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TRIPOLI — Wanted Libyan war crimes suspect Seif Al Islam Qadhafi, son of slain dictator Muammar Qadhafi and once seen as his heir apparent, registered to run on Sunday for next month's presidential election.

Libya's first ever direct presidential poll, with a first round on December 24, would mark the climax of a process launched last year by the United Nations to try to draw a line under years of violence since the revolt that toppled Qadhafi in 2011.

Wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the NATO-backed uprising, Seif Al Islam completed "all the required legal conditions", the election commission said.

"Seif Al Islam Qadhafi submitted... his candidacy for the presidential election to the High National Electoral Commission office in the city of Sebha," it said in a statement.

The 49-year-old, sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, recited a verse from the Koran and thanked those assisting him, saying: "God bless you", video footage showed.

The commission released pictures showing Seif Al Islam dressed in a traditional bedouin robe and headdress. He was issued with a voter registration card for the southern Sebha district

Libya last Monday opened registration for candidates in presidential and parliamentary polls.

Both are slated for December 24, but in early October parliament split the dates of the vote by postponing legislative elections until January.

Political comeback 

Foreign powers have been pushing hard for both elections to be still held on the same date, as agreed at UN-led talks last year.

Speculation had been mounting for months over a possible presidential bid by Seif Al Islam, who was also sentenced to death by a Tripoli court in 2017 for crimes committed during the revolt.

In July, Seif Al Islam emerged from years in the shadows and told The New York Times he was planning a political comeback.

In a rare interview, he said he wanted to "restore the lost unity" of Libya after a decade of chaos.

"I've been away from the Libyan people for 10 years. You need to come back slowly, slowly. Like a striptease. You need to play with their minds a little," the paper quoted him as saying.

Until the interview, Seif Al Islam had not been seen or heard from since June 2014, when he appeared via video link from Zintan, in the west of the country, during his trial by the Tripoli court.

Although the court sentenced him to death in absentia, a rival administration in the east pardoned him in a decision never confirmed by authorities in Tripoli.

The militia that was holding him in Zintan has repeatedly refused to hand him over to The Hauge-based ICC, and freed him in 2017.

A spokesman for the ICC, Fadi Abdallah, told Libya's Al Ahrar television that the court still wants Seif Al Islam.

'Crossroads'

Analysts say Seif Al Islam's bid for the presidency will be problematic for Libya's electoral process.

"This is only going to complicate the electoral process further," said Wolfram Lacher, a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

World powers meeting in Paris warned Friday that Libya was at a "crossroads" which would determine its future.

"We urge all Libyan stakeholders and candidates to respect their commitments towards holding elections on 24 December 2021 [and] to accept the results of free, fair and inclusive elections," they said in a statement.

Despite a year of relative peace following a ceasefire between eastern and western camps, the process has been overshadowed by wrangling over the legal basis for the votes and the powers attached.

Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya specialist at the Global Initiative think-tank, said that "the fact that Seif has submitted his candidacy can only add to the fragility of the election project".

Speculation has also been mounting over possible presidential bids by eastern-based military chief Khalifa Haftar and current Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

Former interior minister Fathi Bashagha has confirmed he will run, while others expected to do so include diplomats Aref Al Nayed and Ibrahim Dabbachi, as well as comedian Hatem Al Kour.

"On December 24, Libyans will be able to choose a president... from among a former aggressor, a man who committed war crimes to seize power, and another one known for his obscene corruption," said Tarek Megerisi, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

He was alluding to Seif Al Islam, Haftar and Dbeibah.

KHARTOUM — Sudanese security forces shot dead at least one protester on Saturday in a crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations, medics said, after the military tightened its grip by forming a new ruling council.

The pro-democracy protests come nearly three weeks after top general Abdel Fattah Al Burhan ousted the government, detained the civilian leadership and declared a state of emergency.

"One protester was killed in Omdurman by the bullets of the putschist military council," the Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors said in a statement referring to security forces.

Other demonstrators in Khartoum's twin city were wounded by "live rounds", it added.

An AFP correspondent reported hearing the sound of gunfire as well at a protest in east Khartoum.

Tear gas was also fired at many protests in Khartoum and neighbouring cities as security forces sought to disperse the demonstrations, witnesses and an AFP correspondent there said.

"No, no to military rule", "Civilian [rule] is the people's choice", and "Down with the entire council", the protesters in southern Khartoum shouted.

Thousands rallied nationwide, with protests taking place in the cities of Atbara, Wad Madani as well as in the central state of North Kordofan and in Port Sudan city and Kassala state, witnesses said.

The military’s October 25 takeover drew widespread international condemnation, as did a deadly crackdown on street demonstrations by people demanding it restore the country’s democratic transition.

Any hopes the demonstrators had that the military would back down were dashed on Thursday, when Burhan named himself as the head of a new ruling Sovereign Council that excludes the country’s main civilian bloc, triggering more condemnation from the West.

Call for restraint

The protests occurred despite the heavy presence of military, police and paramilitary forces in Khartoum, where bridges connecting the capital to neighbouring cities were sealed off, AFP correspondents reported.

