UN Chief Calls for Peace in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan

UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters file photo
UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters file photo
TT

UN Chief Calls for Peace in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan

UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters file photo
UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters file photo

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told BRICS leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that the world needed peace in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan.

"Across the board, we need peace," Guterres said at the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, Reuters reported.

"We need peace in Ukraine. A just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and UN General Assembly resolutions."

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, said that the full implementation of UN resolution 1701 was still the goal of diplomatic efforts, stressing that a joint proposal made by France and the United States remains the basis for any potential ceasefire.
The resolution calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.
France's top diplomat also said Lebanon must end a two-year vacuum and elect a new president, calling the lack of an elected head of state 'inconceivable'.
"To preserve its unity in the face of challenges, to be represented at the negotiating table in the future, Lebanon must have a head of state," Barrot told a news conference in Paris.



Activists Say 50 Killed in Sudan RSF Attack

People from Khartoum and al-Jazira states, displaced by the war between Sudan's army and paramilitaries, wait to receive aid from a charity organization in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 30, 2023 - AFP
People from Khartoum and al-Jazira states, displaced by the war between Sudan's army and paramilitaries, wait to receive aid from a charity organization in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 30, 2023 - AFP
TT

Activists Say 50 Killed in Sudan RSF Attack

People from Khartoum and al-Jazira states, displaced by the war between Sudan's army and paramilitaries, wait to receive aid from a charity organization in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 30, 2023 - AFP
People from Khartoum and al-Jazira states, displaced by the war between Sudan's army and paramilitaries, wait to receive aid from a charity organization in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 30, 2023 - AFP

At least 50 people have been killed in a single attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who have besieged and raided villages in al-Jazira state, activists said.

RDF have been at war with Sudan's regular army since April 2023 but have in recent days intensified their violence against civilians in al-Jazira, south of the capital Khartoum, after their commander in the state defected to the army.

"The villages of al-Sariha and Azraq have been under attack" since Friday morning, the resistance committee in Hasaheisa, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid in Sudan, said in a statement to AFP late on Friday.

In al-Sariha alone, the attack killed 50 and wounded more than 200, the resistance committee added, reporting a total "inability to evacuate the wounded from the village due to the shelling and snipers" from the RSF.

With a near-total communications blackout, tolls are impossible to verify and often hard to gather.

The resistance committee said that the nearby village of Azraq had been placed under a "total siege, suffering the same violations as al-Sariha", although it was not possible to provide a death toll.

On Friday, the Sudanese doctors' union called on the United Nations to press for safe humanitarian corridors into villages that "are facing genocide at the hands of the Rapid Support militia".

The doctors' union added that rescue operations had become impossible and that "the army is incapable of protecting civilians".

According to medical sources in several villages, nearly all health facilities capable of receiving emergency cases have been forced shut.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates of 150,000 dead.

It has also caused what the UN calls the world's largest displacement crisis, with more than seven million uprooted.

In June, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the UN, said Sudan is the planet's "largest humanitarian crisis".

Famine was declared in July in the Zamzam camp for displaced people near the town of El-Fasher, in Sudan's western Darfur region bordering Chad.

- Regional impact -

Last Sunday the army announced that the RSF's al-Jazira commander Abu Aqla Kaykal had abandoned the RDF, bringing "a large number of his forces" with him, in what it said was the first high-profile defection to its side.

Activists reported at least 20 people killed in subsequent RSF attacks in eastern al-Jazira. They also said an air strike by the Sudanese Armed forces on a mosque in the state capital, Wad Madani, killed 31 people.

On Thursday, neighbouring Chad denied helping to arm the RSF after the governor of Sudan's Darfur region, Minni Minnawi, accused them of doing so.

"Chad has no interest in amplifying the war in Sudan," said Chadian Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah, pointing out that Chad was "one of the rare countries upon which this war has had major repercussions".