Posters of Asma Assad Heavily on Display at Popular Event in Syria’s Hama

Asma Assad. (Getty Images file photo)
Asma Assad. (Getty Images file photo)
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Posters of Asma Assad Heavily on Display at Popular Event in Syria’s Hama

Asma Assad. (Getty Images file photo)
Asma Assad. (Getty Images file photo)

In what has been described as a “precedent” throughout the decades-long rule of the Assad family over Syria, a large poster of first lady, Asma Assad, was raised at a popular event in the city of Hama.

Hama, which the regime destroyed during the ongoing conflict in 2012, was holding the annual meeting of the al-Areen Charitable Foundation, attracting more than 20,000 people wounded in the war and families of victims of pro-regime forces.

This was the first time that the poster of a woman who is affiliated with the regime is raised at an event. The size of the poster rivaled those of Bashar, her husband.

Asma’s poster was seen covering the façade of one building overlooking the stadium where the gathering was held. A poster of Bashar and the national flag covered another building.

Sources in Damascus said the move was a message from Asma to regime loyalists as she rallies support in her rivalry with Rami Makhlouf, Bashar’s cousin and business tycoon who has fallen from grace with the regime.

The rivalry between Amsa and Makhlouf saw the first lady come on top and isolate him from the regime.

Two weeks ago, Asma had toured coastal towns affected by forest fires in an attempt to gain favor with the people. Bashar was holding a similar tour in nearby regions in what was interpreted as an attempt by the ruling family to come close to the affected families who have criticized the regime’s inability to contain the fires.

Makhlouf had announced a donation to help the affected families to which ngos, overseen by Asma, reacted by carrying out a donation campaign to the victims.

The campaign was met with an “overwhelming” positive response and garnered some 2.5 million dollars in two weeks.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.