarantees either side will respect the result of the election.

"Haftar claimed in 2018 Libya was 'not ripe for democracy', and last August that his military forces would not be subject to any political authority, civilian or otherwise," Anas Al Gomati, director of Libya-based think tank the Sadeq Institute, told AFP.

"This is a major threat to the political transition moving forward."

TEHRAN — Regional powers Iran and Turkey on Monday expressed a willingness to step up ties, as Ankara’s foreign minister visited.

The neighbours have historically close economic relations but occasionally find themselves on opposite sides of regional conflicts, including in Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after talks with his counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The two sides “should be ready to increase their relations from the current level to an overall cooperation”, a statement from Iran’s presidency said.

This should be done “by finalising the roadmap for strengthening collaborations, which is on the agenda of both countries”, it said.

On Twitter, Cavusoglu said he and Raisi “discussed our bilateral relations, including trade, investments and [the] fight against terrorism” as well as the “latest developments in our region”.

They “reaffirmed our mutual will to further develop our relations”, the minister added.

Earlier in the day Cavusoglu and Amir-Abdollahian held a joint press conference after they met for more than an hour.

“Developments in Afghanistan, the necessity of developing stability, security and tranquility in western Asia, the attention brought to the regional policy of the two countries,” were among the topics, Amir-Abdollahian told reporters.

Ankara is building a wall along its eastern border with Iran. One function will be to keep out Afghans trying to use the route to enter Europe.

From Tehran, Cavusoglu travelled to politically and economically fragile Lebanon, where the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah is backed by Iran. The minister said the two visits were not planned at the same time.

The US administration of President Joe Biden has had rocky relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while Iran is under economically crippling American sanctions imposed after former US president Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

“Unilateral sanctions targeting Iran should be lifted,” Cavusoglu told reporters.

Talks on restoring that 2015 nuclear deal are to resume in Vienna on November 29, after a suspension since June.

HODEIDA, Yemen — A Houthi rebel advance near Yemen's lifeline port of Hodeida and a Saudi pullback have displaced more than 6,000 people, the United Nations said.

The insurgents on Friday took control of a large area south of Hodeida, a key port where the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire in 2018, after loyalist forces withdrew.

The pro-government forces gave no reason for the pullback.

"Some 700 families [some 4,900 people] were displaced" to Khokha, over 100 kilometres south of Hodeida, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, citing Yemeni government sources.

It said "184 other families (about 1,300 people) were displaced further south" to the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha.

"No displacement has been reported within the areas that came under control of the de facto authorities," OCHA said in a statement Sunday, referring to the Shiite Houthis.

Citing aid partners on the ground, it said a 300-tent site for displaced people had been set up in Khokha, while authorities were reportedly seeking another site to cope with the influx.

But the UN also said the Houthi advance could result in “improved movement for civilians” between the provinces of Hodeida and Sanaa, and along roads connecting Hodeida city with other districts.

The United Nations Mission to support the Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA) said on Monday that the latest developments “represent a major shift of the frontlines”.

It urged all parties “to protect civilians especially internally displaced persons”.

The Hodeida ceasefire was agreed at Yemen’s last peace talks in Sweden in 2018.

But clashes have since broken out between rebels and pro-government troops around the city which is vital for the import of humanitarian aid.

Two military officials told AFP that fighting also erupted Saturday when the rebels tried to push south into government-controlled territory, but loyalist forces had repelled the advance.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to shore up the government, a year after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in Yemen’s conflict, in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Battle for Marib rages 

The Iran-backed insurgents have also kept an offensive to capture Marib, the government’s last stronghold in the north.

The coalition said Monday that it killed more than 140 Houthi insurgents in the past 24 hours in air strikes in the provinces of Marib and Al Bayda, to the south.

The coalition has been reporting high death tolls in almost daily strikes since October aimed at repelling a rebel offensive on the city of Marib.

The Houthis rarely comment on the tolls, which have exceeded 3,500 in the past weeks, according to Saudi reports.

