Rwanda says Canada's position on Congo war is ‘shameful'
Late on Monday, Canada announced it had suspended the issuance of permits for the export of controlled goods and technologies to Rwanda, as well as suspending pursuing new government-to-government business and trade missions with Rwanda, and support to private-sector business development activities.
It also said it would review Canadian government participation at international events hosted by Rwanda in the future.
Canada joins the European Union and the United Kingdom that have also announced plans to suspend bilateral aid to Rwanda. The US also announced sanctions against James Kabarebe, a Rwandan state minister for foreign affairs.
The Tutsi-led M23 rebel group entered the city of Goma at the end of January and have since made an unprecedented advance into eastern Congo, capturing territory and getting access to valuable minerals.
Their ongoing onslaught, which started in late December, is already the gravest escalation of a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo's vast mineral resources.
Congo, UN experts and Western powers accuse Rwanda of backing the group.
Rwanda denies this and says it is defending itself against ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in Congo and threatening Rwanda. On Monday, Canada's Foreign Affairs, International Development; and Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development ministers repeated the accusations against Rwanda while announcing the suspensions.
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Saudi Gazette
38 minutes ago
- Saudi Gazette
Palestinians flee Gaza City districts as Israel says first stages of offensive have begun
GAZA — Palestinians are fleeing parts of Gaza City after the Israeli military began the first stages of a planned ground offensive, officials in the city say. Israel's troops have established a foothold on the outskirts of the city — which is home to more than a million Palestinians — after days of intense bombing and artillery fire. It has prompted UN Secretary General António Guterres to renew calls for an immediate ceasefire "to avoid the death and destruction" an assault would "inevitably cause". Israel wants to signal that it is pressing ahead with its plan to capture all of Gaza City despite international criticism. Hundreds of Palestinians in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City have left toward the north-western part of the city. Gaza City residents described relentless bombardments overnight into Thursday. "The house shakes with us all night long -- the sound of explosions, artillery, warplanes, ambulances, and cries for help is killing us," Ahmad al-Shanti told news agency AFP. "The sound is getting closer, but where would we go?" Amal Abdel-Aal was displaced from her home in Sabra a week ago and said she watched strikes hit the area. "No one in Gaza has slept, not last night, not for a week. The artillery and air strikes in the east never stop. The sky flashes all night long," she said. An Israeli military spokesman said on Wednesday that troops were already operating in the Zeitoun and Jabalia areas to lay the groundwork for the offensive, which Defence Minister Israel Katz approved on Tuesday and which will be put to the security cabinet later this week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is "shortening the timelines" for seizing what he described as "the last terror strongholds" in Gaza. In a statement, Hamas accused the Israeli leader of continuing a "brutal war against innocent civilians in Gaza City" and criticised what it said was his "disregard" for a new ceasefire proposal from regional mediators. Israel has yet to formally respond to the plan. About 60,000 Israeli reservists are being called up for the beginning of September to free up active-duty personnel for the operation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City are expected to be ordered to evacuate and head to southern Gaza. Many of Israel's allies have condemned its plan, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning on Wednesday that it "can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war". The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) meanwhile said further displacement and an intensification of hostilities "risk worsening an already catastrophic situation" for Gaza's 2.1 million population. Israel's government announced its intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last month. Speaking at a televised briefing on Wednesday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said Hamas was "battered and bruised" after 22 months of war. "We will deepen the damage to Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of governmental and military terror for the terrorist organisation," he added. "We will deepen the damage to the terror infrastructure above and below the ground and sever the population's dependence on Hamas." But Defrin said the IDF was "not waiting" to begin the operation. "We have begun the preliminary actions, and already now, IDF troops are holding the outskirts of Gaza City." Two brigades were operating on the ground in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, where in recent days they had located an underground tunnel that contained weapons, and a third brigade was operating in the Jabalia area, he added. The civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes and fire had killed 25 people across the territory on Wednesday. They included three children and their parents whose home in the Badr area of Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, was bombed, it said. Defrin said the IDF was also doing everything possible to prevent harm to the 50 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Their families have expressed fears that those in Gaza City could be endangered by a ground offensive. The ICRC warned of a catastrophic situation for both Palestinian civilians and the hostages if military activity in Gaza intensified. "After months of relentless hostilities and repeated displacement, the people in Gaza are utterly exhausted. What they need is not more pressure, but relief. Not more fear, but a chance to breathe. They must have access to the essentials to live in dignity: food, medical and hygiene supplies, clean water, and safe shelter," a statement said. "Any further intensification of military operations will only deepen the suffering, tear more families apart, and threaten an irreversible humanitarian crisis. The lives of hostages may also be put at risk," it added. It called for an immediate ceasefire and the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance across Gaza. The UN secretary general also called for the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas. Mediators Qatar and Egypt are trying to secure a ceasefire deal and have presented a new proposal for a 60-day truce and the release of around half of the hostages, which Hamas said it had accepted on Monday. Israel has not yet submitted a formal response, but Israeli officials insisted on Tuesday that they would no longer accept a partial deal and demanded a comprehensive one that would see all the hostages released. On Wednesday Hamas accused Netanyahu of disregarding the mediators' ceasefire proposal and said he was the "real obstructionist of any agreement", according to a statement cited by Reuters. The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry. The ministry's figures are quoted by the UN and others as the most reliable source of statistics available on casualties. — BBC
