Sudan crisis: Mass displacement and death

Cathrin Schaer
DW

22 hours ago

Over the past month, the conflict between two military groups in Sudan has reached what experts say is a grim turning point. The country's future is even more unclear.

The latest round of serious violence in Sudan started in April

War crimes, massacres, mass displacement and a worsening humanitarian crisis have been reported during eight-month conflict in Sudan, and many observers are now asking whether the country is on the brink of becoming a failed state or being split apart.

On Friday, the UN Security Council agreed to end its special Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan, also known as UNITAMS. The Sudanese government had requested that the mission end because it "was failing to meet expectations."

UNITAMS was established in 2020 to support Sudan's transition toward democracy after a combination of military pressure and civilian protests succeeded in ending the rule of the country's long-running dictator, Omar al-Bashir. Instead of moving toward democracy, though, Sudan seems to be moving toward even more turmoil and violence.

There will be a three-month transitional period during which UNITAMS, which employs more than 240 people, will end its mission in Sudan

Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/picture alliance

UN bodies operate at the pleasure of host governments and have faced more hostility in African nations recently, especially in countries such as Mali and Gabon, which have recently undergone coups. The United Nations still has other agencies operating in Sudan.

Situation is 'unprecedented'

Two major military groups inside Sudan have been fighting one another since April. They are the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

The SAF has about 200,000 personnel and is headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan; it works more like a regular army. Meanwhile the RSF is estimated to have 70,000 to 100,000 personnel and is headed by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. The RSF works more like a guerrilla force.

The SAF has more equipment, including tanks, helicopters and an air force, but is not as battle-hardened as the RSF.

The forces are relatively equal in terms of ability, and neither has managed to overpower the other. This has led to what the German Institute for International and Security Affairs calls a "strategic stalemate."

Darfur is still a stronghold for the RSF

Hussein Malla/AP/picture alliance

The fact that the RSF and SAF are equally strong is a result of how they were formed, experts say. Former dictator al-Bashir first created the RSF in 2013 as a counterbalance to the SAF to ensure that the military never got too strong to challenge his rule and launch a coup.

The RSF evolved from the notorious Janjaweed militias in Darfur, which were formed by fighters in Arab tribes in that area. One of the Janjaweed's main objectives was the targeting of non-Arabs in Darfur, and this has continued.

That makes the current situation "unprecedented," Hager Ali, a research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), told DW. "There are two military organizations that are fairly evenly matched, but that have no platform or interface between them for negotiations," said Ali, who has published extensively on Sudan. "When it comes to peace building and the negotiations, there's not much of a playbook for this particular constellation."

Months of conflict

After the end of al-Bashir's regime, the military agreed to share power with civilians until real elections could be held. That was in August 2019.

In late 2021, any transition toward democracy ended when the Sudanese military took control of the country in a coup. That included both the SAF and the RSF.

Nonetheless, negotiations about how to share power between all actors, including civilian parties, went on, even though they were very difficult. The two militaries effectively managed to exclude Sudanese civil society from national politics, Ali said.

In March, a proposal that would have seen the RSF absorbed by the SAF worsened tensions between the militaries. Growing political ambitions held by RSF chief Hemedti reportedly also played a part.

A basic framework agreement to lead Sudan toward a democratic transition had been signed in late 2022 by all military actors, including the SAF and RSF, as well as more than 40 civilian groups. It was supposed to be finalized in mid-April.

Fighting between the SAF and RSF began in April.

Sudan's humanitarian situation

Human rights organizations report a litany of grave offenses committed by the RSF since early November, including murder, rape, robbery and arson. Survivors report seeing men rounded up and shot en masse, as well as killed with axes and machetes.

Just as they have previously, the RSF has targeted non-Arabs in Darfur and, in particular, members of the Masalit community. The RSF had already driven hundreds of thousands of members of the Masalit tribe out of the area earlier in 2023.

In November, an estimated 800 to 2,000 people, mainly civilians, were killed in fighting. A further 8,000 were displaced, with many fleeing into neighboring Chad.

There are already about half a million Sudanese in Chad who were displaced by previous fighting.

