HRH the Crown Prince Congratulates President of Ethiopia on National Day
HRH the Crown Prince Congratulates President of Ethiopia on National Day
7 hours ago
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Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Saudi Arabia urges pilgrims to stay indoors during Hajj high point
Saudi Arabia's authorities on Tuesday have asked pilgrims performing Hajj to remain in their tents for several hours during the high point of this week's pilgrimage, citing high temperatures. Minister of Hajj and Umrah of Saudi Arabia Tawfiq al-Rabiah has requested that pilgrims refrain from leaving their tents between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Thursday on the Day of Arafat, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). For more Saudi news, visit our dedicated page. Al-Rabiah 'explained that the high temperatures on the Day of Arafat require pilgrims to remain inside their camps from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. to protect their health and prevent any heat stress,' SPA said. The Day of Arafat traditionally marks the high point of Hajj, when pilgrims scale Mount Arafat on the outskirts of Mecca. There, pilgrims assemble on the 70-meter (230-foot) high hill and its surrounding plain for hours of prayer and Quran recital, staying there until the evening. There is little to no shade on Mount Arafat, leaving pilgrims directly exposed to the harsh desert sun for hours. 'We warn against climbing mountains or high places on the Day of Arafat, as it causes extreme physical exertion and increases the risk of heat exhaustion,' the health ministry said in a separate statement carried by SPA. Temperatures this year are forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius as one of the world's largest annual religious gatherings, bringing together devotees from around the globe, gets under way on Wednesday. Officials have beefed up heat mitigation measures hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's Hajj, which saw 1,301 pilgrims die as temperatures reached 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 Fahrenheit). This year, authorities have mobilized more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials, doubling their efforts against heat-related illness following the lethal heatwave of 2024. Shaded areas have been expanded by 50,000 square meters (12 acres), thousands more medics will be on standby, and more than 400 cooling units will be deployed, al-Rabiah told AFP last week. As of Sunday, more than 1.4 million pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, officials said.
Asharq Al-Awsat
5 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
More Than 4 Million Refugees Have Fled Sudan Civil War, UN Says
The number of people who have fled Sudan since the beginning of its civil war in 2023 has surpassed four million, UN refugee agency officials said on Tuesday, adding that many survivors faced inadequate shelter due to funding shortages. "Now in its third year, the 4 million people is a devastating milestone in what is the world's most damaging displacement crisis at the moment," UN refugee agency spokesperson Eujin Byun told a Geneva press briefing. "If the conflict continues in Sudan, thousands more people, we expect thousands more people will continue to flee, putting regional and global stability at stake," she said. Sudan, which erupted in violence in April 2023, shares borders with seven countries: Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Central African Republic and Libya. More than 800,000 of the refugees have arrived in Chad, where their shelter conditions are dire due to funding shortages, with only 14% of funding appeals met, UNHCR's Dossou Patrice Ahouansou told the same briefing. "This is an unprecedented crisis that we are facing. This is a crisis of humanity. This is a crisis of ... protection based on the violence that refugees are reporting," he said. Many of those fleeing reported surviving terror and violence, he added, describing meeting a seven-year-old girl in Chad who was hurt in an attack on her home in Sudan's Zamzam displacement camp that killed her father and two brothers and had to have her leg amputated during her escape. Her mother had been killed in an earlier attack, he said. Other refugees told stories of armed groups taking their horses and donkeys and forcing adults to draw their own family members by cart as they fled, he said.
Al Arabiya
7 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
ICC to hear war crime charges against fugitive warlord Kony
International Criminal Court judges will hear the war crimes charges against fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony in September after the court Tuesday slapped down an appeal from his defense team. For the first time in ICC history, the so-called 'confirmation of charges' hearing on September 9 will be held in absentia, with Kony still on the run. He is suspected of 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly committed between July 2002 and December 2005 in northern Uganda. Former altar boy and self-styled prophet Kony founded and led Uganda's most brutal rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in the 1980s. The LRA rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni saw more than 100,000 people killed and 60,000 children abducted in a reign of terror that spread to several neighbouring countries. Kony faces charges including murder, torture, enslavement, pillaging, sexual slavery, rape and forced pregnancy. During the confirmation of charges hearings, judges will decide whether there is sufficient evidence behind the accusations to proceed to trial. However, ICC rules do not allow for a trial to be held in absentia. ICC prosecutors hope that going ahead with the case will expedite any future trial if Kony were to be arrested and handed over to the Hague. Kony's defense team argued the court should not have set a hearing without the accused being present. But a separate appeals court dismissed this argument. 'The appeals chamber finds that the holding of confirmation of hearings in absentia, even without an initial appearance, is consistent with the object and purpose of the statute,' the court ruled. In 2021, the ICC sentenced Dominic Ongwen, a Ugandan child soldier who became a top LRA commander, to 25 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Earlier this year, the court confirmed the award of 52 million euros ($59 million) to victims of Ongwen, whose nom de guerre was 'White Ant.'
