Sudanese Refugees Face Gruelling Wait in Overcrowded S. Sudan Camps

Sudanese drivers rest on May 14, 2023 after transporting evacuees from Sudan into Egypt, in Wadi Karkar village near Aswan © Khaled DESOUKI / AFP/File
Sudanese drivers rest on May 14, 2023 after transporting evacuees from Sudan into Egypt, in Wadi Karkar village near Aswan © Khaled DESOUKI / AFP/File
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Sudanese Refugees Face Gruelling Wait in Overcrowded S. Sudan Camps

Sudanese drivers rest on May 14, 2023 after transporting evacuees from Sudan into Egypt, in Wadi Karkar village near Aswan © Khaled DESOUKI / AFP/File
Sudanese drivers rest on May 14, 2023 after transporting evacuees from Sudan into Egypt, in Wadi Karkar village near Aswan © Khaled DESOUKI / AFP/File

A new truck arrives in the South Sudanese town of Renk, packed with dozens of elderly men, women and children, their exhausted faces betraying the strain of their traumatic journey out of war-ravaged Sudan.

They are among more than half a million people who have crossed the border into South Sudan, which is struggling to accommodate the new arrivals.

Renk is just 10 kilometres (six miles) from Sudan, where fighting broke out in April last year between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Since then, Renk's two UN-run transit centers have been overwhelmed by an uninterrupted influx of frightened people, fleeing for their lives.

The journey is rife with danger, said Fatima Mohammed, a 33-year-old teacher who escaped with her husband and five children from El-Obeid city in central Sudan.

"The bullets were entering our house. We were trapped between crossfire in our own street. So we understood that we needed to leave for the good of our kids," she told AFP, describing the situation in Sudan as "unsustainable".

It took them five days to make their escape, with Sudanese soldiers and RSF fighters "making (it) difficult for us to leave the country".

"They took all our phones at one checkpoint, a lot of our money (at) another one. We saw abuses happening at those checkpoints," she said.

Since the start of the conflict, nearly eight million people, half of them children, have fled Sudan.

Around 560,000 of them have taken refuge in South Sudan, according to the United Nations, which estimates that around 1,500 new arrivals turn up in the country every day.

Many spend months waiting in the transit camps, hopeful that someday soon they will be able to return home.

Iman David fled fighting in Sudan's capital Khartoum with her then three-month-old daughter, leaving her husband behind.

"It was supposed to be a short stay, but I am still stuck here in Renk after seven months," the 20-year-old told AFP.

"My hope is to go back to Khartoum and reunite with my husband but I don't know his fate."

The war has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians, according to UN figures.

Around 25 million people, more than half of Sudan's population, need humanitarian assistance, while around 3.8 million children under the age of five are suffering from malnutrition, the UN says.

While many in Renk long to return home, others hope to travel onwards to the town of Malakal in Upper Nile state, which is also hosting a huge number of refugees.

At Renk port, hundreds of people lined up under the oppressive glare of the midday sun, waiting hours to hop aboard the metal boats which make the trip at least twice a week.

As she waited, Lina Juna, a 27-year-old mother of four, told AFP her final destination was the South Sudanese capital Juba.

"I have nothing to do in Juba, no family members or friends, no business or work to take care of because I have spent all my life in Sudan," she said.

"But I still expect Juba to be much better than Khartoum," she added, recalling days spent struggling to find food as heavy fighting rocked the city.

Several hours later, she managed to board a boat, one of two carrying some 300 people each.

"Today is a good day for us," said Deng Samson, who works for the International Organization for Migration.

"Some weeks we have seen ourselves completely overwhelmed," he told AFP, adding that the approaching monsoon made him nervous.

"We are truly afraid of what will happen when the rainy season comes, with waters rising from the river and disrupting the normal functioning of the port."

With up to 10 trucks and buses turning up in Renk every day, the UN is trying to mobilize the international community, launching an appeal for $4.1 billion this month to respond to the most urgent humanitarian needs.



UN Force Says 3 Peacekeepers Wounded in Blast Inside South Lebanon Position

 UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Force Says 3 Peacekeepers Wounded in Blast Inside South Lebanon Position

 UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said a blast hit one of its positions and wounded three peacekeepers on Friday, the third such incident in a week.

"This afternoon, an explosion inside a UN position... injured three peacekeepers, two seriously. They are all currently being evacuated to hospital. We do not yet know the origin of the explosion," UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said in a statement.

"UNIFIL reminds all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of peacekeepers, including by avoiding combat activities nearby that could put them in danger," she added.

The UN force is deployed in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been at war for a month and where Israeli troops are pressing a ground invasion.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon, as well as the ground operation.

UNIFIL had said that a peacekeeper was killed on Sunday evening when a projectile of unknown origin "exploded in a UNIFIL position near Adchit al-Qusayr".

The following day, UNIFIL said an "explosion of unknown origin" destroyed a peacekeeping vehicle, killing two more Indonesian troops.

