Around 100 people were evacuated from Sudan on the first French flight out of the war-hit country after a “complicated” rescue operation, French officials said on Sunday. FRANCE 24’s Bastien Renouil reports from Djibouti, where the rescue flight landed.
Source: France24.com
The humanitarian situation in Sudan remains desparate across all areas, says Rick Brennan, the WHO’s regional emergency director. This is due, amongst other things, to direct attacks on hospitals and clinics by military forces, which violates international law and means patients and doctors don’t have access to health facilities. This latest crisis in Sudan is taking place within the context of a decades long humanitarian conflict.
Source: France24.com
Clashes between the Sudanese army and paramilitary group RSF, which began on April 15, have prompted ordinary Sudanese to stay at home. However, their safety is not guaranteed. The first evacuations of civilians started on Friday night, after both the army and RSF gave permission for them to go ahead. In addition, the army has ruled out any negotiation with the RSF, which it intends to integrate into the regular army.
Source: France24.com
Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamieh, asked in a statement on Sunday, ‘Is it permissible to keep the revenues from occupancy of marine public property on the beach at only 500 thousand dollars annually?!! Or should lifting the injustice and collecting part of the state’s financial rights be the characteristic of the current stage?”
He added, “The decree that was approved is only the beginning, and it will be followed by steps to correct the chronic imbalance.”
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
Prime Minister Najib Mikati followed up today with Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Abdallah Bou Habib, the file of the Lebanese residing in Sudan, who reassured him that the convoy of Lebanese who were evacuated from there is safe outside the capital, Khartoum.
In this context, the Lebanese embassy in Sudan organized a convoy to evacuate the Lebanese, who are around sixty in number, by sea back to Lebanon.
The Prime Minister gave his directives to the Higher Relief Commission to follow up on this dossier and to secure the return of the Lebanese to Beirut after leaving Sudan by sea.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
“Russia Today” news agency quoted the Sudanese Armed Forces as saying that the Rapid Support Forces committed several violations against diplomatic missions, including the shooting attack on the French embassy convoy, which led to the disruption of the evacuation process.
Today, the Sudanese Armed Forces said, “The Rapid Support militia stole the diplomatic vehicle of the Malaysian ambassador, and assaulted today the convoy of the Qatari embassy heading to Port Sudan and looted their money, all their bags and mobile phones, and attacked the convoy of the French embassy by shooting, which led to their return and disruption of the evacuation operation.”
It pointed out that “one of the French was wounded by a sniper’s bullet, in addition to the attack on the mission’s headquarters.”
In turn, the Rapid Support Forces announced that its forces “were subjected to an air attack in the morning during the evacuation of French nationals from their country’s embassy, passing through Bahri to Omdurman, which endangered the lives of French nationals,” stressing that “one of the French nationals was injured and the rest survived.”
They pointed out that “in order to preserve the safety of the French nationals, they were forced to return the convoy to the starting point.”
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon