الكاتب: kafej

Cairo, Egypt – A large gathering of international and grassroots aid organisations working in Sudan has met to discuss the increasingly desperate needs of people on the ground as the armed conflict continues to take lives and displace hundreds of thousands – as well as how to work together more effectively.

International organisations need to communicate and coordinate more effectively with local groups, Mawada Mohammed, head of psychological rehabilitation and community development organisation Ud, in Khartoum, told Al Jazeera at the Sudan Humanitarian Crisis Conference in Cairo (November 18 to 20).

She said this “lack of coordination among themselves and between them and governments or international organisations” is one of the greatest challenges local groups face.

CEO of diaspora-led humanitarian organisation, Shabaka, Bashair Ahmed told Al Jazeera: “Local responders should have a voice in high-level policy and advocacy … they must be provided with the tools and skills to do so, and not just invited to be dressing.”

Kidnap, rape and assault

Since the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began a military campaign to seize control of Khartoum on April 15, more than 10,000 people have been killed and at least six million displaced due to the heavy fighting that has spread through most states.

The head of the World Health Organization warned that the conflict in Sudan is having “a devastating impact on lives, health and well-being”, as aid agencies raised the alarm that their Sudanese workers are being kidnapped, raped and assaulted.

In a speech to the conference, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 700 million Sudanese children suffer “severe, acute malnutrition” and the country’s beleaguered healthcare system is nearing “a breaking point”.

Dr Abubakr Bakri, operations manager for Eastern Africa at Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), called for humanitarian workers to be provided with security.

MSF staff have endured beatings, death threats and theft during the past months of the conflict, he said. He added that violence and threats were mainly directed towards MSF’s Sudanese staff, a point echoed by other NGOs at the summit, who said female local staff have also been kidnapped and raped.

Aid organisations said they are unable to reach places where people need the most assistance due to fighting and blockades, and warned that local workers are in increasing danger.

Experts from NGOs highlighted that more than half of Sudan’s population – 25 million people – are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and the medical situation is critical, with 70 to 80 percent of all hospitals out of service across the country.

At least seven areas have come under siege by the RSF in Khartoum alone, Mukhtar Atif, a volunteer for the Emergency Response Rooms, said. Other areas away from the capital have been completely cut off by fighting, rendering the arrival of humanitarian supplies impossible, he added.

“There is a mounting difficulty in providing humanitarian assistance to citizens who find themselves in conflict zones,” Mohammed Salah, a Sudanese activist and member of the Emergency Lawyers group, told Al Jazeera.

A call for humanitarian corridors

Salah joined the conference in Cairo after more than 48 hours of travelling from Gezira State in Sudan, where he has been staying since his home in Khartoum was overrun by fighting. He said the 1,020km (634-mile) journey to the airport at Port Sudan was full of checkpoints operated by the Sudanese Army, at which all passengers were searched and interrogated.

The checkpoints operated by both RSF and Sudanese Army forces pose a significant obstacle to the movement of people and goods, making humanitarian responses to urgent needs extremely difficult, experts said.

International relief organisations, including conference co-organiser the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), called for the creation of humanitarian corridors to enable aid workers to assist those in need.

NRC’s Secretary-General Jan Egeland said aid and staff convoys were not being allowed to perform their humanitarian duties, especially in the areas that are suffering the most due to the raging conflict – Khartoum and Darfur.

“Unfortunately, there is no way to put pressure on the warring parties to force them to open safe corridors and paths. We continue to urge them to do so but without success,” Salah said.

One month ago, MSF announced that it had been forced to suspend life-saving surgical activities at the Bashair Teaching Hospital in south Khartoum because of the military blockade on supplies.

Aid officials and experts said, however, that nothing can be achieved without political and diplomatic efforts. Lawyer Mohammed Salah said: “The international community must put pressure on the warring parties to put an end to this human suffering and war.”

As NRC’s Egeland noted when he opened the conference, there is no “humanitarian solution for a horrific war”.

“There are political and diplomatic solutions for the war and for the rebuilding of the country, accompanied by humanitarian assistance.”

A former Minneapolis police officer jailed over the murder of George Floyd is “expected to survive” after being stabbed by a fellow inmate, according to officials.

Derek Chauvin was “seriously injured” during the attack in a prison in Arizona on Friday, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the incident.

Prison officials said on Friday that staff had performed “life-saving” measures on an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Tucson – though did not name Chauvin.

Brian Evans, a spokesman for the Minnesota attorney general’s office, said on Saturday that they had “heard that he (Chauvin) is expected to survive”.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he was “sad to hear” that Chauvin had been the “target of violence” inside prison.