An estimated 5 million Sudanese have been internally displaced over eight months of conflict

Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS

"This has become the largest displacement crisis on the continent at least, and possibly in the world," Will Carter, the Sudan country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told listeners last week during an online conference held by the Washington-based Center for International and Strategic Studies.

"It's a bleak situation," Carter said. "And, to be honest, we're bracing for it to get worse next year. Famine is not off the table. There are some of the worst types of atrocities being committed and very little to contain them and a collapsing state, [making] health care, education systems but also even basic banking unlikely," he added.

"The numbers are huge, funds are low, and operational capacity [for aid providers] is low," Carter concluded.

Since the latest clashes, the humanitarian situation in Sudan has only worsened. Previously there were an estimated 15.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, agencies say. Now, there are thought to be close to 25 million.

"The humanitarian impacts are the No. 1 reason to worry about this," Malte Lierl, a research fellow at GIGA, told DW. "It's going to overwhelm a country like Chad, and it will affect the broader region, too."

Sudan: UN alarmed at ethnically motivated attacks in Darfur  02:19

What happens next?

Some observers have suggested that the current fighting could cause Sudan to split in half, with two separate states being formed. Others think that the fighting could remain deadlocked, evolving into a similar situation as in neighboring Libya, where two halves of the country are ruled by opposing parties.

Neither the RSF or SAF wants to make any concessions toward ending the current fighting, Ali said, which doesn't bode well for a new peace agreement.

"But one of the really big things that will be decisive is each party's capacity to govern and to mobilize local people in their favor," she said.

That is where the two sides are not evenly matched, Ali noted. The SAF has most of the structures of government with it, in its base of Port Sudan. Economics will also play a role, and it will depend on who will be able to access Sudan's most important resources. In that sense, the RSF controls important territory.

Nobody really knows what will happen next, Ali said. Returning to the kind of power-sharing peace deal that existed before seems unlikely because it would force both the RSF and SAF to make too many concessions and lose personal power and wealth.

"Basically the two sides are conspiring to divide power and resources at the expense of society," Ali said.

Edited by: M. Gagnon

WHO calls for higher taxes on alcohol, sugary drinks

The WHO has called on governments worldwide to increase taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks in order to drastically curb the number of people dying from drinking and unhealthy diets.

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on governments around the world to increase taxes on alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs).

After studying taxation rates, the WHO said Tuesday that it believes the average global tax rate on "unhealthy products" was too low, while items such as wine are completely exempt from tax in some European countries.
Can taxes reduce deaths?

According to the WHO, 2.6 million people die from drinking alcohol and 8 million people die due to unhealthy diets every year.

The UN health agency said higher taxes would help reduce consumption of the products and incentivize companies to make healthier products.

"Taxing unhealthy products creates healthier populations. It has a positive ripple effect across society, less disease and debilitation and revenue for governments to provide public services," said Rüdiger Krech, the WHO's health promotion director. "In the case of alcohol, taxes also help prevent violence and road traffic injuries."

The WHO added that while 108 of its 194 member states already impose some taxes on SSBs, they account for an average of just 6.6% of the price of soda.

Half of those countries, the WHO noted, also tax water, which is not recommended by the UN agency.

WHO: Less cheap booze means fewer alcohol-related deaths

The WHO said minimum pricing alongside taxation could curb consumption of cheap alcohol and reduce drink-related hospitalizations, deaths, traffic violations and crimes.

"A significant body of research has demonstrated that people who engage in heavy episodic drinking tend to drink the cheapest available alcoholic beverages," the WHO said. "However, wine is exempted from excise taxes in at least 22 countries, most of which are in the European region."

Do alcohol taxes hit poorest hardest?

Globally, on average, the tax on the price of the most sold brand of beer is 17.2%, while for the most sold brand of the most sold type of spirits, it is 26.5%, the WHO reported.

While the drinks industry often cites alcohol taxes as affecting the poorest communities hardest, the WHO countered that such a view ignores the "disproportionate harm per litre for alcohol consumers in lower socioeconomic groups."