The security forces also blocked roads in Khartoum leading to the army headquarters, the site of a 2019 mass sit-in that led to the ouster of autocratic president Omar Al Bashir.

The United Nations has called on the security forces to refrain from violence, which since the coup has already left dead at least 16 people, according to an independent union of medics.

“I once again call upon the security forces to exercise utmost restraint and respect the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” said UN Special Representative for Sudan Volker Perthes.

Saturday’s demonstrations have largely been organised by informal groups known as “resistance committees”, which emerged during the 2019 anti-Bashir demonstrations.

The committees have called for multiple protests since the coup and mobilised crowds via text messages as Sudan has largely remained under a rigorous Internet outage with phone lines intermittently disrupted.

Demonstrators also blocked roads with brick as they have done at previous rallies.

But despite the efforts, “civilian opposition to the coup has been diffuse and fragmented”, International Crisis Group analyst Jonas Horner has said.

The coup has led to punitive measures by the international community disturbed by the turn away from a transition to full civilian rule.

‘Gravely concerned’

On Friday, military figures and new civilian members of a new ruling council were sworn in before Burhan.

Three former rebel leaders who were members of the ousted Sovereign Council and were appointed to the new one did not attend the ceremony. They had previously rejected the military coup.

The newly named council features several new and little-known figures to represent civilians.

But it excludes any members of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), an umbrella alliance which spearheaded the anti-Bashir protests, and the main bloc calling 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” as factional infighting and splits deepened between civilians from the FFC and the military under the now-deposed government.

PARIS — World powers on Friday told Libya to stick to a plan for holding presidential elections on December 24, adding that foreign mercenaries should also leave and allow the country to turn a page in its history.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted leaders and diplomats in Paris for an international conference, declaring that Libya was now as a "crossroads" that would determine its future.

The North African country has been mired in civil war since the overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi in a 2011 uprising, with the bloodshed drawing in competing Libyan factions and Islamist groups, as well as regional powers.

The presidential vote on December 24 is the core part of a United Nations plan to help restore stability, but the calendar has been under pressure as tensions flare once more between rival camps.

"We urge all Libyan stakeholders and candidates to respect their commitments towards holding elections on December 24, 2021 [and] to accept the results of free, fair and inclusive elections," the powers said in a statement after the talks.

The scheduling has remained unclear, after Libya’s parliament in early October pushed back legislative elections until January.

“Libya is once again at a crossroads. There have been 10 years of disorder and upheaval in which the international community is not without responsibility,” said Macron.

“The next six weeks will be decisive,” he added.

‘Concrete guarantees’

The world powers also warned that sanctions could be imposed against anyone deemed to be impeding the process.

“We affirm that individuals or entities, inside or outside of Libya, who might attempt to obstruct, undermine, manipulate or falsify the electoral process and the political transition will be held accountable and may be designated” by UN sanctions, their statement said.

Key players attending the meeting included US Vice President Kamala Harris and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, one of Paris’s closest allies in the Middle East although accused by activists of rights abuses at home.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi were also present. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Russian President Vladimir Putin were conspicuous by their absence.

Libya was represented by transitional presidential council head Mohamed Al Menfi as well as Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah who said: “Concrete guarantees must be obtained that the election results will be accepted and that those who reject them will be sanctioned.”

Earlier this week, Libya opened registration for election candidates, with speculation mounting over possible presidential bids by eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar or even Kadhafi’s son Seif Al Islam, both deeply divisive figures.

‘First withdrawal’

The conference to endorse a plan for the departure of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya, with the statement giving “full support for the comprehensive Action Plan for the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces from the Libyan territory”.

Turkey had sent in troops as well as pro-Ankara militia units from Syria to shore up the Tripoli government.

Observers also accuse Moscow of deploying mercenaries belonging to the Wagner group, which is allegedly controlled by a close ally of Putin.

Pro-Haftar forces said in a statement ahead of the conference that 300 foreign mercenaries fighting on their side would leave the country, “at the request of France”.

The nationality of the fighters was not specified and no timeline was given. The UN estimates that 20,000 mercenaries and foreign fighters are deployed in Libya.

“The mercenary withdrawal plan must be implemented. Russia and Turkey must withdraw their mercenaries without delay,” Macron said, welcoming the announcement that 300 mercenaries would leave as a “first step”.

“This is only the beginning, but it is an essential beginning which finally gives credibility to a process that we have been talking about for too long,” said Macron.

France has faced accusations of backing the pro-Moscow and staunchly secular Haftar but has always insisted it has been fully objective in the conflict.

Merkel commented that the Turkey had “reservations” about the process of withdrawing mercenaries.

But she added: “It’s a good thing that we can see a first withdrawal, it will serve as an example. Things have started.”

AGAREB, Tunisia — As tear gas and protest cries filled the air in the Tunisian town of Agareb, Mabrouka Ben Ibrahim vowed to demonstrate for her daughter, whose death she blames on a nearby rubbish dump.

