Latest news with #KhalidAliAleisir
New York Times
06-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
A Haven for Civilians in Sudan Is Attacked for a Third Day
Large plumes of black smoke billowed over Sudan's de facto wartime capital on Tuesday, as attacks on a city that had become a haven for civilians fleeing civil war stretched into a third day. The Sudanese paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces has launched a series of drone attacks on the military-controlled Red Sea city of Port Sudan, targeting key civilian facilities, including the airport and a hospital. On Tuesday, drones hit a fuel depot near the port and the airport, according to multiple eyewitnesses, rattling the city and leaving its streets nearly deserted. Khalid Ali Aleisir, Sudan's minister of information and the official government spokesman, accused the group, known as the R.S.F., of carrying out a 'criminal and terrorist attack' in a post on social media. 'I assure our steadfast Sudanese people that the civil defense forces and all security agencies are performing their duties to the fullest, and that the will of the Sudanese people will remain unbreakable,' Mr. Aleisir said in another post that showed him standing in front of a giant plume of smoke.
New York Times
05-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
U.N. Court Drops Sudan's Genocide Case Against U.A.E.
The United Nations' top court on Monday dismissed a case accusing the United Arab Emirates of fueling genocide in Sudan by supporting paramilitary forces in the country's ongoing civil war. The court said it 'manifestly lacks jurisdiction.' The International Court of Justice did not rule on the allegations made by the Sudanese government, but by a 14-2 vote, it declined to issue the provisional emergency measures against the U.A.E. that Sudan had requested. By a 9-7 vote, it officially removed the case from its docket, according to a summary of its decision. Both Sudan and the Emirates are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, but the U.A.E., when it signed the treaty in 2005, opted out of a key clause that allows countries to sue each other at the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague. In March, Sudan asked the court to take up its case, alleging the Emirates had violated the Genocide Convention by arming and funding the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group that is fighting the Sudanese military. At the initial hearing last month, Sudan urged the court to impose several preliminary orders requiring the U.A.E. to halt actions that could amount to genocide against the Masalit people in the western Darfur region, and to end any further assistance to the R.S.F. The Emirati government rejected the claims, saying Sudan had failed to present credible evidence and arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction. 'Quite simply, today's decision represents a resounding rejection of the Sudanese Armed Forces' attempt to instrumentalize the Court for its campaign of misinformation and to distract from its own responsibility,' Reem Ketait, a senior official at the Emirati foreign ministry, said in a statement sent to The New York Times after the court's decision. The international court said in its summary that it was 'precluded by its statute from taking any position on the merits of the claims made by Sudan' but that it was 'deeply concerned about the unfolding human tragedy in Sudan.' Khalid Ali Aleisir, Sudan's minister of information and the official government spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment. The Rapid Support Forces grew in part out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, which in the 2000s helped Sudan brutally suppress a rebellion in Darfur. That conflict prompted a different world tribunal, the International Criminal Court, to indict the longtime dictator, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2009. The military overthrew him a decade later, but he has not been turned over for prosecution. The current war in Sudan began in April 2023, when the R.S.F. began clashing with Sudan's military. Since then, the conflict has led to widespread hunger and famine, displaced nearly 13 million people and caused tens of thousands of deaths. Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes and gross violations of human rights. The paramilitary group, led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, and its allies, have been accused of committing ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide against the non-Arab Masalit ethnic group. The army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been accused of using chemical weapons and indiscriminately targeting civilians. As the war raged, it drew in regional and foreign actors. The U.A.E. in particular has run an elaborate covert operation to back the R.S.F., supplying powerful weapons and drones, treating injured fighters and airlifting the most serious cases to one of its military hospitals, according to a dozen current and former officials from the United States, Europe and several African countries. The U.A.E. last September rejected reporting by The Times that it was using relief operations by the Emirates Red Crescent at a base in Amdjarass, Chad, near Sudan, as cover for smuggling weapons to the Sudanese paramilitary and operating drone flights to guide the fighters. Last week, Emirati state media reported that authorities had foiled an attempt by Sudanese military officials to smuggle weapons to the Sudanese army through an airport in the Emirates. The conflict has intensified in recent weeks and months, with the military consolidating its grip on the capital, Khartoum, and recapturing the city's main international airport. The paramilitary forces have solidified their control over Darfur. Last week, the group killed more than 100 civilians in an attack on the southern city of Nahud and looted markets and pharmacies, a doctors' group said. The R.S.F. also targeted the airport and several other civilian facilities in the eastern city of Port Sudan over the weekend, according to the army.
