Aid Groups Warn of Rise in Darfur Violence, Dozens Killed

Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
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Aid Groups Warn of Rise in Darfur Violence, Dozens Killed

Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Internally displaced Sudanese women carry water from a tap near their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Dozens of people have been killed in violence this week in three separate areas of Sudan's West Darfur region and thousands of people have fled the violence, local medics said.

The West Darfur Doctors Committee said in statements on Wednesday and Thursday that attacks in the Kreinik area killed 88 and wounded 84, while renewed violence in the Jebel Moon area killed 25 and wounded four. Meanwhile, violence in the Sarba locality killed eight and wounded six.

"They have created a wave of displacement from the outskirts into the town, with a humanitarian situation that can be described at the very least as catastrophic," the committee said in a statement late on Wednesday, referring to Kreinik.

One resident said a camp of displaced people had been flattened and thousands of people had sought refuge in government buildings.

"The area is completely destroyed," the resident said, Reuters reported.

Analysts say a peace deal signed by some rebel groups in October 2020 was one cause of unrest as local groups jostled for power. A joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission stopped patrolling in January.

Humanitarian groups said there had been a rise in conflict across the wider Darfur region recently.

The Coordinating Committee for Refugee and Displacement Camps, a local NGO, said on Wednesday there was renewed violence in the Jebel Moon area, where aid workers reported 43 people killed and 10,000 displaced in violence last month.

The Zamzam refugee camp was being encircled by militias on Wednesday and the Donki Shata area of North Darfur was also attacked, the committee said on Wednesday.

The early-2000s conflict in Darfur between rebel groups on one side and government forces and allied militias on the other has caused an estimated 300,000 deaths. About 2.5 million people live in displacement camps across Darfur, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR.

The Coordinating Committee and Darfur residents complain that the militias continue to carry out attacks on villages and camps.

Some 430,000 people have been displaced over the past year, a four-fold increase over 2020, aid groups say.

"National authorities and the international community must urgently deal with the bloody reality of this spiralling violence," Will Carter of the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement on Wednesday.



Israeli Cabinet Approves Gaza Ceasefire Accord, Due to Take Effect Sunday

A woman speaks on a phone outside a tent pitched by the rubble of a destroyed building at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025 following the announcement of a truce amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A woman speaks on a phone outside a tent pitched by the rubble of a destroyed building at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025 following the announcement of a truce amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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Israeli Cabinet Approves Gaza Ceasefire Accord, Due to Take Effect Sunday

A woman speaks on a phone outside a tent pitched by the rubble of a destroyed building at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025 following the announcement of a truce amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A woman speaks on a phone outside a tent pitched by the rubble of a destroyed building at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip on January 17, 2025 following the announcement of a truce amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Israel's cabinet approved a deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday, a day ahead of the agreement's scheduled start.

In the early hours of Saturday after meeting for more than six hours, the government ratified the agreement that would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza's deadliest-ever war.

It would also enable the release of hostages held in the territory since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
"The Government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages' release will come into effect on Sunday," Netanyahu's office said in a brief statement.

The ceasefire will come into effect at 0630 GMT on Sunday, the Qatari foreign ministry spokesman posted on X.

Under the deal, the three-stage ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase when hostages held by Hamas will be exchanged for prisoners and detainees jailed in Israel.

Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, men over 50 and ill and wounded captives, are to be freed in this phase. In return, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinians from its jails.

They include 737 male, female and teen-aged prisoners, some of whom are members of Palestinian militant groups convicted of attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, as well as hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza in detention since the start of the war.

The Israeli Justice Ministry published their details early on Saturday, along with the ceasefire agreement, which said that 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage on Sunday.

With the accord bitterly opposed by some Israeli cabinet hard-liners, media reports said 24 ministers in Netanyahu's coalition government voted in favor of the deal while eight opposed it.
The opponents said the ceasefire agreement represented a capitulation to Hamas. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved and urged other ministers to vote against it. However, he said he would not bring down the government.

His fellow hard-liner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also threatened to quit the government if it does not go back to war to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire.

After a last-minute delay on Thursday that Israel blamed on Hamas, the Israeli security cabinet voted on Friday in favor of the ceasefire accord, a requirement before the full cabinet vote.

The truce is to take effect on the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump, who claimed credit for working with outgoing US President Joe Biden's team to seal the deal.