AFP cannot independently verify the coalition’s figures.

“Eighteen military vehicles were destroyed and over 140 terrorist elements eliminated” in the latest raids, the coalition said, quoted by the Saudi state news agency SPA.

The UN last week called on “all parties to the conflict to ensure the safety and security of civilians in and around those areas where shifts in frontlines have taken place”.

The Houthis began a major push to seize Marib city in February and renewed their offensive in September.

KHARTOUM — The death toll from Sudan's latest anti-coup protests at the weekend has risen to eight, medics said Monday, bringing the total number killed since last month's military takeover to 23.

Three teenagers were among those who lost their lives during the latest mass protests on Saturday, which were met with the deadliest crackdown since the October 25 coup.

"The confirmed number of martyrs since the coup has so far reached 23 people," said the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, an independent union of medics.

The union named all eight protesters killed, including a 13-year-old girl who it said had suffered "a shot to the head outside her home".

“More than 200 wounded have been surveyed so far, including 100 injured with live bullets,” it said, adding that others were wounded with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Sudan’s top Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Burhan on October 25 declared a state of emergency, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership.

The military takeover sparked a chorus of international condemnation, including punitive aid cuts, with world powers demanding a swift return to civilian rule.

Demonstrators have rallied since then despite Internet outages and disruptions of communication lines, which forced activists to disseminate calls for protests via graffiti and SMS messages.

State television reported that 39 police personnel were “severely wounded” in confrontations with protesters on Saturday.

The police accused protesters of attacking police stations, saying the demonstrations “began peaceful but quickly veered off course”.

They denied using “live rounds”, saying they had used only “minimum force”.

Saturday’s demonstrations came two days after Burhan announced a new civilian-military ruling body to replace the one he ousted.

The new council includes figures from the military and from ex-rebel groups from the deposed council.

It also comprised several little-known civilians who replaced members of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), the main civilian bloc which spearheaded the 2019 protests against former president Omar Al Bashir.

The FFC has also led calls for a transition to civilian rule.

The UN has criticised the military’s latest “unilateral” step, while Western countries said it “complicates efforts to put Sudan’s democratic transition back on track”.

Burhan insists the military’s move on October 25 “was not a coup” but a push to “rectify the course of the transition”.

TRIPOLI — Elders from several cities called for a boycott of presidential elections and protesters shut voting stations in western Libya on Monday after former leader Muamer qadhafi's son registered to run.

Seif Al Islam Qadhafi, whose whereabouts have been secret for years, on Sunday became the first heavyweight candidate to sign up for the December 24 poll.

But an influential council of elders from Misrata, a city which played a key role in the 2011 uprising that toppled his father, called for an election boycott.

The council rejects "the candidacy of those who used excessive force against the Libyan people's uprising and who are the target of arrest warrants from Libyan courts and the International Criminal Court", it said in a statement.

It urged "free patriots" to protest against the election taking place before a constitutional basis was agreed.

A member of the electoral commission, the HNEC, told AFP that "residents protesting at the candidacy of Seif Al Islam Qadhafi in presidential elections closed down several polling stations" in the west.

The official, who asked not to be named, said there had been no violence and voting stations had not been damaged.

Libya first ever direct presidential poll comes as the United Nations seeks to end a decade of violence since a revolt that toppled his father in 2011.

Seif Al Islam is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the NATO-backed uprising.

But the HNEC said he had "completed all the required legal conditions" to run.

n Sunday, prominent figures in the western city of Zawiya "categorically rejected" presidential runs by both Qadhafi and eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is also widely expected to announce a bid.

A key part of a United Nations-led political process building on a ceasefire in October last year, the elections are opposed by some who argue there has been no agreement on their legal basis and the powers the winner would take.

Khaled Al Meshri, head of an interim High Council of State, has called for them to be delayed, saying they are "flawed" and "illegal".