Yousra, 21, died in 2019 after being bitten by a mosquito that came from the toxic trash site, Ben Ibrahim said.

“I lost my daughter and I don’t want other families to lose their children because of the filth in this landfill,” the 59-year-old said.

Residents say rubbish dumped at the site, including dangerous industrial and medical refuse, has caused a string of diseases from cancer to vision problems and infertility.

Authorities decided to close the site in September after declaring it full but reversed course on Monday, prompting angry street demonstrations that degenerated into clashes with security forces.

In the early hours of Tuesday, a protester died of what relatives said was tear gas inhalation, although authorities have blamed his death on an unrelated health condition.

The protests come amid a garbage crisis across Sfax province that has seen refuse piling up on pavements after the closure of the Agareb site, the province’s main dump.

Residents say the site, around three kilometres from the town centre and stretching over 35 hectares, has become a public health disaster since it opened in 2008.

“Two years after it was opened, we started seeing an increase in allergies, respiratory diseases and miscarriages as a direct result of burning of trash and the release of toxic gases” from the site, said Bassem Ben Ammar, a doctor who has worked in the town for two decades.

“The number of cancer cases has shot up.”

‘Body parts’ 

Even as the smell of tear gas dissipates, the stench of refuse still hangs over the town of 40,000.

“During the summer and throughout the year, the mosquitos and the disgusting smell never leave us. We can’t even open our windows,” demonstrator Adel Ben Faraj said.

The dump, situated in the middle of a nature reserve, receives more than 620 tonnes of waste every day, according to Ines Labiadh of the FTDES rights group.

Ben Ammar said the site was a destination for “waste of all kinds, including medical waste, amputated body parts and even foetuses”.

The environment ministry said medical waste was treated before going into the dump.

The site, one of 13 official landfills in the North African country, serves around one million people and receives waste from numerous factories in the city of Sfax, Tunisia’s main industrial hub.

As in the rest of Tunisia, only a small fraction of the region’s waste is recycled, with the rest either buried or incinerated.

Residents say the site was only meant to be active for five years, but its use was extended and it continued operating despite a judge ordering its immediate closure in 2019.

It was deemed full and finally shut down in late September, but authorities reopened it this week, triggering renewed outrage among residents.

‘Basic rights’ 

Activists have warned that similar protests could easily flare over other landfill sites in Tunisia.

Labiadh told AFP that less than 10 per cent of the country’s waste was recycled.

“This is damaging public health and the environment” around landfill sites, she said, calling on the state to set up a functioning recycling system.

Many of the landfill sites are found in marginalised areas.

“Today there are demonstrations in Agareb, but tomorrow they could happen around dumps in the capital. No dump in Tunisia is immune,” she said.

“Some areas have clean air, while others are marginalised and deprived of basic rights.”

In Agareb, some residents have been using art to campaign for a solution.

Maamoun Ajmi, a 29-year-old architect, is part of the “Maneche Msabb” (I’m not a rubbish dump) art collective.

He showed AFP two of his artworks — one a portrait of Yousra as an angel, the other showing a rat eating the section of the Tunisian constitution dealing with environmental rights.

He was among activists who met with President Kais Saied in Tunis on Thursday to highlight the town’s plight.

Ajmi told AFP the protesters had nothing to do with politics.

“We’re just Tunisian citizens who want our right to a clean environment,” he said.

BAGHDAD — Some 2,000 supporters of Iraq's pro-Iran Hashed Al Shaabi network protested on Friday in Baghdad against alleged fraud at last month's parliamentary polls, a week after a similar rallies turned violent.

The demonstration comes days after Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi, whom Hashed supporters accuse of "complicity" in the alleged fraud, escaped unhurt from an unclaimed drone attack on his residence in Baghdad's Green Zone.

Hashed supporters gathered peacefully on Friday near one of the entrances to the Green Zone chanting slogans against Kadhemi and "death to America", AFP correspondents said.

The faced off against security forces deployed to prevent them from storming the highly protected area, which is also home to the electoral commission, government offices and the US embassy.

Several dozen pro-Hashed protesters had set up camp at the same location last Friday after violent clashes with police that left one protester dead, according to a security source. One of the Hashed factions said two demonstrators were killed.

Political tensions have soared in Iraq over the results of the October 10 elections.

Kadhemi's office described Sunday's attack as a "failed assassination attempt".

Preliminary results saw the Conquest (Fateh) Alliance, the political arm of the Hashed, suffer a substantial decline in its parliamentary seats, winning 15 of the 329 seats in parliament -- down from the 48 it held previously.

The big winner this time, with more than 70 seats according to the initial count, was the movement of Moqtada Sadr, a Shiite Muslim preacher who campaigned as a nationalist and critic of Iran.

Hashed leaders have rejected the results as a "scam", though Iraq's electoral commission said Monday that a manual vote recount in some polling stations where complaints were filed by pro-Iran groups did not show any "fraud".

Final results are expected in the coming days.

The preliminary results suggest the Hashed will nonetheless remain a considerable political force in parliament through its alliances and the support of some independent candidates.