It said investigations had been launched into both incidents.

A UN security source told AFP this week that Israeli fire was the source of Sunday's attack, while a mine may have caused the following day's deadly blast.

Israel's military denied responsibility for Monday's incident.

"A comprehensive operational examination indicates that no explosive device was placed in the area by army troops, and that no troops were present in the area at all," the statement said.

According to the UN, 97 force members have been killed in violence since UNIFIL was first established to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in 1978.

The mandate of the force, which for decades has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon, finishes at the end of this year.


RSF in Sudan Kill at Least 10 People in Hospital Drone Attack, Medical Group Says

Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
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RSF in Sudan Kill at Least 10 People in Hospital Drone Attack, Medical Group Says

Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)

Sudan ’s paramilitary forces killed at least 10 people on Thursday in a drone attack that hit a hospital in the south-central part of the country, said a medical group.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF, launched two drone strikes on al-Jabalain Hospital in the White Nile province, hitting an operating theater and a maternity ward.

The strikes, the latest in an intensifying drone warfare between the army and the RSF, killed 10 people, including seven medical staffers, and injured at least 19 people. Those injured were transferred to a hospital in Kosti, which is around 50 miles (80 kilometers) away, said MSF.

Salah Moussa, a senior staffer in the nursing department at al-Jabalain Hospital, was injured in his leg in one of the two strikes. He told The Associated Press by phone on Friday that those killed include the hospital’s general manager, the administrative manager, several policemen and a citizen.

Moussa said he was in his house near the hospital when he heard the sound of explosions at around 11 a.m. on Thursday.

“I rushed to the hospital when I heard the explosion and while we were helping evacuate three injured staff members, another drone strike was launched and I got hit and lost consciousness,” he said. “The hospital lost all its medical and administrative leadership in this attack.”

The strikes are the latest in a series of attacks on the health care system in Sudan that continues to be hit hard during the ongoing war between the army and the RSF that broke out in April 2023. The World Health Organization said in March that over 200 attacks have targeted health care since the war began. Most recently, 70 people were killed, including at least 13 children, in a strike on a hospital in Sudan’s western Darfur region last month.

The nearly three-year conflict in Sudan killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be much higher.

“The attack is even more appalling as it occurred during a children’s immunization campaign,” the MSF said of the strike on the al-Jabalain hospital.

Meanwhile, Emergency Lawyers, a local rights group, said Thursday that the attacks also targeted a medical supply depot in Rabak, the capital city of the White Nile province.

The Emergency Lawyers said the “recurring pattern” of drone attacks by the warring parties since March in the provinces of South Kordofan, Blue Nile, East, Central and South Darfur displaced more people.

On Friday, Khalid Aleisir, the minister of culture, information, antiquities and Tourism condemned the attack and called for designating the RSF a terrorist organization and prosecuting its members.

“We also hold regional backers directly responsible for perpetuating this violent campaign through military and logistical support, including advanced weaponry and unmanned aerial systems, which have escalated violence and targeted civilians,” he wrote on X.

Sudan Doctors Network, a local group that monitors war violence, called the attack a “deliberate assault on health facilities and unarmed civilians” that further worsens an already deteriorating health sector in the country.

“MSF is outraged by these repeated attacks on health care, which have escalated dangerously in recent weeks,” said Esperanza Santos, MSF head of emergencies for Sudan in the group’s statement on Thursday. “Health facilities, medical staff, and patients must always be protected. We call on RSF and SAF to immediately stop this spiral of violence against medical facilities.”

A surge in drone strikes in the Sudanese region of Kordofan has taken a growing toll on civilians and hampered aid operations, analysts and humanitarian workers previously said.


Russian Mariner Held After Houthi Red Sea Attack Leaves Yemen for Home

A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)
A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)
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Russian Mariner Held After Houthi Red Sea Attack Leaves Yemen for Home

A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)
A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)

A Russian ‌mariner detained for around eight months after being on board a ship attacked by Yemen's Houthi militants has left the country for Russia following medical treatment in Sanaa, the Houthi-run foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The mariner, identified by Russian media as Aleksei Galaktionov, was a crew member of a ‌Greek-operated cargo ‌ship that was sunk by ‌the ⁠Houthis in July ⁠2025. He was wounded in the attack.

"The Russian citizen was transported on a United Nations aircraft, in coordination with the UN envoy," the foreign ministry said, according to the ⁠Houthi-run news agency, adding that his ‌departure was ‌arranged after he had completed treatment.

It said the ‌move followed contacts with Russian ‌officials and with counterparts in Iran.

The crew of the ship was released in December, an official with the ship's operator and ‌a maritime security source told Reuters.

The Iran-aligned Houthis sank the ⁠Liberia-flagged ⁠Eternity C, which had 22 crew and three armed guards on board, after attacking it with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades over two consecutive days.

The Houthis have attacked more than 100 ships in what they said was a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war. They halted attacks after a ceasefire was announced in October last year.