The HNEC says around 2.83 million voters have signed up to take part in the presidential and legislative polls due to start on December 24.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — An Israeli rights group said Sunday that in 183 incidents of Jewish settler violence against Palestinians, Israeli forces did not intervene to protect Palestinians and at times actively joined the attacks.

In the report, the B'tselem rights group said it documented a total of 451 settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since early last year.

"Settler attacks against Palestinians are a strategy employed by the Israeli apartheid regime, which seeks to advance and complete its misappropriation of more and more Palestinian land," it said.

Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, rejects claims that its treatment of the Palestinians amounts to apartheid.

According to B'tselem, in 183 incidents of settler violence the forces stood by or assisted the attackers.

As a result, it said, five Palestinians were killed and 22 arrested.

Israel's forces did not immediately respond to questions regarding B'tselem's latest allegations.

B'tselem spokeswoman Dror Sadot said the group did not contact security forces because "we understood they do nothing about our accusations".

According to the group, in five test cases across the West Bank, violent settlers took over more than 2,800 hectares of land.

As an example, the group cited the Ma'on Farm, erected illegally in the southern West Bank but together with a sub-outpost now controls some 264 hectares, including roads and pasture used by the area's Palestinian residents.

Shepherd Jummah Ribii, 48, of the Palestinian community Al-Tuwani, told B'stelem that assaults by settlers were pushing him away from farming that had sustained his family.

He said settlers attacked him severely in 2018. “They broke my leg, and I had to spend two weeks in hospital and continue treatment at home,” B’stelem quoted him as saying.

“I had to sell most of our sheep to cover the cost of treatment.”

Nearly half-a-million Israelis have moved to West Bank settlements that most of the international community regard as illegal.

Some settler outposts, including the Ma’on Farm, are also illegal under Israeli law, however, the government has been slow or unwilling to evacuate them.

TUNIS — Thousands of Tunisians gathered near the country's parliament on Sunday to protest a presidential power grab they have deemed a "coup".

It was the latest rally opposing President Kais Saied's July 25 decision to sack the government, suspend parliament and seize an array of powers, citing an "imminent threat" to the country — the birthplace of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings against autocracy.

More than 3,000 protesters gathered, shouting "The people want to bring down the coup d'etat" and "Kais's project is a civil war", and branding the president an "agent of colonialism", AFP correspondents reported.

Some demonstrators carried signs reading "No to the intimidation of the media" and demanding "an independent judicial authority".

The protesters "shut down all the streets, the avenues, the motorways", said Jawhar Ben Mbarek, a figure of the Tunisian left.

"After shutting down the state, Saied has shut down the institutions, the constitution. He has shut down the country," he charged.

Social media users shared images of police using cars and minivans to block protesters from reaching the suburb of Bardo, where the parliament building is located.

Activist Said Jendoubi said that Tunisia, 10 years after its revolution, was experiencing "a real military and police coup d'etat. A police state has returned".

Several members of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha Party, a key force in the dissolved parliament, were at the forefront of the procession alongside left-wing representatives, holding signs reading: "MPs against the coup".

Other protesters gathered near parliament, Tunisian flags in hand, and shouted their opposition to military trials for civilians.

On Wednesday, Amnesty International warned that "military courts in Tunisia are increasingly targeting civilians, in some cases for publicly criticising President Kais Saied".

It said that within the past three months, at least 10 civilians have been investigated by military courts.

On September 22, Saied suspended parts of the constitution and installed rule by decree, maintaining full control of the judiciary as well as powers to sack ministers and issue laws.

He appointed a new government in October, with Najla Bouden as the North African country's first female prime minister.

But he has significantly pared back the powers of her office and will technically head the administration himself.

Saied, who was elected in late 2019, made his shock move amid a socio-economic crisis aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of his opponents have accused him of seeking a new dictatorship, a decade after Tunisia's 2011 revolt that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

But the president's supporters say his moves were needed after years of deadlock among political parties seen as corrupt and self-serving.

