Sudan Sending Delegation to Cairo to Meet US and Egyptian Mediators

A woman protecting her face with a cardboard bearing the Sudanese flag as she holds a banner next to the monumental wood sculpture "Broken Chair" (L) during a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
A woman protecting her face with a cardboard bearing the Sudanese flag as she holds a banner next to the monumental wood sculpture "Broken Chair" (L) during a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
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Sudan Sending Delegation to Cairo to Meet US and Egyptian Mediators

A woman protecting her face with a cardboard bearing the Sudanese flag as she holds a banner next to the monumental wood sculpture "Broken Chair" (L) during a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
A woman protecting her face with a cardboard bearing the Sudanese flag as she holds a banner next to the monumental wood sculpture "Broken Chair" (L) during a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)

Sudan's government said it will send a delegation to Cairo for discussions with US and Egyptian officials on Monday, keeping open the question of participation in peace talks aimed at ending a 16-month war.

The government, controlled by the army which is fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for control of the country, has said it would not attend the peace talks in Switzerland unless a previous agreement struck in Jeddah is implemented.

The US-led talks, which the RSF is attending, aim to end the devastating war that broke out in April 2023, and address the crippling humanitarian crisis that has left half of Sudan's population of 50 million facing food insecurity.

A statement from the ruling Transitional Sovereign Council said the decision to go to Cairo came after contacts with the US special envoy and the Egyptian government, which is an observer in the talks, and was limited to discussing implementation of the Jeddah agreement, under which the RSF would leave civilian areas.

High-level government sources told Reuters that the government had presented its vision on that and other topics to US and Saudi mediators, and that its approach to further talks would be based on their response.

The sources denied media reports that the government had already sent a delegation to Geneva.

The army on Thursday pre-empted a key topic of the talks when it said it would allow an RSF-controlled border crossing into Darfur to be used for aid deliveries.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had agreed to the opening during a phone call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken the day before.



Lindsey Graham Cuts Meeting Short with Lebanon Army Chief over Hezbollah Designation

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (Reuters)
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (Reuters)
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Lindsey Graham Cuts Meeting Short with Lebanon Army Chief over Hezbollah Designation

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (Reuters)
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (Reuters)

Influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said that he cut his meeting short with Lebanese army chief Gen. Rodolphe Haykal after the commander refused to consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

On Thursday, Graham said on X he "had a very brief meeting" in Washington after asking Haykal whether the Lebanese military considered Hezbollah to be "a terrorist organization."

Graham said that Haykal replied, "No, not in the context of Lebanon."

“They are clearly a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. Just ask the US Marines,” he said about the bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut on October 23, 1983. The suicide attack killed 241 US service members.

Hezbollah has “been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both Republican and Democrat administrations since 1997 – for good reason,” he said.

“As long as this attitude exists from the Lebanese Armed Forces, I don’t think we have a reliable partner in them. I am tired of the double speak in the Middle East. Too much is at stake,” Graham added.


Slain Son of Former Libya Ruler Gaddafi to Be Buried South of Capital

FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
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Slain Son of Former Libya Ruler Gaddafi to Be Buried South of Capital

FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

The slain son of former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi will be buried in a town south of the capital that remains loyal to the family, relatives said Thursday.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, once seen by some as Libya's heir apparent, was shot dead in his home in the northwestern city of Zintan on Tuesday.

His family said the burial will be held on Friday in the town of Bani Walid, some 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Tripoli.

Half-brother Mohamed Gaddafi said on Facebook the plan reflected "our respect" for the town, which has remained loyal to the elder Gaddafi years after he was toppled and killed in Libya's 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

Libya has struggled to recover from chaos that erupted after the uprising.

It remains split between Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah's UN-backed government based in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by Khalifa Haftar.

Dbeibah condemned the killing in a statement Thursday: "Assassinations never provided stability... but rather deepen division."

"The Libya we are working towards is a state of law and institutions, where disputes are managed through dialogue and by resorting to the will of the people, not through violence or by reproducing the tragedies of the past," he added.

Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi said local Bani Walid authorities will "ensure the security of the funeral".

Each year, the town of 100,000 people celebrates the anniversary of a 1969 coup that brought Muammar to power, parading through the streets with portraits of the ex-leader and Libya's all-green flag from before the Arab Spring.

Saadi Gaddafi, a younger brother, said his dead sibling will be "buried among the Werfalla", an influential local tribe, in a grave "next to his brother Khamis Gaddafi", who died during the 2011 unrest.

Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who had been representing Seif al-Islam, told AFP a "four-man commando" killed him. Authorities said they were probing his death as the assailants remain on the run.

Under the elder Gaddafi's 40-year rule, he was described as the de facto prime minister, cultivating an image of moderation and reform despite holding no official position.

 


Morocco Says Evacuated 140,000 People Due to Severe Weather

Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI
Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI
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Morocco Says Evacuated 140,000 People Due to Severe Weather

Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI
Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI

Authorities have evacuated more than 140,000 people from their homes since heavy rainfall flooded several provinces in northern Morocco last week, the interior ministry said Thursday.

Authorities have not announced any casualties, and the national weather service forecast heavy rains and strong winds to continue on Thursday and Friday across the north.

The severe weather came after Morocco struggled with seven consecutive years of drought, said AFP.

The evacuations began last Friday and mainly concerned Larache province, where the city of Ksar El Kebir -- about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tangier -- has seen significant flooding.

Some residents including children and elderly people were stranded on rooftops before being rescued, at times in small boats.

In Sidi Kacem province, around 120 kilometers south of Ksar El Kebir, more than 10,000 people were rescued, some by helicopter, as floodwaters inundated roads and farmland.

AFP images showed Sidi Kacem residents struggling to move through muddy floodwaters, sometimes using partly submerged tractors or motorbikes.

Other people were evacuated in areas near Oued Loukos, a major river flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.

In December, 37 people were killed in sudden floods in Safi, in Morocco's deadliest weather-related disaster in the past decade.

In recent weeks, severe weather and flooding in neighboring Algeria killed two people, including a child.

In Tunisia, at least five people died, with others still missing, after the country saw its heaviest rainfall in over 70 years last month.