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UN Plans to Aid 3 Million Sudanese Refugees

Displaced people from el-Geneina in Darfur on a French army truck en route to temporary shelters on the outskirts of Adre, Chad (Reuters)
Displaced people from el-Geneina in Darfur on a French army truck en route to temporary shelters on the outskirts of Adre, Chad (Reuters)
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UN Plans to Aid 3 Million Sudanese Refugees

Displaced people from el-Geneina in Darfur on a French army truck en route to temporary shelters on the outskirts of Adre, Chad (Reuters)
Displaced people from el-Geneina in Darfur on a French army truck en route to temporary shelters on the outskirts of Adre, Chad (Reuters)

The United Nations has recognized the need to scale up assistance in Sudan, according to the United Nations Integrated Transition Support Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS).

The UN agencies in Sudan held a meeting Wednesday in Port Sudan, announcing they are jointly mounting efforts to scale up humanitarian assistance for over three million displaced by the conflict, the majority being women and children.

A UN report issued in mid-July indicated that roughly half of Sudan's population needs urgent humanitarian aid, especially the millions trapped in combat zones in Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan.

The ongoing clashes between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) impede the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians, as they continue to lose the necessary services, including electricity, water supply, and health care after more than half of the hospitals and service facilities became out of service.

The battles stopped Wednesday, and a state of cautious calm prevailed in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri, which witnessed violent and bloody clashes in the past days between the two parties, killing dozens of civilians and injuring many others.

Residents of separate suburbs of Khartoum told Asharq Al-Awsat that calm has returned to their areas, and there have been no gunfights.

Al-Rih al-Hindi, a resident of the al-Manshia suburb east of Khartoum, said that the clashes have subsided, but the Rapid Support forces are still deployed in many neighborhoods.

He indicated that the past days were challenging, and many homes were damaged due to artillery shelling and airstrikes.

Hindi noted that most neighborhoods east of Khartoum have become almost empty, except for a few families who decided to stay.

Another resident, Sarah Omar al-Sayed, said that the situation has calmed down significantly, adding that they have not seen any army planes or heard clashes.

She indicated that her family is considering leaving the house when it is safe.

According to UN data, supported by reports from the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health, more than 1,136 people have been killed and 120,000 injured since the outbreak of fighting last April.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC), Malik Agar, said there was hope to end the war in the country, adding that some military-technical measures must precede the ceasefire according to monitoring mechanisms.

Agar explained in an interview with state television on Wednesday that there is no official negotiation between the army and the RSF at the Jeddah platform, noting that despite the presence of the two parties, the talks may be indirect.

He renewed his country's refusal to deploy any foreign forces, which may be met with hostility.

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Arab World

Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)

In a nearly one-minute video, a young Yemeni man tells how he and his colleagues traveled to Russia on the promise of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering”, but ended up fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The young man, whose face was covered, expressed with his colleagues their desire to return to Yemen. They said they did not wish to suffer the same fate as their friends and get killed.
Last Sunday, The Financial Times said in a report that Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi militant group.
Later in video recordings, young Yemeni men spoke about the practice of Houthi smugglers who take advantage of the difficult economic conditions of Yemenis to recruit hundreds of them, and send them to fight alongside Russian troops.
The network of traffickers operate from Yemen and other Arab countries, and coordinate with others within Russian territory.
The Houthi network recruited hundreds of Yemenis and sent them to fight in Russia, according to sources close to their families and others in the Yemeni government.
In one of the videos, a group of Yemeni recruits said they worked in Oman, when a medical equipment company founded by a Houthi politician, Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, lured them by promises of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering” in Russia.
They said they were promised a salary of $2,500 per month. But arriving in Moscow, they were received by a representative from the Russian Defense Ministry who told them they will work as security guards at Russian facilities.
Two days after their arrival, the recruits were sent to camps, where they trained for combat and received a salary of between $185 and $232 a month. They are now calling on the Yemeni government to intervene to return them to their country.
But another Yemeni, Ahmed, who is familiar with a group of recruits, explains that he and his friends had warned these young men not to go to Russia where they risk getting involved in the ongoing war.
The recruits told him that they could escape to Europe and seek asylum as hundreds of Yemenis did before.
However, after arriving with the help of a Houthi-linked medical company, many have apparently been coerced into the Russian military, forced to sign fighting contracts at gunpoint and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
A member of the Yemeni community in Russia told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers are luring Yemeni young men to go to Russia to work for salaries of up to $2,500 per month and are then transferred to Arab capitals, including Muscat, Beirut and Damascus, to be then transferred to Russian territory.
After their arrival, he said, the recruits are taken to weapons training camps, allegedly as employees of a security company. But they are later sent to fight on the front lines with Ukraine along with mercenaries from other nationalities.
Activists and members of the Yemeni community in Russia estimate that there are about 300 young Yemenis who refuse to join the fighting in Ukraine and want to return to their country.
“Those men were tempted by the dire economic conditions in Yemen due to the ongoing war,” the activists said.
A Yemeni recruit of the shadowy trafficking operation said that Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a prominent Houthi politician, is one of the main recruiters. He is assisted by his brother Abdul Waheed, who was appointed by the group as director of Al-Masrakh districts in Taiz Province.
The recruit said that the group of traffickers includes Hani al-Zarriqi, who has been living in Russia for years, and Mohammed al-Iyani, who lives in a Yemeni neighboring country.
Two relatives of the recruits accuse al-Jabri and his aides of arranging the transfer of the young men from Yemen to a neighboring country, and from there to Moscow, on the pretext of working for private security companies. The traffickers receive a commission of between $10 and $15 thousand per person.