03-05-2025
- Politics
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces paramilitary claims it took control of a strategic western town
CAIRO -- CAIRO (AP) — Sudan's notorious paramilitary group claimed a 'sweeping victory' Friday saying it took control of the key town of Al Nahud in West Kordofan state in a fight that intensified a day earlier. A victory there by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, would mark a strategic loss for Sudan's military in its war with the paramilitary force as the territory is home to the headquarters of the 18th Infantry Brigade. The Sudanese army didn't immediately comment on its social media channels on whether it lost Al Nahud to its rival. Sudan's Culture and Information Minister Khalid Ali Aleisir said on his Facebook account on Friday the RSF committed crimes against defenseless citizens in the town, looting their properties and destroying public facilities. The RSF said on its Telegram channel Friday that it destroyed vehicles belonging to the army and seized their weapons and ammunition during the battle for Al Nahud. The paramilitary group also claimed that it managed to secure the city's facilities and markets after defeating the army. The war erupted on April 15, 2023, with pitched battles between the military and the RSF in the streets of the capital Khartoum that quickly spread to other parts of the country. RSF attacks in Al Nahud have killed more than 300 unarmed civilians, the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors' Trade Union said on Facebook on Friday. The Associated Press couldn't independently verify that figure. The Resistance Committees of Al Nahud condemned the RSF attacks, which it said began Thursday morning. 'They invaded the city, stormed residential neighborhoods, terrorized unarmed civilians, and committed cold-blooded murders against innocent civilians whose only crime was to cling to their dignity and refuse to leave their homes to the machine of killing and terror,' the Resistance Committees said Thursday on Facebook. An army loss of Al Nahud would impact its operational capabilities in Northern Kordofan state, according to the Sudan War Monitor, an open source collaborative project that has been documenting the two-year-war. Al Nahud is a strategic town because it's located along a main road that the army could use to advance into the Darfur region, which the RSF mostly controls. Al Nahud also shelters displaced people fleeing from Al-Obeid, Umm Kadada, Khartoum and El-Fasher — the provincial capital of North Darfur province, according to the Darfur Victims Support Organization. Meanwhile, in North Darfur, the fighting has killed at least 542 people in the last three weeks, though the actual death toll is likely higher, according to U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. This figure includes the recent RSF attacks on El Fasher and Abu Shouk displacement camp, which killed at least 40 civilians. 'The horror unfolding in Sudan knows no bounds,' said Türk i n a statement on Thursday. Türk also mentioned 'extremely disturbing' reports of extrajudicial killings committed by RSF, with at least 30 men in civilian clothing executed by the paramilitary fighters in Al Salha in southern Omdurman. 'I have personally alerted both leaders of the RSF and SAF to the catastrophic human rights consequences of this war. These harrowing consequences are a daily, lived reality for millions of Sudanese. It is well past time for this conflict to stop,' said Türk. The war in Sudan has killed at least 20,000 people, but the real toll is probably far higher. Nearly 13 million people have fled their homes, 4 million of them streaming into neighboring countries.
Hamilton Spectator
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces paramilitary claims it took control of a strategic western town
CAIRO (AP) — Sudan's notorious paramilitary group claimed a 'sweeping victory' Friday saying it took control of the key town of Al Nahud in West Kordofan state in a fight that intensified a day earlier. A victory there by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, would mark a strategic loss for Sudan's military in its war with the paramilitary force as the territory is home to the headquarters of the 18th Infantry Brigade. The Sudanese army didn't immediately comment on its social media channels on whether it lost Al Nahud to its rival. Sudan's Culture and Information Minister Khalid Ali Aleisir said on his Facebook account on Friday the RSF committed crimes against defenseless citizens in the town, looting their properties and destroying public facilities. The RSF said on its Telegram channel Friday that it destroyed vehicles belonging to the army and seized their weapons and ammunition during the battle for Al Nahud. The paramilitary group also claimed that it managed to secure the city's facilities and markets after defeating the army. The war erupted on April 15, 2023 , with pitched battles between the military and the RSF in the streets of the capital Khartoum that quickly spread to other parts of the country. RSF attacks in Al Nahud have killed more than 300 unarmed civilians, the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors' Trade Union said on Facebook on Friday . The Associated Press couldn't independently verify that figure. The Resistance Committees of Al Nahud condemned the RSF attacks, which it said began Thursday morning. 