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UN Says Sudan Must Not Be Forgotten

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths (right) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi during a press conference on Wednesday in Geneva. (Reuters)
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths (right) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi during a press conference on Wednesday in Geneva. (Reuters)
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UN Says Sudan Must Not Be Forgotten

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths (right) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi during a press conference on Wednesday in Geneva. (Reuters)
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths (right) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi during a press conference on Wednesday in Geneva. (Reuters)

Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has said the international community needed to act with a heightened sense of urgency to address the war-torn country of Sudan.

"Sudan keeps getting forgotten by the international community," the UN aid chief told diplomats at the United Nations in Geneva on Wednesday.

"There is a certain kind of obscenity about the humanitarian world, which is the competition of suffering, a competition between places: 'I have more suffering than you, so I need to get more attention, so I need to get more money.'"

A war in Sudan between its armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been ongoing since April, and diplomatic endeavors have failed so far.

“I have been in touch in the last couple of weeks with both generals - Burhan and Hemedti - to get them to follow up their commitments,” regarding the aid delivery, Griffiths said.

Griffiths told reporters the warring sides had been invited to Geneva to discuss how civilians can access aid. He said the parties had agreed in principle, but the details of any meeting still needed to be worked out.

The UN on Wednesday urged countries not to forget the civilians caught up in the war in Sudan, appealing for $4.1 billion to meet their humanitarian needs and support those who have fled to neighboring countries.

Half of Sudan's population - around 25 million people - need humanitarian assistance and protection, while more than 1.5 million people have fled to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, according to the UN.

Meanwhile, Advisor at the Royal Court and Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah met Wednesday in Riyadh with the UN Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra.

During the meeting, they discussed issues related to relief and humanitarian affairs in Sudan.

Lamamra hailed the humanitarian efforts provided by Saudi Arabia through its humanitarian arm, KSrelief, in Sudan.

Separately, the Saudi Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Engineer Walid bin Abdul-Karim Al-Khuraiji, met in Riyadh with the US Special Advisor on Sudan, Daniel Rubinstein, to discuss the developments in Sudan, in addition to regional and international issues.

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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.