Youssef Cherif of the Columbia Global Centres for North Africa said Saied's plans were unclear.

"The tendency is to go towards a presidential regime, but we don't know if this will be within a democratic framework or not," he told AFP.

NEW ADMINISTRATIVE CAPITAL, Egypt — An opulent presidential palace, a brand new parliament, a regal opera house and spacious parks are all part of the vision for an ambitious new administrative capital rising up out of the Egyptian desert.

As far as the eye can see, building sites dot the horizon heralding the arrival of this crown jewel of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi's grand urban plans.

About 50 kilometres east of the north African country's 1,000-year-old capital, Cairo, construction workers are racing to finish the project.

It had been set to be unveiled on June 30 — the date marking the anniversary of 2013 mass protests, backed by the military, which toppled the divisive rule of late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

But the launch was postponed because of the COVID pandemic that led to a downturn in the market.

After a series of false starts, Sisi this month issued a directive for civil servants to relocate to the new capital in December for a "six-month trial period".

The city is forecast to cost around $45 billion, is roughly the size of Singapore, and has been touted as a solution to overpopulation in the sprawling metropolis of Cairo, home to more than 20 million people.

After being first elected in 2014, Sisi anointed the new capital as "the birth of a new state... and republic".

Some believe, however, the new city, just known officially as the New Administrative capital, will not compete with Cairo in the same way as Brazil's new capital Brasilia and even risks eventually being swallowed up by its huge neighbour.

"The new capital for me is a mystery," said Galila El Kadi, an urban planning professor and director of the Marseille-based Research Institute for Development.

"It's already on the edge of Cairo without anyone moving there yet and within a few years it will expand and fuse into Cairo. This will only increase problems of managing human density of such magnitude," she told AFP.

'Room for 2 million' 

Sisi has staked his legacy on massive infrastructure projects, and ground has also been broken in other new cities including on the Mediterranean Sea at El Alamein, in the fertile Delta near Mansoura and in the south near Aswan.

In 2019 Sisi inaugurated a massive mosque in the new capital with capacity for 3,000 worshippers, as well as the largest cathedral in the Middle East for the Copt population, seeking to enhance his image as the country's self-proclaimed unifier.

And the capital remains "the biggest project among all other projects undertaken by the state", Khaled Al Husseini, the spokesperson for the main construction firm building the capital, told AFP.

The first phase "will span 250 kilometres squared and can accommodate up to 2 million citizens".

Real estate firms are advertising new units with mortgage payments divided over more than 10 years — a rarity in a country where payments are upfront.

Husseini boasted the new "smart city" will provide a better lifestyle, with state of the art hospitals, schools and universities.

Around 50,000 civil servants are expected to move in, with the number doubling in the next three years.

Affordable housing units in nearby satellite settlements aimed at state employees have been built by the government.

And a $4.5 billion monorail project will connect Greater Cairo and the new capital, with two trains already delivered by French firm Alstom.

'Isolating the ruler' 

But the staggering construction costs have triggered criticism about Egypt's spending priorities, with one in three of the 102 million people living below the poverty line.

Most people won't be able to afford apartments and villas in the new city, said Mustapha Kamel Al Sayyed, a political science professor at Cairo University.

"The [government's] vision of what is dubbed modernity is just a transfer of the manifestations of Western modernity to Egypt," he said.

"It means having skyscrapers, wide roads and advanced technology," he added.

"But modernity in reality is about a government being accountable to its people" such as providing a good education, he explained.

Kadi added that since the time of the pharaohs "administrative capitals were established for the purpose of isolating the ruler from the people".

Residents of several settlements and low-income areas have already been evicted or moved to government housing — sometimes in remote areas — as part of the urban development plans.

Sayyed said Sisi wanted to build a legacy, as past presidents had done, highlighting Gamal Abdel Nasser's Aswan Dam project.

"Sisi wants history to remember him by moving the centre of power from Cairo to a place that will immortalise him."