Lebanese Presidency: Consultations on Monday to Designate New PM

FILE PHOTO: Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured as he addresses the nation at the Baabda palace, Lebanon October 24, 2019. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured as he addresses the nation at the Baabda palace, Lebanon October 24, 2019. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
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Lebanese Presidency: Consultations on Monday to Designate New PM

FILE PHOTO: Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured as he addresses the nation at the Baabda palace, Lebanon October 24, 2019. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Lebanon's President Michel Aoun is pictured as he addresses the nation at the Baabda palace, Lebanon October 24, 2019. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS

Lebanese President Michel Aoun will convene binding consultations with parliamentary blocs on Monday to designate a new prime minister, Baabda Palace said, after the government of PM Hassan Diab quit earlier this month following the catastrophic explosion at Beirut port.

The president is required to designate the candidate with the greatest level of support among MPs.

Ex-Premier Saad Hariri said earlier this week he was not a candidate after several major parties said they did not support his return to the job.

Diab's cabinet resigned after the Aug. 4 blast, which was blamed on a store of ammonium nitrate left for years in a port warehouse despite warnings.

The explosion, one of the largest such blasts in recent history, killed more than 180 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed property within a radius of several miles.

The catastrophic blast comes on top of an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, a currency crash and hyperinflation — the culmination of decades of endemic corruption and mismanagement by a ruling class that has refused to reform or step down.

Western nations have been demanding major reforms in the country in return for help, and some countries have been sending aid directly to the people rather than state institutions notorious for corruption.



RSF Shelling On Camp Kills 8 in Sudan's Darfur, Say Rescuers

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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RSF Shelling On Camp Kills 8 in Sudan's Darfur, Say Rescuers

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled a displacement camp in Sudan's Darfur region on Thursday, killing eight civilians and injuring others, a local rescue group said.

The bombardment hit Abu Shouk camp, which hosts tens of thousands of displaced people on the outskirts of El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur.

El-Fasher remains the last major stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region not under the control of the RSF, who have been at war with the regular army since April 2023, AFP reported.

"The Abu Shouk camp witnessed heavy artillery bombardment by the RSF... killing eight people," the camp's Emergency Response Room said in a statement.

In recent weeks, El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since last year, has been locked in intense fighting between warring sides in a region also gripped by famine.

Thursday's offensive comes just days after a series of attacks by the RSF targeted another battleground region of Sudan.

More than 450 people, including 35 children, were killed in several villages of North Kordofan, southwest of the capital Khartoum, according to a statement released this week by the UN's children agency.

"No child should ever experience such horrors," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "Violence against children is unconscionable and must end now."

On Sunday, the RSF claimed to have killed more than 470 army personnel near the town of El-Obeid, also in North Kordofan, in a statement posted to its Telegram channel.

Independent verification of casualties in Sudan remains difficult due to restricted access to its conflict zones.

Now in its third year, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and forced millions to flee, creating what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement crisis.

In December last year, famine was officially declared in three displacement camps near El-Fasher, namely Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam, according to the UN.

Since the Sudanese army regained control of the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has shifted its operations westward, focusing on Darfur and Kordofan in a bid to consolidate territorial gains.

In April, RSF fighters seized the Zamzam displacement camp, located near Abu Shouk.

The assault forced nearly 400,000 people to flee, according to UN figures, effectively emptying one of the country's largest camps for the displaced.

Sudanese analyst Mohaned el-Nour told AFP the RSF aims to redefine its role in the conflict.

"Their goal is no longer to be seen as a militia, but as an alternative government in western Sudan, undermining the legitimacy of the authorities in Port Sudan."

He added that the recent surge in violence in North Kordofan was likely intended to divert the army's attention from El Fasher, where the military is trying "at all costs" to maintain.