Region

GENEVA — The United Nations Human Rights Council said Tuesday it would host a special session this week on the situation in Sudan following last week's military coup.

The session will take place on Friday starting at 12:30 pm (1130 GMT), the UN's top rights body said in a statement.

The decision came after Britain, the United States, Norway and Germany led dozens of other countries in a call Monday for an emergency council session on the rights situation in Sudan in the wake of the coup.

"The actions of the Sudanese military are a betrayal of the revolution, the transition, and the hopes of the Sudanese people," British Ambassador Simon Manley said in a tweet announcing the request for the special session.

On October 25, Sudan’s top general Abdel Fattah Al Burhan dissolved the cabinet as well as the ruling joint military-civilian Sovereign Council which had been heading Sudan’s transition towards full civilian rule following the 2019 overthrow of autocrat Omar Al Bashir.

In a move widely condemned internationally, Burhan declared a state of emergency and detained Sudan’s civilian leadership, including Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and members of his government.

Tens of thousands of people turned out across the country for demonstrations on Saturday against the coup.

At least three people were shot dead and more than 100 wounded during Saturday’s demonstrations, according to medics, who said at least 12 people had been killed since the coup.

Police forces denied the killings, or using live rounds.

Some 50 countries have backed the request for the special council session, including 18 of the Human Rights Council’s 47 member states, among them the government of Sudan, ousted in the coup.

RIYADH — The Saudi-led military coalition backing the government in Yemen said Tuesday that 115 Houthi rebels were killed in air strikes around the strategic city of Marib as the insurgents advanced.

"Fourteen military vehicles were destroyed and more than 115" insurgents, the coalition said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Marib, capital of the oil-rich province of the same name, is the internationally recognised government's last bastion in northern Yemen.

The strikes were carried out in the past 24 hours in Al Jawba, about 50 kilometres south of Marib, and Al Kassara, 30 kilometres northwest.

The coalition has since October 11 issued near-daily reports of bombing around Marib, saying it has since then killed around 2,300 insurgents in the area.

The Houthis began a major push to seize the city in February and, after a lull, they renewed their offensive in recent weeks.

A pro-government military official told AFP on Tuesday that the rebels have made "new advances amid ongoing clashes with pro-government troops". Another loyalist official confirmed that the insurgents were edging closer to the city.

'Spare civilians' 

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said on Tuesday the rebels were on the "outskirts of Marib on several fronts", according to the Houthis' Al Masirah TV channel.

“We will not hesitate to move forward, until we liberate all that is left,” he added.

His statements come two days after at least 22 people were killed in a Houthi rebel strike on a mosque south of Marib city, a pro-government official told AFP on Monday.

Yemen’s Information Minister Muammar Al Eryani had said that 29 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack.

Also, last week, children were among 13 people killed when a missile fired by the rebels struck a tribal leader’s home in Al Jawba, according to military and medical officials.

The Norwegian Refugee Council urged both sides to ensure humanitarian aid can reach civilians in need.

“We call on all parties to spare civilians and ensure that we can keep reaching them with life-saving aid,” said Erin Hutchinson, the NRC’s country director in Yemen.

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

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

MARIB, Yemen — At least 22 people were killed in a Houthi rebel missile strike on a mosque south of the strategic Yemeni city of Marib, officials said on Monday.

“Twenty-two people, including children, were killed and 19 others were injured in a Houthi missile attack on a mosque... in Al Jawba district” on Sunday night, a pro-government military official told AFP.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the mosque also had a religious school.

Yemen’s Information Minister Muammar Al Eryani said on Twitter that 29 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack.

“This horrific massacre is within a series of systematic killings of civilians by the terrorist Houthi militia,” he wrote in English.

The Houthis have yet to comment on the attack, which comes as fighting between the Iran-backed rebels and government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition intensifies.

On Thursday, children were among 13 people killed when a missile fired by the rebels struck a tribal leader’s home in Al Jawba, according to military and medical officials.

Marib, capital of the oil-rich province of the same name, is the internationally recognised government’s last bastion in northern Yemen.

The Houthis began a major push to seize the city in February and, after a lull, they have renewed their offensive in recent weeks.

They claimed this week to have reached the vicinity of Marib city and to have nearly surrounded it.

The Saudi-led coalition has been conducting an aerial bombing campaign since October 11 to prevent the rebels from reaching Marib city.

Since then, more than 2,200 Houthi fighters have been killed in Al Jawba and two other districts, according to the coalition.

The rebels rarely comment on losses, and AFP could not independently verify the toll.

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

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

BEIRUT — Lebanon on Monday called for talks with Saudi Arabia to ease a spiralling diplomatic row sparked by remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war.

“Lebanon invites Saudi Arabia to engage in dialogue to solve all outstanding problems and not just the latest spat, so that the same crisis is not repeated every time,” Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told AFP.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia gave Lebanon’s ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, recalled its envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon.

The Saudi foreign ministry said the measures were taken after “insulting” remarks made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi on the Yemen war, but also due to the influence of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shiite movement Hizbollah.