"A pressing concern is that alcoholic beverages have, over time, consistently become more affordable," WHO Assistant Director-General Ailan Li said. "But increasing affordability can be curbed using well-designed alcohol tax and pricing policies."

km/sms (Reuters, AFP, DPA)

Myanmar's displaced bear brunt of civil war

Justin Higginbottom in Sagaing, Myanmar
December 4, 2023

After the military burned down their village, one community describes their efforts to survive in a diplaced person's camp on the fringes of the jungle in the Sagaing region.

A valley in Kale Township is seen from a camp for the internally displaced in Myanmar's Sagaing region

 Justin Higginbottom/DW

Yay Chan can just see his village from the hill where he's standing on this sweltering October day in Myanmar's western Sagaing region.

In front of him are the fertile farmlands of Kale Township, nearly fluorescent green after a wet monsoon season, stretching to what remains of his home village, Yae Shin.

When Myanmar's armed forces first attacked Yae Shin, where protests erupted after the military coup in February 2021, Yay Chan said he joined a local defense force, helping to hold off the assault using a single-shot hunting rifle.

The village's resistance force numbered only around 100. When the military returned in force the next year, the resistance didn't stand a chance.

"At first, we just protested. And when the military marched into our region we defended against them. After the third clash, our whole village was burned down by the junta army," said Yay Chan.

Sagaing a 'hotbed' of resistance to military rule

The 37-year-old is now an administrator at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP).

Around 1,800 people, the majority from his razed village, live here almost totally reliant on donations. There's little work and virtually no medical care. The lucky ones have traded swathes of their family's productive farmland for subsistence farming on small plots.

A nearby forested mountain is a last refuge where residents are ready to flee to at the first sounds of aircraft or incoming artillery.

"Sometimes they [the military] kidnap people from other villages and use them as human shields to advance. Their jets also bombed our village. Families are separated and on the run," he said.

The military has razed around 75,000 homes since taking power, according to monitoring group Data for Myanmar. And more than two-thirds of those have been in the Sagaing region.

Since the coup, media often refers to this ethnic Bamar-majority region as a "hotbed" of resistance to military rule. One of the war's first battles occurred in this township.

Since then, the valley has been carved up by anti-junta forces and the military and its militias.

But away from the frontline, this camp is what much of this "hotbed" resembles — civilians struggling to survive the conflict.
Survivors struggle with physical and emotional pain

Mg Si, 39, is one of those surviving.

He and four friends took up arms against the military soon after the coup. Not long after that he was injured by a landmine. Shrapnel entered his back, paralyzing him from the waist down.

"I didn't think it would make me paralyzed. I just treated the wound with the help of my comrades thinking that I will be back on my feet to fight again," said Mg Si.

Myanmar military junta faces attacks on multiple front  02:38

He doesn't have the money to travel for treatment to a specialist in India. The major hospitals in this region have either been destroyed or are under military control.

He's left sitting out the war, spending his time under the shade of his family's one-room shelter.

"Since we are trapped here for now, I have to stay put. I don't know when it will end. Now, my wife has to take care of my needs," he said.

Mg Si said the worst part of his injury isn't physical, but rather the shame he feels for burdening his family.

They no longer have income because he can't work. He's incontinent and his wife and daughter must take care of him. His daughter can't attend school because of him. He said he doesn't know whom to ask for help. There's so few resources that make it to this camp.

As he told his story, he stared blankly into the distance. Recently his eyesight has started to fade too.

Educating children a huge challenge

If his daughter could attend school it would be in several one-room classes tucked between dense vegetation here.

Volunteers said the classes are limited in size and spread out to avoid detection by the military. Any large gathering — even a classroom — could become a target.

A nearby forested mountain is a last refuge where residents are ready to flee to at the first sounds of aircraft or incoming artillery

Justin Higginbottom/DW

At one class, Khin Sabal Phyo, 23, is teaching around a dozen primary school students. She was studying history at a university in the city of Kale when the coup happened. She left her studies out of protest.

She said she doesn't want a diploma while the military regime is in power. She's not alone. This year, the number of students who took a national placement exam for university was only one-fifth of that under the civilian government.