“He was duly convicted of his crimes and, like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence,” he said in a statement.

Chauvin, 47, was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to serve a 22-year sentence for the second-degree murder of Mr Floyd.

He was also sentenced to a concurrent 21-year sentence for violating Mr Floyd’s civil rights.

Mr Floyd, 46, died in May 2020 after Chauvin pressed a knee on his neck for more than nine minutes on the street outside a convenience store in Minneapolis, where he was suspected of trying to pass counterfeit money.

The murder, which was recorded on a mobile phone by a passer-by, who filmed Mr Floyd saying “I can’t breathe” multiple times, sparked protests against racism and police brutality across the world.

Three other former officers received lesser state and federal sentences for their roles in Mr Floyd’s death.

Read more:
Minneapolis police officer sentenced to nearly five years
Officer jailed over racist WhatsApp memes mocking George Floyd’s death

Following news of Chauvin’s stabbing, Mr Floyd’s brother, Terrence Floyd, said he “did not really have any feelings about it”.

“I’m not going to give my energy towards anything that happens within those four walls – because my energy went towards getting him in those four walls,” he told the Associated Press.

“Whatever happens in those four walls, I don’t really have any feelings about it.”

The US Bureau of Prisons confirmed an inmate had been assaulted at the FCI in Tucson at around 12.30pm local time on Friday.

In a statement, the agency said prison staff performed “life-saving measures”, before the inmate, who it did not name, was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation.

The FBI said it was aware of an assault at the prison – though it also did not name anyone involved.

Last week, the US Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s appeal against his state murder conviction.

Separately, he is attempting to overturn his guilty plea in the federal civil rights case, claiming new evidence shows he did not cause Mr Floyd’s death.

Nestled in the oldest part of Dublin is a market that sells just about everything: Ireland flags, stone statues of Buddha, lace knickers. But freedom seems to be in short supply at Liberty Market.

This year, the market is celebrating its 50th year. Larry Mooney has been a vendor here for that entire time and says the city centre no longer feels safe.

“Personally myself I wouldn’t go into town. I lived on the north side, now I live on the south side because there’s no way I would go down because it’s like a no-go area,” he told Sky News.

“I haven’t been into the city for about 35 years for the simple reason there are so many nationalities in the town that people are afraid to walk down the town.”

He’s not the only one staying away from Dublin City centre. Parts of the city are still reeling after as many as 500 people rioted through the streets following a knife attack on schoolchildren and a teacher on Thursday.

The rampage is reported to have been fuelled by unsubstantiated rumours that the attacker was a foreign national. Crowds burnt vehicles, attacked Gardai and smashed and looted shops.

The unrest followed growing anti-immigration sentiment in small parts of the country, exacerbated by crimes attributed to migrants. Ireland has also struggled to deal with an influx of Ukrainian refugees that has led to a record number of asylum seekers.

‘There’s no fairness’

Mr Mooney said: “We’re bringing people into the country and the minute they get here they’re getting everything – free medical card, housing – while Irish people are living in the streets.

“There’s no fairness.”

“Some of them are going back to get their kids’ teeth done in Ukraine,” he added.

Frustrations about immigration are worsened by a long-running housing crisis. In Dublin, house prices and rents have become unaffordable, leading to overcrowding in socially deprived inner city areas. Homelessness is at record levels.

“People are p**sed off, that’s the main reason,” one Dublin resident told Sky News.

“I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, to be honest.”

“If you’re helping other people,” said another, “help the ones who have been here for longer. Otherwise it’s going to create conflict.”

Someone else chimes in: “Ireland is a welcome place for immigrants.”

Read more:
Girl, 5, among three children stabbed in Dublin
The knife attack and police clashes in Dublin – what we know

Six miles south of the epicentre of Thursday’s violence, Sabina Syed and Aisha Ali stack shelves with non-perishable food items. A dozen cartons of flavoured milk, a box full of M&Ms and welcoming teabags that are arranged neatly in a cold warehouse.

Their weekly soup kitchen was cancelled after Thursday’s violence for the first time in eight years.

Immigration ‘has become the scapegoat’

“It is shameful that we had to cancel the soup run because of what happened in town,” said Ms Syed. “We have service users who are vulnerable.”

Ms Ali adds that it was difficult to not be able to help those in need during a particularly cold week.

Both women are themselves immigrants. They say immigration has become the scapegoat.

