Hemedti to Visit Qatar in First Sudanese Official Trip Since Bashir's Ouster

The Vice President of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (file photo: Reuters)
The Vice President of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (file photo: Reuters)
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Hemedti to Visit Qatar in First Sudanese Official Trip Since Bashir's Ouster

The Vice President of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (file photo: Reuters)
The Vice President of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (file photo: Reuters)

Sudanese Vice President of the Transitional Sovereignty Council Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, arrived Saturday in Doha marking the first visit of a Sudanese top official after the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir.

Hemedti was accompanied by Foreign Minister Omer Gamereldin and head of the General Intelligence Service Gamal Abdel-Majid to hold talks with Qatari officials on bilateral relations and Sudan's position on the border dispute with Ethiopia.

The VP announced his arrival to Doha on his Facebook page, indicating that the visit will address the bilateral ties and promotion of cooperation in a way that serves the interests of both states.

The visit aims to highlight the Sudanese position on the border dispute with Ethiopia and the negotiations concerning the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), as part of a government’s diplomatic campaign to explain its stance to brotherly and friendly countries.

The Sudanese-Qatari relations were strained after the Transitional Military Council, which took power after Bashir, refused to receive the Qatari Foreign Minister in April 2019.

The Council did not grant permission to the official's plane to land after it arrived in Sudanese airspace. The incident took place less than a week after the Sudanese revolution which toppled the Islamist regime.

Earlier, the Sudanese delegation visited Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Chad, South Africa, and Kenya, and discussed with the participating states in the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the dispute with Ethiopia after Sudan retrieved control over al-Fashagah area.

The ICGLR is an inter-governmental organization of African countries in the African Great Lakes Region and was established in 1994 to resolve peace and security issues.

In 2020, ICGLR held its ordinary summit of heads of state and government meeting in Angola via video link.



Israeli Fire Kills 23 People in Gaza, Many at Aid Site

Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Israeli Fire Kills 23 People in Gaza, Many at Aid Site

Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 23 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said.

Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.

The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday's incidents, Reuters reported.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.

The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza.

Later on Saturday, the Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards the so-called humanitarian zone area, saying it would forcefully work against "terror organizations" in the area.