Now she's a volunteer, trying to teach a classroom of children without experience as a teacher or proper supplies. She said the military burned the village's school to the ground — along with precious textbooks.

The civilian National Unity Government has raised funds for education outside of the military's reach — like this classroom — but support is spread thin around the country.

Another teacher who goes by the name Rosie is leading a class of secondary students. She actually was a teacher before the war. But she joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) — a mass strike of government workers after the coup. Estimates put the number of CDM teachers like Rosie at more than 130,000.

The students here are lucky, Rosie explained. Many others can't attend because they must work to help their family survive. Others have joined resistance groups and given their lives. The World Bank says only around 56% of those aged 6-22 years are enrolled in a school.

But she said they should keep resisting where they can, even if that means organizing their own barebones education. They've lost too much to turn back now, Rosie pointed out.

Volunteers said any large gathering — even a classroom — could become a military target. This classroom in Kale Township has already been damaged.

Justin Higginbottom/DW

Camp residents worried about infiltrators

Yay Chan, the camp administrator, said they don't have weapons to defend themselves against a ground assault by the military or pro-junta militias based nearby. So they've mined the perimeter.

Even then residents are worried about infiltrators. The camp rarely accepts people who don't come from Yae Shin village.

"Our people have been suffering for years for the sake of revolution. We need food, medical supplies, raincoats and mosquito nets. I want to ask these from the [National Unity Government] so that we could endure more in the future," said Yay Chan.

The tide may be finally turning in this war. Anti-junta groups across the country have recently made gains — including in the Sagaing Region.

After nearly three years, those at this camp say they are ready for a victory. Although they can't imagine where they might find what they need to rebuild.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

Texas woman whose fetus has fatal condition sues for abortion

Houston (AFP) – A 31-year-old woman sued the state of Texas on Tuesday in order to get an abortion for a pregnancy that she and her doctors say threatens her life and future fertility.


Issued on: 05/12/2023 -

Kate Cox, a mother-of-two from Dallas-Fort Worth learned last week that her fetus has full trisomy 18, a genetic condition that means her pregnancy may not survive until birth and if it does her baby would be stillborn or would live at most a few days

 © HANDOUT / Kate Cox/AFP

Kate Cox, a mother-of-two from Dallas-Fort Worth, learned last week that her fetus has full trisomy 18, a genetic condition that means her pregnancy may not survive until birth and if it does her baby would live at most a few days, according to the lawsuit.

Ultrasounds revealed multiple serious conditions including a twisted spine and irregular skull and heart development.

But because of the way Texas' abortion law is formulated, her physicians told her their "hands are tied" and she will have to wait until her baby dies inside her, the filing brought on Cox's behalf by the Center for Reproductive Rights said.

Should the heart stop beating, they could offer her a labor induction -- but because of her prior C-sections, induction carries a high risk of rupturing her uterus, which could kill her or prevent her from getting pregnant in future if a hysterectomy is needed.

"It is not a matter of if I will have to say goodbye to my baby, but when. I'm trying to do what is best for my baby and myself, but the state of Texas is making us both suffer," said Cox.

"I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy," added Cox, who has been to three different emergency rooms in the last month due to severe cramping and unidentified fluid leaks.

Cox is joined in her lawsuit by her husband Justin -- who is seeking a favorable legal ruling to assure he won't be prosecuted for assisting his wife in getting an abortion -- as well as by obstetrician-gynecologist Damla Karsan who says she is willing to terminate the pregnancy with court approval.

The Texas Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a case brought on behalf of two doctors and 20 women who were denied abortions even though they had serious -- in some cases life-threatening -- complications with their pregnancies.

The lawsuit, also filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, argues that the way medical exceptions are defined under the conservative state's abortion restrictions is confusing, stoking fear among doctors and causing a "health crisis."

The Texas Supreme Court is expected to soon issue a decision whether to block the state's abortion bans in cases such as Cox's.

The US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022.

A Texas state "trigger" ban went into immediate effect, prohibiting abortions even in cases of rape or incest. Texas also has a law that allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs or aids an abortion.

Texas physicians found guilty of providing abortions face up to 99 years in prison, fines of up to $100,000 and the revocation of their medical license.

