Tunisian FM Discusses With US Counterpart Strategic Partnership

Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019
TT

Tunisian FM Discusses With US Counterpart Strategic Partnership

Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui’s media office revealed Wednesday that a high-level Tunisian delegation has traveled to Washington to discuss the strategic partnership between Tunisia, the US and Libya's neighboring countries along with UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salameh.

These meetings aim to increase security coordination and end the war in Libya and areas adjacent to the Tunisian-Libyan border since forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar have stormed Tripoli in early April.

Jhinaoui said his talks with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo and his aides included war on terrorism, the latest developments in Libya's issue and the ceasefire efforts in the framework of the third session of the three-day “strategic dialogue” between Tunisia and US, which started on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Tunisian and Algerian authorities have increased their security and political coordination on combating terrorism and the Libyan issue.

Tunisian authorities played down the credibility of a new video attributed to ISIS-affiliated Tunisian elements, who threatened on Tuesday evening the country and its tourist season and vowed to carry out new terrorist attacks.

The Tunisian Interior Ministry had earlier announced the elimination of a terrorist belonging to the Libyan group, which launched on June 27 two terrorist attacks on security targets in central Tunis, killing two people, including a security personnel.

The attacks coincided with a third attack on a TV station on the Algerian-Tunisian borders and with the announcement of a serious deterioration of the Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi’s health condition.

News said Essebsi was taken to the military hospital, which increased fears of the political class of the impact and repercussions of these successive developments on the economic situation as well as on the political and electoral stages the country is heading to.

The video, shared on ISIS social media channels on Tuesday night, showed armed men in balaclavas who pledge allegiance to ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.



Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
TT

Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival Rapid Support Forces who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the RSF as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

"Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation," the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser's office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to "inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja", AFP reported.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his "indescribable joy" at seeing the army enter the city after "months of terror".

"At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you," the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The RSF control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million -- creating what the UN says is the world's largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref -- where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge -- Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family's ordeal might soon be at an end.

"We'll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering," she told AFP.