Hospital in Sudan’s Al-Fashir Shut after Attack, Aid Group Says

This picture taken on May 30, 2024, shows damaged shops in Omdurman. (AFP)
This picture taken on May 30, 2024, shows damaged shops in Omdurman. (AFP)
TT

Hospital in Sudan’s Al-Fashir Shut after Attack, Aid Group Says

This picture taken on May 30, 2024, shows damaged shops in Omdurman. (AFP)
This picture taken on May 30, 2024, shows damaged shops in Omdurman. (AFP)

The main hospital in Sudan's al-Fashir city has been attacked and put out of service, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which supports the facility, told Reuters on Sunday, while local volunteers blamed the incident on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The city, in the Darfur region of northwestern Sudan, is home to more than 1.8 million residents and displaced people, and is the latest front in a war between the Sudanese army and the RSF which began in April 2023.

The RSF, which has taken over the capital Khartoum and most of western Sudan, is also seeking to advance further within the center, as United Nations agencies say the people of Sudan are at "imminent risk of famine".

Some 130,000 people have fled their homes in al-Fashir as a result of the fighting in April and May, the United Nations has said.

The RSF did not respond to a request for comment.

MSF did not say who had attacked the hospital, the only hospital in al-Fashir capable of handling what it describes as daily mass casualty events.

From May 10 to June 6, some 1,315 wounded arrived at the facility and 208 people have died there, but many people are not able to reach the hospital due to the fighting, MSF said.

Michel-Olivier Lacharite, head of MSF emergency operations, told Reuters that the hospital had previously started evacuating patients after being impacted by fighting three times since May 25.

The al-Fashir Emergency Response Room, a volunteer group, said on Sunday that RSF fighters raided the hospital on Saturday, killing and injuring several people and looting medicine and an ambulance and forcing the hospital to shut.

An eyewitness told Reuters he saw people evacuating the hospital, and other eyewitnesses said the RSF had launched missiles at the hospital and its vicinity.

A separate attack on Saturday on the Abu Shouk camp to the north of the city impacted another medical center, injured more than 30, and killed at least two, the camp committee and a volunteer said.

A report last week from The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab said some 40 settlements outside the city have been struck with arson attacks since March.

Local residents have blamed the RSF for the attacks.

Leaving the city has proven dangerous, as residents say those fleeing have been attacked and even killed on the main RSF-controlled road out of the city.

Most of those leaving have taken routes either south to Zamzam camp, or west to the Tawila and Jebel Mara areas, which are controlled by armed groups, including the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army headed by Abdelwahid Mohamed Nour, an aid worker and residents said.



Trump Says Must End Conflict in Lebanon

 Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump reacts after complaining about its sound during a campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump reacts after complaining about its sound during a campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Trump Says Must End Conflict in Lebanon

 Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump reacts after complaining about its sound during a campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump reacts after complaining about its sound during a campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US November 1, 2024. (Reuters)

Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday, speaking to an audience including Arab Americans in the battleground state of Michigan, said it was time to get the Israel-Lebanon conflict over with.

"I know many people from Lebanon and we have to get this whole thing over with," he said.

Trump on Friday met with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan — the nation’s largest Arab-majority city — as the Republican presidential nominee works to court the potentially decisive group despite his history of Islamophobic rhetoric and policy.

Trump was greeted with cheers and applause from a modest crowd at The Great Commoner restaurant in one of his campaign’s final attempts to garner support in the key battleground state.

Metro Detroit is home to the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, with a large chunk of them living in Dearborn. The city — which Democrat Joe Biden won by a 3-to-1 margin in 2020 — has been roiled by political turmoil, with many upset with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Democrats worry that anger over the war will lead traditionally loyal voters to shift their votes to Trump or third-party candidates like Jill Stein — or skip the top of the ballot altogether. This could prove pivotal in Michigan, a state both parties see as a toss-up.

While the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has been working through surrogates to ease community tensions, Trump’s visit marked the first by either candidate, according to a local leader, Osama Siblani. Earlier this year, Harris met with the city’s Democratic mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, though their discussion took place outside Dearborn.

The meeting with Arab supporters Friday follows Trump’s rally in Michigan last week, when he brought local Muslims up onstage with him. Trump has also received endorsements from two Democratic mayors of Muslim-majority cities.

"It is time to prioritize our nation’s best interests and foster lasting peace for all," Albert Abbas, an Arab American, said Friday while standing next to Trump. "This current administration has failed miserably in all aspects of humanity."

He added, "We look to a Trump presidency with hope and envisioning a time where peace flourishes, particularly in Lebanon and Palestine."

While many Democratic leaders in the Arab community have not endorsed Harris, they are still deeply negative toward Trump and say his endorsements don’t reflect a majority of the community. They remember his call for a "total and complete shutdown" on Muslims entering the country and his travel restrictions on visitors from Muslim-majority countries. And some point out that Trump has suggested he would give Israel even more leeway to attack its rivals in the region.

Top community leaders in Dearborn, including Hammoud, declined an invitation to meet with Trump while he was in town. Many community leaders say that while Harris has never earned their endorsement, they are still overwhelmingly opposed to Trump.

Siblani, a prominent figure in the community who has engaged with Democratic leaders about ongoing tensions, noted that many "do not trust" Trump because of his past policies and remarks. However, he emphasized the significance of Trump’s visit to Dearborn.

"Kamala should have done this months ago," Siblani said.

Harris defended her record on the issue Friday, telling reporters that she’s "proud to have significant amount of support from the Arab American community," while adding that she continues to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.

Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and last month launched an invasion of Lebanon to suppress Hezbollah, the party that has continuously launched rockets into Israeli territory. At least 43,000 people have died in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish in its death toll between combatants and civilians.

Abbas said Trump allies had reached out to him several weeks ago about hosting Trump in Dearborn. Before hosting Trump, Abbas said he wanted to see a statement from Trump that he said showed Trump "has the intentions of ending the war and helping us rebuild Lebanon and helping the displaced and the injured."

That statement came Wednesday, when Trump posted on X that he wanted to "stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon."

"I will preserve the equal partnership among all Lebanese communities," Trump said on X. "Your friends and family in Lebanon deserve to live in peace, prosperity, and harmony with their neighbors, and that can only happen with peace and stability in the Middle East."

Once Trump put out the statement, Abbas said he agreed to host the event.