© 2023 AFP

'Sleepwalking into dictatorship': Trump warnings spook America

Could a second Donald Trump presidency slide into dictatorship? A sudden spate of dystopian warnings has got America talking about the possibility less than a year before the US elections.


Issued on: 06/12/2023 -

A rash of dire warnings has appeared in US media that a second Trump presidency could slide into dictatorship 

© Brandon Bell, Getty Images North America via AFP

By: NEWS WIRES

Dark scenarios about what could happen if the twice-impeached Republican former president wins in 2024 have appeared in the space of a few days in major US media outlets that include The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Atlantic.

Grim predictions also came from top Republican Trump critic Liz Cheney, who said that the country is "sleepwalking into dictatorship" and that she is weighing a third-party presidential run of her own to try to stop him.

Together, they paint a bleak picture of an angrier yet more disciplined Trump than during his first spell in the White House, one who would wreak vengeance on his perceived enemies and possibly try to stay in power beyond the two-term US limit.

President Joe Biden, who faces a rematch of his bitter 2020 contest with Trump, said the warnings backed his own claims to be defending US democracy.

"If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. But we cannot let him win," the 81-year-old Democrat told a campaign event in Massachusetts.

Biden cited Trump's own increasingly violent language on the campaign trail, saying his rival's description of his opponents as "vermin" echoed the language used in Nazi Germany.

"Trump's not even hiding the ball anymore. He's telling us what he's going to do."
'President for life'

Trump, 77, and his allies have responded as they usually do, by fighting fire with fire. He accused Biden of himself being a "destroyer of democracy" and even reposted one of the most critical articles on social media.

Trump has called political opponents 'vermin' 

© JOSEPH PREZIOSO / AFP

Conservative Fox News described it as "media panic", while pro-Trump Republican senator and author J.D. Vance said on X that "everyone needs to take a chill pill".

But the sudden uptick in warnings -- against a backdrop of Democratic angst over polls showing Trump now leading Biden despite facing multiple criminal trials -- has been striking.

The most eye-opening piece appeared in The Washington Post by conservative commentator Robert Kagan, with the headline: "A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending."

Comparing him to the power-grabbing Roman emperor Julius Caesar, the lengthy article says neither the US Constitution nor the Supreme Court could prevent Trump being "president for life" if he wanted.

Kagan wrote that if Trump survives the trials he faces over trying to upend the 2020 election and cling to power illegally, and wins the next election, he will in effect feel he is above the law and can get away with anything.

The New York Times analyzed the ways that a "second term could unleash a darker President Trump" than in his chaotic first presidency from 2017-2021.

Trump has "spoken admiringly of autocrats for decades" and would likely follow their example by packing the civil service with loyalists and using the Justice Department to crack down on opponents, it said.

In scenes reminiscent of a dystopian movie, it said Trump would also set up migrant detention camps and use the military against protesters under the US Insurrection Act.

The Atlantic magazine meanwhile is dedicating its entire January-February 2024 issue to what a Trump presidency would look like, with an editor's note titled simply: "A Warning."
'Dangerous moment'

Some of the most dire forebodings have come from Cheney, the former Republican lawmaker and daughter of ex-vice president Dick Cheney, whose opposition to Trump made her a pariah in the party.

Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol after he lost the 2020 election 

© Olivier DOULIERY / AFP/File

"It's a very dangerous moment," she told NBC on Sunday.

There was "no question" Trump would try to stay in office beyond 2028, she said, adding that the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol by supporters trying to overturn Biden's election win was merely a "practice run."

For his critics, Trump's autocratic side has long been in plain sight.



Trump already faces trial for conspiring to upend the 2020 election result, with prosecutors saying on Tuesday that evidence shows he was determined to "remain in power at any cost."

His language has turned more extreme in recent months, during which he described migrants as "poisoning the blood of our country" and suggested his former military chief should face death for treason.

But in the looking-glass world of Trump and his allies, he is always the victim.

"Joe Biden is the real dictator," Trump said in a picture posted on his conservative Truth Social network.