'They invaded the city, stormed residential neighborhoods, terrorized unarmed civilians, and committed cold-blooded murders against innocent civilians whose only crime was to cling to their dignity and refuse to leave their homes to the machine of killing and terror,' the Resistance Committees said Thursday on Facebook . An army loss of Al Nahud would impact its operational capabilities in Northern Kordofan state, according to the Sudan War Monitor, an open source collaborative project that has been documenting the two-year-war. Al Nahud is a strategic town because it's located along a main road that the army could use to advance into the Darfur region, which the RSF mostly controls. Al Nahud also shelters displaced people fleeing from Al-Obeid, Umm Kadada, Khartoum and El-Fasher — the provincial capital of North Darfur province, according to the Darfur Victims Support Organization . Meanwhile, in North Darfur, the fighting has killed at least 542 people in the last three weeks, though the actual death toll is likely higher, according to U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. This figure includes the recent RSF attacks on El Fasher and Abu Shouk displacement camp, which killed at least 40 civilians. 'The horror unfolding in Sudan knows no bounds,' said Türk i n a statement on Thursday. Türk also mentioned 'extremely disturbing' reports of extrajudicial killings committed by RSF, with at least 30 men in civilian clothing executed by the paramilitary fighters in Al Salha in southern Omdurman. 'I have personally alerted both leaders of the RSF and SAF to the catastrophic human rights consequences of this war. These harrowing consequences are a daily, lived reality for millions of Sudanese. It is well past time for this conflict to stop,' said Türk. The war in Sudan has killed at least 20,000 people, but the real toll is probably far higher. Nearly 13 million people have fled their homes, 4 million of them streaming into neighboring countries. Half the population of 50 million faces hunger . The World Food Program has confirmed famine in 10 locations and warns it could spread further, putting millions at risk of starvation.
Arab News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces claims to have seized strategic western town
CAIRO: Sudan's notorious paramilitary group claimed a 'sweeping victory' Friday saying it took control of the key town of Al Nahud in West Kordofan state in a fight that intensified a day earlier. A victory there by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, would mark a strategic loss for Sudan's military in its war with the paramilitary force as the territory is home to the headquarters of the 18th Infantry Brigade. The Sudanese army didn't immediately comment on its social media channels on whether it lost Al Nahud to its rival. Sudan's Culture and Information Minister Khalid Ali Aleisir said on his Facebook account on Friday the RSF committed crimes against defenseless citizens in the town, looting their properties and destroying public facilities. The RSF said on its Telegram channel Friday that it destroyed vehicles belonging to the army and seized their weapons and ammunition during the battle for Al Nahud. The paramilitary group also claimed that it managed to secure the city's facilities and markets after defeating the army. The war erupted on April 15, 2023, with pitched battles between the military and the RSF in the streets of the capital Khartoum that quickly spread to other parts of the country. RSF attacks in Al Nahud have killed more than 300 unarmed civilians, the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors' Trade Union said on Facebook on Friday. The Associated Press couldn't independently verify that figure. The Resistance Committees of Al Nahud condemned the RSF attacks, which it said began Thursday morning. 'They invaded the city, stormed residential neighborhoods, terrorized unarmed civilians, and committed cold-blooded murders against innocent civilians whose only crime was to cling to their dignity and refuse to leave their homes to the machine of killing and terror,' the Resistance Committees said Thursday on Facebook. An army loss of Al Nahud would impact its operational capabilities in Northern Kordofan state, according to the Sudan War Monitor, an open source collaborative project that has been documenting the two-year-war. Al Nahud is a strategic town because it's located along a main road that the army could use to advance into the Darfur region, which the RSF mostly controls. Al Nahud also shelters displaced people fleeing from Al-Obeid, Umm Kadada, Khartoum and El-Fasher — the provincial capital of North Darfur province, according to the Darfur Victims Support Organization. Meanwhile, in North Darfur, the fighting has killed at least 542 people in the last three weeks, though the actual death toll is likely higher, according to UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. This figure includes the recent RSF attacks on El Fasher and Abu Shouk displacement camp, which killed at least 40 civilians. 'The horror unfolding in Sudan knows no bounds,' said Türk i n a statement on Thursday. Türk also mentioned 'extremely disturbing' reports of extrajudicial killings committed by RSF, with at least 30 men in civilian clothing executed by the paramilitary fighters in Al Salha in southern Omdurman. 'I have personally alerted both leaders of the RSF and SAF to the catastrophic human rights consequences of this war. These harrowing consequences are a daily, lived reality for millions of Sudanese. It is well past time for this conflict to stop,' said Türk. The war in Sudan has killed at least 20,000 people, but the real toll is probably far higher. Nearly 13 million people have fled their homes, 4 million of them streaming into neighboring countries. Half the population of 50 million faces hunger. The World Food Program has confirmed famine in 10 locations and warns it could spread further, putting millions at risk of starvation.
