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Shabwah Governor: Saudi Arabia Helped in Preserving State Institutions

The Governor of Yemeni Shabwah province, Mohammed Saleh bin Adeow | Asharq Al-Awsat
The Governor of Yemeni Shabwah province, Mohammed Saleh bin Adeow | Asharq Al-Awsat
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Shabwah Governor: Saudi Arabia Helped in Preserving State Institutions

The Governor of Yemeni Shabwah province, Mohammed Saleh bin Adeow | Asharq Al-Awsat
The Governor of Yemeni Shabwah province, Mohammed Saleh bin Adeow | Asharq Al-Awsat

The Governor of Yemeni Shabwah province, Mohammed Saleh bin Adeow, reaffirmed that Saudi Arabia has played a positive role in preserving the country’s internationally-recognized public institutions.

During recent escalations in Shabwah, Saudi Arabia dispatched a detachment to stabilize the situation.

Adeow, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, called on all Yemeni political components to emphasize wisdom and reason through dialogue.

During his stay in Riyadh, Adeow gave details on the final hours in the lead up to the battle with the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a secessionist organization. The battle ended with the internationally-recognized government regaining the upper hand in Shabwah through military force.

The governor explained that the conflict with the STC was an extension to the standoff in Aden, Abyan, and neighboring governorates, and noted that there were previous agreements with the separatists to work in the best interest of Shabwah.

“For the past nine months, there has been good coordination with the STC, but we recently felt they were compelled to open a new front in Shabwah, where they have been armed since February 2019,” Adeow said, explaining that the STC was working to make up for its loss in Aden.

Speaking on the Saudi role in stabilizing Shabwah, Adeow said that a detachment was sent to the province upon request. It intervened on the last day before clashes erupting with the STC.

The military division, which is still present in the province to this day, is tasked with monitoring field realities and reporting to the Arab Coalition command center.

According to Adeow, although the detachment is not engaged in combat, the monitoring is beneficial in the sense of preventing misinformation.

The governor stressed that local authorities faced a security challenge when it came to imposing state order and influence over the entire territory of Shabwah, but they worked to fill the vacuum through the deployment of army and security forces across all districts gradually, improving the situation day by day.

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Sudan War Destroys World's Only Research Center on Skin Disease Mycetoma

The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
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Sudan War Destroys World's Only Research Center on Skin Disease Mycetoma

The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File

The world's only research center on mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease common among farmers, has been destroyed in Sudan's two-year war, its director and another expert say.

Mycetoma is caused by bacteria or fungus and usually enters the body through cuts. It is a progressively destructive infectious disease of the body tissue, affecting skin, muscle and even bone.

It is often characterized by swollen feet, but can also cause barnacle-like growths and club-like hands, AFP said.

"The center and all its infrastructure were destroyed during the war in Sudan," Ahmed Fahal, director of the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC), told AFP.

"We lost the entire contents of our biological banks, where there was data from more than 40 years," said Fahal, whose center had treated thousands of patients from Sudan and other countries.

"It's difficult to bear."

Since April 15, 2023, Sudan's army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces throughout the northeast African country.

The MRC is located in the Khartoum area, which the army last month reclaimed from the RSF during a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.

Sudan's health care system has been left at the "breaking point", according to the World Health Organization.

Among the conflict's casualties is now the MRC, established in 1991 under the auspices of the University of Khartoum. It was a rare story of medical success in impoverished Sudan.

A video provided by the global Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) shows collapsed ceilings, shelves overturned, fridges open and documents scattered about.

AFP was not able to independently verify the MRC's current condition.

The center had grown to include 50 researchers and treat 12,000 patients each year, Fahal said.

Mycetoma is listed as a neglected tropical disease by the WHO.

The organisms that cause mycetoma also occur in Sudan's neighbors, including Chad and Ethiopia, as well as in other tropical and sub-tropical areas, among them Mexico and Thailand, WHO says.

For herders, farmers and other workers depending on manual labor to survive, crippling mycetoma infections can be a life sentence.

Drawing on the MRC's expertise, in 2019 the WHO and Sudan's government convened the First International Training Workshop on Mycetoma, in Khartoum.

"Today, Sudan, which was at the forefront of awareness of mycetomas, has gone 100 percent backwards," said Dr. Borna Nyaoke-Anoke, DNDi's head of mycetoma.