(AFP)

US sanctions Belarus Red Cross chief over Ukraine child deportations

Washington (AFP) – The United States unveiled sanctions on Tuesday against the head of the Belarus Red Cross, accusing him of being complicit in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.


Issued on: 05/12/2023
T

SERGEY BOBOK / AFP

Since its invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Russia has been accused of forcibly deporting thousands of Ukrainian children -- with Belarus's support -- from schools, hospitals and orphanages in parts of the country controlled by its forces.

Moscow has not denied transferring thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but claims it did so for their own protection.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement that the head of the Belarus Red Cross, Dzmitry Shautsou, had been sanctioned for assisting the Russian president's Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, who has been accused of enacting the deportations.

Lvova-Belova is the subject of a recent arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for "the war crime" of the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia.

Belarus Red Cross suspended

In July, Shautsou received fierce international criticism when he claimed that the Belarus Red Cross had been involved in bringing Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied areas of the country to Belarus.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called on the Belarus Red Cross to sack Shautsou, and suspended the chapter as a member when it failed to do so.

Shautsou was among the 11 entities and eight individuals sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on Tuesday in a bid to ramp up the pressure on the Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko.

The Treasury's actions reaffirm its efforts to hold Lukashenko, "his family, and his regime accountable for their anti-democratic actions and human rights abuses, both in Belarus and around the world," the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in a statement.

© 2023 AFP

US facing growing Middle East crisis tied to Israel-Hamas war

Washington (AFP) – Washington is facing an increasingly complex and dangerous crisis resulting from the Israel-Hamas war, which has sparked repeated militant attacks and drawn US military attention and assets back to the Middle East.


Issued on: 06/12/2023 -

A handout picture courtesy of the US Navy shows the guided missile destroyer USS Carney firing on missiles and drones launched from Yemen on October 19, 2023 

© Aaron Lau / US NAVY/AFP/File

The United States has deployed two aircraft carriers and other forces in a bid to deter a devastating region-wide conflict. But the current violence in the Middle East -- while not rising to that level -- still carries significant danger.

Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen raised the stakes over the weekend by striking commercial vessels in the Red Sea, while a US Navy destroyer shot down several inbound drones as it operated in the area and responded to distress calls.

"Without question there's been escalation," but all parties, especially the United States, "are trying to manage these clashes in ways that do not explode into a regional war," said Jeffrey Feltman, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and former US assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs.

However, "I think we should be deeply, deeply worried that step-by-step escalation, while perhaps no party intends it to turn into a regional conflagration, could lead us there," he said.

'Have their cake'

The Huthis said they targeted two of the three ships that were hit in the Red Sea on Sunday, claiming they were Israeli vessels and that such attacks would continue "until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops."

The US Navy shot down three drones launched from Yemen the same day -- the targets of which were unclear -- and others as well as missiles during the past six weeks, while the Huthis downed an American drone last month.

Feltman said the Huthis and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has repeatedly traded fire with Israel since the outbreak of the war with Hamas on October 7, "are basically trying to have their cake and eat it too."

"They're trying to say that they are part of the resistance, that they are standing in solidarity with the beleaguered Palestinian population in Gaza," but "they're doing it in a way, I think, that they believe will prevent a full-scale war," he said.

The latest round of conflict between Israel and Hamas began when the Palestinian militant group carried out a shock cross-border attack that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people.

Israel responded with a relentless land and air campaign that the Hamas-run government in Gaza says has left more than 16,200 people dead.

In addition to the attacks launched from Yemen and Lebanon, US troops in Iraq and Syria have been targeted by rockets and drones on dozens of occasions since mid-October, with the militants who claimed responsibility repeatedly citing the situation in Gaza.

Washington has blamed Iran-backed groups for the attacks and has carried out multiple strikes against those forces as well as sites in the region it said were linked to Tehran.

'Testing limits'

The US military fought a bloody war in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, later provided support to local forces in that country and Syria as they battled the Islamic State jihadist group, and has carried out numerous raids and strikes against militants in the region over the years.

But Washington is seeking to move on from the counterinsurgency-centric "War on Terror" conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan to put greater focus on countering China, which it has identified as its most consequential challenge.