“Even though you call this country a home, you do what you can to give back to the society, when something like this happens you do feel unsafe and you do feel unwanted,” Ms Ali said.

The Muslim Sisters of Eire soup kitchen serves about 500 mostly Irish people every week, an example of immigrants giving Dublin’s indigenous communities a helping hand.

The city appears to be changing and not everyone likes it.

As a cautious calm descended on the border of south Lebanon on Saturday, the second day of a four-day ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, villages that had emptied of residents came back to life – at least briefly.

Shuttered shops reopened, cars moved through the streets and, in one border town, a family on an outing posed for photos in front of brightly coloured block letters proclaiming, “I [HEART] ODAISSEH” – the town’s name

About 55,500 Lebanese have been displaced by clashes between the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israeli forces since the beginning of the war in Gaza, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The fighting has killed more than 100 people in Lebanon, including more than a dozen civilians – three of them journalists – and 12 people on the Israeli side, including four civilians.

While Lebanon and Hezbollah weren’t officially parties to the truce between Israel and Hamas, the pause has brought a halt to the daily exchanges of rockets, artillery shells and air strikes. Some Lebanese took the opportunity to inspect their damaged houses or to pick up belongings.

Abdallah Quteish, a retired school principal, and his wife, Sabah, fled their house in the village of Houla – directly facing an Israeli military position across the border – on the second day of the clashes. They went to stay with their daughter in the north, leaving behind their olive orchard just as the harvest season was set to start.

They returned to their house on Friday and to an orchard where the unharvested olives were turning dry on the branches.

“We lost out on the season, but we’re all right … and that’s the most important thing,” Sabah said.

“God willing, we’ll stay in our house if the situation remains like this.”

نشرت في: 25/11/2023 – 21:59آخر تحديث: 25/11/2023 – 22:11

6 دقائق

استهل الترجي التونسي مشواره القاري السبت بالفوز في القمة التونسية الخالصة أمام ضيفه وغريمه المحلي النجم الساحلي 2-0 في الجولة الأولى من منافسات المجموعة الثالثة ضمن مسابقة دوري أبطال أفريقيا لكرة القدم. 

فيما فاز الأهلي فيما تغلب الأهلي المصري حامل اللقب على ضيفه ميدياما الغاني بثلاثة أهداف دون رد في المجموعة الرابعة. وفي المجموعة الثانية، تلقى الوداد المغربي خسارة مفاجئة أمام غالاكسي البوتسواني بهدف وحيد.

وحسم فريق “باب سويقة” القمة التونسية ذات النكهة الأفريقية، في الشوط الثاني من المباراة التي استضافها ملعب رادس في العاصمة التونسية بفضل ثنائية البرازيلي يان ساسي (61) وياسين مرياح (65 من ركلة جزاء).

وجاءت المباراة متكافئة في شوطها الأول حيث تقاسم الفريقان الاستحواذ على الكرة والفرص التي بدأها النجم عندما سدد أسامة عبيد كرة قوية بعيدة أنقذها حارس الترجي أمان الله مميش (5).

وكاد الترجي أن يفتتح التسجيل عندما سدد البرازيلي يان ساسي كرة قوية صدها الحارس رائد غازي فتهيأت أمام النيجيري أونوتشي أوغبيلو الذي سددها خارج المرمى المشرع (12).

ومرر لاعب النجم ياسين شماخي كرة عرضية أبعدها مرياح من أمام المرمى حارما أسامة عبيد من افتتاح التسجيل (43).

وبدا الترجي الأفضل في الشوط الثاني حيث تمكن من السيطرة على المجريات بفضل تحركات خط وسطه، بينما اعتمد النجم على المرتدات.

وسدد محمد علي بن حمودة كرة زاحفة مرت ضعيفة بجانب مرمى النجم (56).

وخطف ساسي الكرة من أمام مدافعي النجم وانطلق بها قبل أن يسكنها الشباك إثر تسديدة زاحفة مانحا التقدم للترجي (61).

واحتسب الحكم المصري محمد عادل ركلة جزاء للترجي إثر تعرض محمد بن علي للعرقلة من مدافع النجم حسان بن علي فانبرى لها مرياح بقوة الى الزاوية اليمنى (65).

وأنقذ حارس الترجي مميش كرة قوية لعبيد من ركلة حرة (70).

وفي المجموعة ذاتها، خسر الهلال السوداني أمام مضيفه أتلتيكو دي لواندا الأنغولي 0-1 في لواندا.