In an interview recorded in August and aired last week, Kordahi said Iran-backed Houthi rebels were “defending themselves... against an external aggression”, by a Saudi-led military coalition.

His comments sparked angry rebukes from Saudi Arabia and its allies, worsening diplomatic ties that have weakened significantly in recent years over the growing dominance of Hizbollah.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia said dealing with Beirut was “pointless” due to Hizbollah’s dominance.

But Bou Habib told AFP on Monday that “problems between friendly and brotherly countries can only be resolved through dialogue, communication and trust, and not through imposition”.

‘Political monopoly’ 

The diplomatic crisis with the kingdom and its allies is a fresh blow to Lebanon, a country in financial and political turmoil where a fragile government is struggling to secure international aid, namely from wealthy Arab neighbours.

Saudi Arabia is Lebanon’s third largest export market, accounting for 6 per cent of the country’s exports in 2020, worth around $217 million, according to the Lebanese chamber of commerce.

“If there is no dialogue or communication with Saudi Arabia, then everything that is happening goes against the values of friendship and fraternity” between both countries, Bou Habib said.

Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse Hizbollah of supporting Iran-backed Houthi rebels that seized the Yemeni capital in 2014.

A Saudi-led military coalition that has included the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain intervened to prop up the Yemeni government in 2015.

Bou Habib called Hizbollah’s activities outside Lebanon a “regional issue” that cannot be checked by the Lebanese state.

“A US-Iranian agreement or a deal between Saudi and Iran can help solve this issue but we can’t resolve it by ourselves,” Bou Habib said.

He refuted comments by Saudi’s foreign ministry claiming Hizbollah controlled the Lebanese state.

“Hizbollah is a strong component of the Lebanese state, perhaps the strongest, but it doesn’t have a political monopoly,” he said.

Talks in Glasgow 

Saudi allies Bahrain and Kuwait have responded to Kordahi’s comments with similar measures and the UAE on Saturday recalled its diplomats from Beirut in “solidarity” with Riyadh.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said he “regrets” the Saudi decision, and urged Riyadh to reconsider its move.

He did not explicitly call for Kordahi’s resignation, but said the minister did not speak in the name of the government.

Kordahi told Lebanese television channel Al Jadeed on Sunday that his resignation is “out of the question”.

Mikati who is taking part in the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow is expected to discuss the diplomatic row with participating world leaders.

He met with Kuwait’s prime minister and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, who confirmed his country’s foreign minister will visit Beirut soon.

Mikati was also scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

“We want the best relations with Saudi Arabia, but they must cooperate with us so we find solutions to all the problems facing the two countries,” Bou Habib said.

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia announced it was suspending fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon, saying shipments were being used for drug smuggling and accusing Beirut of inaction.

And in May, Lebanon’s then foreign minister Charbel Wehbe stepped down and was swiftly replaced after comments he made irked Saudi Arabia.

RIYADH — The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on Sunday that more than 218 Houthi rebels were killed in air strikes around Marib city, the internationally recognised government's last northern bastion.

"Twenty-four military vehicles were destroyed and more than 218 insurgents were killed in strikes in the past 72 hours in two districts," according to the official Saudi Press Agency, which has since October 11 issued near-daily reports of bombing around Marib, capital of the oil-rich province of the same name.

Since then the coalition, which has been fighting in Yemen to support the government for almost seven years, says it has killed around 2,200 insurgents in the Marib area.

The latest bombing was carried out in Al Jawba, about 50 kilometres south of Marib, and Al Kassara, 30 kilometres to the northwest.

The Houthis have reportedly said they were tightening their grip around Marib city, adding it was “only a matter of time” until they seize it.

They began a major push to seize Marib in February and, after a lull, renewed their offensive since September.

The Yemeni civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, 120 kilometres west of Marib, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.

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

KHARTOUM — Sudanese anti-coup protesters on Sunday manned barricades in Khartoum a day after a deadly crackdown on mass rallies, as a defiant civil disobedience campaign against the military takeover entered its seventh day.

Tens of thousands turned out across the country for Saturday's demonstrations, marching against the army's October 25 power grab, when top General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency and detained Sudan's civilian leadership.

The move sparked a chorus of international condemnation, with world powers demanding a swift return to civilian rule and calls for the military to show "restraint" against protesters.

At least three people were shot dead and more than 100 people wounded during Saturday's demonstrations, according to medics, who reported those killed had bullet wounds in their head, chest or stomach. It takes the death toll since protests began to at least 11.

Police forces denied the killings, or using live bullets.

“No, no, to military rule,” protesters carrying Sudanese flags chanted as they marched around the capital and other cities, as forces fired tear gas to break them up.

More than 100 people were also wounded on Saturday, some suffering breathing difficulties from tear gas, the independent Central Committee of Sudan’s Doctors said.

Sudan had been ruled since August 2019 by a joint civilian-military council, alongside Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s government, as part of the now derailed transition to full civilian rule.