The United States has shifted significant military assets to the Middle East since October 7, but that does not necessarily undermine efforts in the Asia-Pacific region.

"While a long-term focus on the Middle East would detract from readiness in East Asia, near-term responses are unlikely to provoke a near-term crisis in East Asia," said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Additionally, "the demonstrated ability to deploy quickly to defend allies and interests is watched carefully in Asia, among allies and adversaries alike," he said.

Alterman said the situation in the Middle East could potentially "go in a bad direction," but that he does not see the conflict as being out of control at this point.

"The United States remains the preponderant power," he said, while America's adversaries are "carefully testing limits."

© 2023 AFP

In rare Israel rebuke, US restricts visas on extremist settlers

Washington (AFP) – The United States said Tuesday it would refuse visas for extremist Israeli settlers behind a wave of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, as it also asked Israel to do more to spare civilians in Gaza.


Issued on: 05/12/2023

A relative of Palestinian Bilal Saleh, who was shot in the chest while picking olives, points at an Israeli settlement near the village of As-Sawiyah in the occupied West Bank in on November 

© Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP/File

The visa measures amount to a rare concrete repercussion by the United States against Israelis in the nearly two-month-old war, in which President Joe Biden has nudged the US ally privately but also promised strong support.

"We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable," he said.

Blinken said the United States would refuse entry to anyone involved in "undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank" or who takes actions that "unduly restrict civilians' access to essential services and basic necessities."

"Instability in the West Bank both harms the Israeli and Palestinian people and threatens Israel's national security interests. Those responsible for it must be held accountable," Blinken said.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that dozens of settlers, who were not publicly named, would be affected. The visa ban also applies to their immediate family members.

Restrictions on entering the United States will not apply to extremist settlers who are US citizens.

Wave of violence

Hamas militants stormed out of Gaza into Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and has carried out air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed around 15,900 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet in Ramallah on November 30, 2023 

© SAUL LOEB / POOL/AFP/File

Even though Hamas does not control the West Bank, some 250 Palestinians have been killed there by Israeli soldiers and settlers since October 7, according to a Palestinian government tally.

The Palestinian Authority holds limited autonomy in the West Bank where Palestinians have complained of impunity over attacks and harassment carried out by settlers, some of whom have been serving in the Israeli military as forces are shifted to Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a coalition with far-right parties that strongly support Jewish settlement of lands seized in 1967, construction that is considered illegal under international law.

Blinken visited both Israel and the West Bank last week just as a pause ended between Hamas and Israel.

The State Department said that Israel has shown "improvement" in targeting its strikes in Gaza as it voiced concern about a repeat of the widespread bombing at the start of the war.

"We will continue to monitor what's happening and will continue to press them to do everything they can to minimize civilian harm," said Miller, the State Department spokesman.

The United States has also promised more than $100 million in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians but has faced strong criticism in much of the Arab world for its diplomatic and military support of Israel.

J Street, the left-leaning pro-Israel US group that is frequently critical of Netanyahu, praised the visa restrictions as an "important first step."

It said that the Biden administration should specifically restrict two far-right ministers in Netanyahu's cabinet, Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Before entering politics, Ben-Gvir hung a portrait in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, the US-born settler who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers at a mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The Biden administration has returned to the traditional US and international position of opposing settlements, although until now its stance has largely been rhetorical.

Previous president Donald Trump switched course, with Blinken's predecessor Mike Pompeo dropping objections to settlements and visiting one late in his term.

© 2023 AFP

'We're now witnessing an open-ended Israeli war upon Hamas but also upon civilians in Gaza'

Issued on: 05/12/2023 - 

 The situation in the Gaza Strip is getting worse all the time and approaching humanity's "darkest hour", the World Health Organization said Tuesday. Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group's October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and which saw around 240 hostages taken back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities. Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and secure the release of all the hostages. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the war has killed nearly 15,900 people in the territory. As Gaza reaches 'humanity's darkest hour', according to the WHO, FRANCE 24 is joined by Scott Lucas, Political Analyst and Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin.