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Sudan's warring factions trade blame over strike on aid convoy in Darfur
CAIRO: The warring parties in Sudan's civil war have traded blame for an attack on a UN World Food Programme convoy trying to bring aid to an area of North Darfur where fighting and blockades have led to deadly hunger. The convoy was hit north of the city of Al-Fashir, the army's only holdout in the wider Darfur region where an estimated 300,000 remaining residents have been subject to a long siege by the rival Rapid Support Forces as fighting rages. Aid has frequently come under fire and been blockaded by both sides in the war, which erupted from a power struggle in April 2023 and has caused what the UN has called the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. 'On 20 August, a WFP convoy of 16 trucks carrying life-saving food aid for the most vulnerable populations in Alsayah village came under attack near Mellit, a famine-affected area in North Darfur,' WFP said in a statement, adding that three of the trucks caught fire but no one was hurt. The RSF accused the Sudanese army of hitting the convoys as part of a drone attack on Mellit market and other areas. The army later said in a statement that this was a fabrication to distract from what it termed the RSF's crimes in Al-Fashir. The RSF's siege of Al-Fashir has cut off supplies and driven up prices. Experts determined that famine had taken hold in parts of the area last year. Civilians have come under artillery bombardment, drone strikes, as well as direct attacks. Camps for displaced people have been repeatedly attacked. Last week, local activists said more than 40 people were killed, including by direct fire, when RSF soldiers entered the Abu Shouk camp in the north of the city. The RSF denied responsibility for the deaths. Those who leave Al-Fashir face RSF checkpoints and have come under attack, including sexual assaults. Some 70 trucks of supplies are waiting in the RSF-controlled city of Nyala to get to Al-Fashir, but security guarantees were needed as humanitarian workers were coming under attack, said Edem Wosornu of UN humanitarian agency OCHA. 'We have food, we have medical supplies, we have kits for gender-based violence, we have life-saving equipment that will save lives,' she said. US senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos, who last week called on the RSF to ensure aid reaches Al-Fashir, condemned the convoy attack.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Russia strikes global business in major Ukraine air attack and accuses Kyiv of blocking peace
KYIV: Russia targeted a US-founded electronics manufacturer near Ukraine's border with the European Union in a major air attack on Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelensky sought US support to bring Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. The overnight attack, which included 574 drones and 40 missiles, was one of the largest of Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor, now in its fourth year. One person was killed and 22 were wounded, most of them in the attack that damaged storage facilities at the electronics manufacturer in Ukraine's far-Western Zakarpattia region, authorities said. 'It was a regular civilian business, supported by American investment, producing everyday items like coffee machines. And yet, it was also a target for the Russians,' Zelensky wrote on X. 'This is very telling.' Mukachevo mayor Andriy Baloha said the damaged enterprise belonged to the US-listed company Flex Ltd. The corporate headquarters of the company, a global technology, supply chain and advanced manufacturing solutions partner, is in Austin, Texas and its registered office is in Singapore. The company employed thousands of the area's residents, Baloha said. Flex, which grew from a family firm founded in Silicon Valley in 1969, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In Ukraine's western city of Lviv, the attack killed one person, wounded three others and damaged 26 homes, said Governor Maksym Kozytskyi. Authorities in southeastern Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region also reported damage to businesses, homes and gas lines. Two industry sources told Reuters a key gas pumping facility had been attacked, without giving a location. Russia said Putin had repeatedly said he was ready to meet Zelensky but that Ukraine was trying to undermine Trump's efforts to resolve the conflict and its leader was illegitimate. The defense ministry in Moscow said it had struck Ukrainian energy and airfield infrastructure as well as military industrial facilities overnight, and captured another frontline village — Oleksandro-Shultyne, Russian news agency RIA reported. Ukraine said it had hit a Russian oil refinery, a drone warehouse and a fuel base. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports. SECURITY TALKS US President Donald Trump met both Zelensky and Vladimir Putin over the past week in pursuit of a diplomatic end to the fighting but has acknowledged that his Russian counterpart may not want to make a deal. Zelensky urged Trump to react firmly if that was the case. 'We are ready. But what if the Russians are not ready?' he said in comments released on Thursday. 'If the Russians are not ready, we would like to see a strong reaction from the United States.' US and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, according to US officials and sources, but the path to peace remained uncertain. A defense ministry source in Turkiye, which has opposed sanctions on Russia while also giving military help to Ukraine and joining a 'Coalition of the Willing' to help it with post-conflict security, said peace was still far off. 'It is necessary to first secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, then determine the framework of a mission with a clear mandate, and clarify the extent to which each country will contribute,' the Turkish source said on condition of anonymity. The Kremlin said Putin had discussed Ukraine with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, when Moscow also said attempts to resolve security issues without Russian involvement were a 'road to nowhere.' On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was ready for an honest talk about security guarantees for Ukraine and accused Ukraine's European backers of 'adventurism' by excluding Moscow from their discussions. Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has used missiles and drones to strike Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front lines throughout the war. Thousands of civilians, the vast majority of them Ukrainian, have been killed since Moscow's full-scale invasion of February 2022. More than a million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded.