Soldiers on the streets 

Hamdok and other top leaders have been under military guard since then, either in detention or effective house arrest.

US President Joe Biden has called the coup a “grave setback”, while the African Union has suspended Sudan’s membership for the “unconstitutional” takeover.

The World Bank and the United States froze aid, a move that will hit hard in a country already mired in a dire economic crisis.

But Burhan, who became de facto leader after hardline ex-president Omar Al Bashir was ousted in 2019 following huge youth-led protests, has insisted the military takeover was “not a coup”.

Instead, Burhan says he wants to “rectify the course of the Sudanese transition”.

Demonstrations on Saturday rocked many cities across Sudan, including in the eastern states of Gedaref and Kassala, as well as in North Kordofan and White Nile, witnesses and AFP correspondents said.

As night fell Saturday, many protests in Khartoum and the capital’s twin city of Omdurman thinned out. But on Sunday morning protesters were back on the streets, again using rocks and tyres to block roads.

Shops remain largely shut in Khartoum, where many government employees are refusing to work as part of a nationwide protest campaign.

Soldiers from the army and the much-feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were seen on many streets in Khartoum and Omdurman.

Security forces have set up random checkpoints on the streets, frisking passers-by and randomly searching cars.

Phone lines, which were largely down on Saturday, were back apart from intermittent disruptions. But internet access has remained cut off since the army’s takeover.

Sudan has enjoyed only rare democratic interludes since independence in 1956 and spent decades riven by civil war.

Burhan was a general under Bashir’s three decades of iron-fisted rule, and analysts said the coup aimed to maintain the army’s traditional control over the northeast African country.

DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates said Saturday it was withdrawing its diplomats from Lebanon, following a similar Saudi Arabia move over a Lebanese minister's criticism of the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

The diplomatic row, which has also seen Saudi Arabia suspend imports from Lebanon and both Kuwait and Bahrain expel Beirut's envoys to their capitals, is another blow to a country already in the grip of crippling political and economic crises.

Lebanon had been counting on financial assistance from the Gulf to rescue its economy.

"The UAE announced the withdrawal of its diplomats from Lebanon in solidarity with the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in light of the unacceptable approach of some Lebanese officials towards Saudi Arabia," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It "also decided to prevent its citizens from travelling to Lebanon," it added.

It came a day after the Saudi and Bahraini moves and hours after Kuwait asked Lebanon's envoy to "leave in 48 hours" and recalled its ambassador from Beirut, according to state news agency KUNA.

The dispute was sparked by the broadcast this week of an interview in which Lebanon's Information Minister George Kordahi criticised the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen.

In his remarks, recorded in August but aired on Monday, Kordahi called the seven-year war in the Arabian Peninsula country "futile" and said it was "time for it to end".

Kordahi said Yemen’s Houthi rebels were “defending themselves... against an external aggression”, adding that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the Saudi-led coalition.

The Houthis are backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, which also wields significant influence in Lebanon, due to its strong backing of the powerful Shiite movement Hizbollah.

Kordahi’s comments saw Saudi Arabia announce on Friday that it was recalling its ambassador and it gave Beirut’s envoy 48 hours to leave Riyadh.

His words have also sparked calls for him to resign or be sacked.

“Enough of catastrophes. Sack this minister who will destroy our relations with the Arab Gulf before it is too late,” Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Twitter.

‘Unacceptable’ 

Kuwait’s foreign ministry said the expulsion and recall was based on the “failure” of the Lebanese government to “address the unacceptable and reprehensible statements against the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest” of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The GCC is a six-member regional body that comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.

Kuwait’s decision was also based on the Lebanese government’s “failure... to deter the continuous and increasing smuggling operations of the scourge of drugs to Kuwait and the rest of the GCC”, the ministry added.

The comments on smuggling echo Riyadh’s line, which extended to Saudi Arabia on Friday imposing a suspension on all imports from Lebanon.

In its statement on Friday, Saudi Arabia also referred to Lebanon’s failure to “stop the export of the scourge of drugs... to the Kingdom, especially in light of the terrorist Hizbollah’s control of all ports”.

Saudi Arabia announced in June that it had confiscated thousands of Captagon pills hidden in a shipment of fruit from Lebanon.

Captagon, a drug popular among fighters in war zones, usually blends amphetamines, caffeine and other substances in pill form.

Saudi Arabia, which wields strong influence over many of the smaller Gulf states, has stepped back from its former ally Lebanon in recent years, angered by the influence of Hizbollah.

In late 2017, Lebanon’s then prime minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni who had been supported by Saudi Arabia for years, announced in a televised address from Riyadh that he was resigning, citing Iran’s “grip” on his country.

Suleiman Franjieh, who heads Lebanon’s Marada Movement and endorsed Kordahi’s nomination as minister, sprang to his defence on Saturday.

He did not nominate him “to offer him as a sacrifice to anyone,” he said.

“Kordahi’s remarks reflected his opinion... he has proposed to me that he offer his resignation... but I refused because he did not make any mistake,” Franjieh added.