Burhan, Erdogan Discuss Boosting Cooperation Between Sudan, Türkiye

A handout photo made available by the Turkish President Press Office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Sudanese Army general Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan (L) pose for a photo during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, 13 September 2023. (EPA/ Turkish President Press Office Handout)
A handout photo made available by the Turkish President Press Office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Sudanese Army general Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan (L) pose for a photo during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, 13 September 2023. (EPA/ Turkish President Press Office Handout)
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Burhan, Erdogan Discuss Boosting Cooperation Between Sudan, Türkiye

A handout photo made available by the Turkish President Press Office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Sudanese Army general Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan (L) pose for a photo during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, 13 September 2023. (EPA/ Turkish President Press Office Handout)
A handout photo made available by the Turkish President Press Office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Sudanese Army general Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan (L) pose for a photo during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, 13 September 2023. (EPA/ Turkish President Press Office Handout)

Head of Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council and army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan held on Wednesday bilateral talks and discussed ways to boost cooperation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara.

Burhan arrived in Ankara on an official visit, accompanied by a delegation composed of Foreign Minister-designate Ali al-Sadiq, intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim Mufaddal, and Director General of the Defense Industries Corporation Lt. Gen. Mirghani Idris Suleiman.

Separately, Sudanese military air raids on Nyala killed at least 40 civilians and wounded roughly 60, according to a medical source. Eyewitnesses reported that this coincided with the Sudanese army conducting overflights.

Fighting flared again on Tuesday in Nyala between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). They exchanged artillery bombardment and clashed with heavy weapons in the vicinity of a military area.

The Nyala Emergency Room Initiative said on Facebook that the raids on the Almalaja market and other areas led to casualties among civilians. The tally could not be carried out due to heavy clashes between the military and the RSF.

Witnesses reported the death of at least eight people, adding that the RSF was not deployed in the targeted areas.

The East Nile Emergency Room in Khartoum said that 45 people were killed and 120 injured in the raids and drone attacks that targeted areas in El- Haj Yousif, El Wihda, and Dar es Salaam in the past two days.

In a Facebook post, it stressed that these are "preliminary" figures.

Meanwhile, residents revealed that army drones launched strikes on the RSF locations in the East Nile areas and towns in Nasir Extension in east Khartoum.

Eyewitnesses reported that they heard an exchange of artillery bombardment and fierce clashes between the army and the RSF in Omdurman.

Local sources added that the RSF attacked the ammunition camp near the Armored Corps Command in Al Shajara, southern Sudan.

The RSF revealed in a statement that the attacks launched by the army in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri killed more than 104 people and wounded hundreds on Monday and Tuesday.



Palestinians Say Israeli Strikes Kill 45 in Gaza

Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP
Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP
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Palestinians Say Israeli Strikes Kill 45 in Gaza

Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP
Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP

Palestinian sources said that Israeli strikes in Gaza on Thursday killed at least 45 people including hospital workers and journalists.

Five staff at one of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals were among those killed, the facility's director said, more than two months into an Israeli operation in the area.

Hossam Abu Safiya, head of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, said "an Israeli strike resulted in five martyrs among the hospital staff" -- a pediatrician, a lab technician, two ambulance workers and a member of maintenance staff. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has been pressing a major offensive in northern Gaza since October 6, saying it aims to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping, according to AFP.

At the other end of the Palestinian territory, the chief paediatric doctor at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis said three babies had died from a "severe temperature drop" this week as winter cold set in.

Doctor Ahmed al-Farra said the most recent case was a three-week-old girl who was "brought to the emergency room with a severe temperature drop, which led to her death".

A three-day-old baby and another "less than a month old" died on Tuesday, he said.

Meanwhile, in central Gaza, a Palestinian TV channel affiliated with a militant group said five of its journalists were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in Gaza, with Israel's military saying it had targeted a "terrorist cell".

Witnesses said a missile struck the van while it was parked outside Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.

- 'Extremely cold' -

The three-week-old girl, Sila al-Faseeh, was living in a tent in Al-Mawasi, an area designated a humanitarian safe zone by the Israeli military that is home to huge numbers of displaced Palestinians.

"The tents do not protect from the cold, and it gets very cold at night, with no way to keep warm," said Farra.

He said many mothers were suffering from malnutrition which affected the quality of their breast milk and compounded the risks to newborns.

Sila's father Mahmoud al-Faseeh said it was "extremely cold, and the tent is not suitable for living. The children are always sick."

The United Nations and other organizations have repeatedly decried the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, particularly in the north, since Israel began its latest military offensive in early October.

Also on Thursday, Gaza's civil defense agency said tens of other people were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, including 13 in a house that was home to "numerous displaced families" in the west of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said two soldiers aged 27 and 35 were killed in the Gaza Strip. That brought to 391 the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of ground operations in the Palestinian territory.

- 'Journalists are civilians' -

The journalists' employer Al-Quds Today said in a statement that a missile hit their broadcast van while it was parked in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The channel is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, whose militants have fought alongside Hamas in the Gaza Strip and took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

The station identified the five staffers as Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed al-Ladaa.

They were killed "while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty", the statement said.

The Israeli military said it had conducted a "precise strike" and that those killed "were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists".

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Middle East arm said in a statement it was "devastated by the reports".

"Journalists are civilians and must always be protected," it added.

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack last year, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,399 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.