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Lebanon's Rai Berates Politicians as Deadlock Drags on

Lebanon's President Aoun meets with Patriarch Rai at the Baabda Palace. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's President Aoun meets with Patriarch Rai at the Baabda Palace. (Dalati & Nohra)
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Lebanon's Rai Berates Politicians as Deadlock Drags on

Lebanon's President Aoun meets with Patriarch Rai at the Baabda Palace. (Dalati & Nohra)
Lebanon's President Aoun meets with Patriarch Rai at the Baabda Palace. (Dalati & Nohra)

Lebanon's most senior Christian cleric on Wednesday bemoaned the inability of the country's senior politicians to agree a government as the country sinks further into financial collapse.

"We don't have bread, we don't have medicine, we don't have fuel, what are they waiting for?" Maronite Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai said after a meeting with President Michel Aoun.

Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads over cabinet positions since October, preventing the formation of a government that is much needed to enact reforms and unlock foreign aid.

Lebanon has been without a government since Hassan Diab's cabinet resigned in the aftermath of the Beirut port blast last August. Diab's government has carried on in a caretaker capacity.

Any hopes of a breakthrough after Rai's visit to the presidential palace on Wednesday were dashed after Hariri and Aoun each issued statements criticizing the other.

Aoun accused Hariri of trying to overstep his powers while Hariri said the president was under the sway of his son-in-law MP Gebran Bassil.

"The country needs salvation; it doesn't need verbal war," Rai said. "Respect each other, insults don't do anything, they just muddy the waters."

Rai spoke ahead of a planned visit to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis on July 1.

Pope Francis, who has promised to visit Lebanon if fractious politicians agree on a new government, is meeting its Christian leaders to discuss the country's worsening economic meltdown.

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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
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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.