Released Palestinians allege mistreatment in Israeli prisons

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Released under a prisoner-hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas, former Palestinian detainees have described beatings, deprivation and a radical deterioration in conditions in Israeli jails following Hamas's bloody October 7 attacks.

Issued on: 05/12/2023 -

Rouba Assi, released last week, says conditions in Israeli jail severely deteriorated after October 7

 © Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

On that day, Hamas fighters streamed across the Gaza Strip's militarised border into Israel, kidnapping around 240 people and killing 1,200 others, most of them civilians, Israeli officials say.

In response, the Israeli military launched a campaign to eradicate Hamas that has since killed nearly 15,900 people, most of them women and minors, according to Gaza's Hamas-run government.

The only respite in fighting was a seven-day truce that ended Friday and saw scores of Israeli hostages freed by Hamas in exchange for more than 200 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

One of those prisoners, 23-year-old activist Rouba Assi, told reporters after her release last week that Israeli prison authorities "took everything away" from Palestinian detainees.

Since October 7, they had been subject to a "state of emergency" announced by prison officials.

For detained Palestinians, there would be no more leaving their cell -- and therefore no more visits -- no more buying food from the canteen, no more power in their electrical outlets, and more frequent surprise searches, authorities said in a statement.

- Red Cross visits 'stopped'-

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club, an advocacy group that keeps a tally of detainees from the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, has said visits from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also stopped.

Under its guidelines on confidentiality, the ICRC has not commented on that claim.

Assi is uniquely placed to compare life on the inside before and during the war.

Between 2020 and 2022 she was jailed for 21 months on charges of throwing stones and belonging to an illegal organisation, the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

She was arrested again after the start of the current war, along with 3,580 other Palestinians detained so far, according to the Prisoners' Club.

There are around 7,800 Palestinians prisoners in Israeli jails, the Club says.

Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners during the truce last week in exchange for dozens of hostages held in Gaza 

© Fadel SENNA / AFP

During her latest stint, Assi found things were very different.

"In Damon prison (in northeast Israel) seven of us slept in a cell designed for three detainees, on the bare floor, without a mattress or a cover, despite the cold and regardless of one's age," she said.

"We often went to bed without having eaten, and the portions we received were meagre," she continued. "All the gains made over the years of struggle by Palestinian prisoners were wiped out in a single stroke."

In a statement earlier this month, Amnesty International regional director Heba Morayef said: "Testimonies and video evidence also point to numerous incidents of torture and other ill-treatment by Israeli forces including severe beatings and deliberate humiliation of Palestinians who are detained in dire conditions."
'Beat us day and night'

Ramzi Abbasi, a Palestinian activist from east Jerusalem, was freed under the Israel-Hamas deal from Ketziot prison in the Negev desert, where he was serving time after being sentenced in April for inciting violence.

"They beat us day and night," the 36-year-old told AFP. "Some prisoners had their legs or arms broken after October 7 and received no care."

Ketziot, he said, is "a cemetery for the living. The inmates there live without food, without clean clothes -- they're neglected."

Approached several times by AFP, Israeli prison authorities declined to comment on the allegations.

Amnesty said it had received an account from a Palestinian from east Jerusalem who was subjected to "severe beatings which left him with bruises and three broken ribs".

The unnamed detainee said police ordered prisoners to "praise Israel and curse Hamas", but even after they did, the "beating and humiliation did not stop".

In an letter to the ICRC delivered from prison by one the recently released detainees, inmates denounced the "revenge" allegedly meted out by Israeli authorities.

The message said six prisoners had died in Israeli jails since the start of the war.

The Israeli prisons administration responded that the inmates underwent autopsies and were found to have died due to health issues unrelated to the conditions of their detention.

The prisoner-hostage exchange deal has brought the long-simmering question of Palestinian detainees back to the fore, with Hamas and its allies -- who have hundreds of militants in Israeli prisons -- saying those kidnapped on October 7 will be used as bargaining chips to "empty" Israeli prisons.

But during the same week of exchanges that saw 240 Palestinian prisoners released in return for 80 Israeli hostages, 240 other Palestinians were incarcerated, according to the Prisoners' Club.

© 2023 AFP