وسيطر الفريق المضيف على المجريات إذ كان الطرف الأفضل في شوطي اللقاء، وتمكن من حسم اللقاء بهدف لاعبه إيناسيو ميغيل (37).

خسارة مفاجئة للوداد وفوز عريض للأهلي

وفجر جوانينغ غالاكسي البوتسواني مفاجأة من العيار الثقيل عندما أسقط مضيفه الوداد البيضاوي وصيف بطل النسخة السابقة ووصيف بطل مسابقة دوري إفريقيا 1-0 على ملعب مراكش الكبير ضمن منافسات المجموعة الثانية التي شهدت تعادل سيمبا التنزاني وضيفه أسيك ميموزا العاجي.

وسيتذكر لاعبو وجمهور الوداد اسم الحارس البوتسواني غويتسيوني فوكو الذي وقف سدا منيعا أمام محاولات أسماء لها الباع الطويل قاريا ناشطة في هجوم الفريق المغربي، إذ تصدى لتسع تصويبات مباشرة على مرماه خمسة منها في الشوط الأول.

وسيطر “وداد الأمة” على المجريات بالكامل وبلغت نسبة استحواذه 83% في بعض فترات المباراة مقابل 17 للفريق الضيف الذي خرج بانتصار تاريخي.

وافتقد لاعبو المدرب عادل رمزي الى اللمسة الأخيرة، حيث لم يترجم مهاجماه منتصر لحتيمي والشرقي البحري أفضلية الفريق المطلقة، وعلى عكس المجريات تماما أخطأ عبد الله حيمود في إعادة الكرة باتجاه الحارس يوسف مطيع إلا أنها كانت ضعيفة فاستغلها تابانغ سيسينيي وزرعها في الشباك بتسديدة ساقطة “لوب” (37).

وبحث الفريق المغربي جاهدا عن تدارك الموقف، حيث دفع المدرب رمزي بالمهاجمين السنغالي بولي سامبو والليبي حمدو الهوني ومحمد أوناجم، من دون النجاح في مباغتة الحارس فوكو وأمامه دفاع متكتل قاتل للحفاظ على تقدمه حتى النهاية وكان له ما أراد.

وفي المجموعة ذاتها، عاد أسيك ميموزا العاجي بتعادل مهم من أرض مضيفه سيمبا التنزاني 1-1 في دار السلام. وافتتح سيمبا المدعوم بنحو أربعين ألف متفرج، التسجيل من ركلة جزاء عبر البوروندي سعيدي نتيبازونكيزا (42)، وأدرك أسيك التعادل بواسطة سيرج بوكو مترجماً سيطرة وأفضلية فريقه على المجريات (77).

وكانت هذه المباراة الأخيرة لسيمبا بإشراف المدرب البرازيلي روبرتو أوليفيرا، إذ سيتولى الجزائري عبد الحق بنشيخة تدريبه اعتبارا من الاثنين المقبل.

واستهل الأهلي حامل اللقب مشواره بفوز عريض على ضيفه ميدياما الغاني بثلاثية نظيفة بملعب القاهرة الدولي ضمن منافسات المجموعة الرابعة. وسجل ثلاثية الأهلي محمود عبد المنعم “كهربا” (66) وحسين الشحات (75) والبديل صلاح محسن (88)، فتقاسم الأهلي الصدارة مع شباب بلوزداد الجزائري الفائز على يانغ أفريكانز التنزاني 3-0 الجمعة.

ولم يقدم الأهلي الأداء المنتظر منه في ظل تراجع مستوى أكثر من لاعب بين صفوفه، وكاد كهربا أن يسجل في الدقيقة الرابعة بعدما ردت العارضة تسديدته من داخل المنطقة، ثم ردت رأسية إمام عاشور، رد عليها ميدياما بتسديدة لحميدو عبدول فاتاوو تصدى لها محمد الشناوي (6).

ودفع المدرب السويسري للأهلي مارسيل كولر بالثنائي محمد مجدى “افشه” والجنوب أفريقي بيرسى تاو في الشوط الثاني فنشط أصحاب الأرض وافتتحوا التسجيل عبر كهربا مستغلا كرة عرضية تابعها برأسه على يمين الحارس فيلكس كيي (66). وأضاف الشحات الهدف الثاني مستغلا خطأ مدافعي ميدياما في التمرير وكرة مرتدة من الحارس إثر تسديدة لكهربا (75). وعزز محسن تقدم فريقه بهدف ثالث مستغلا عرضية افشة حولها برأسه داخل الشباك على يسار الحارس (88).

فرانس24/ أ ف ب