Sudanese Refinery Resumes Full Operations After ‘Sabotage’

The Khartoum Refinery (SUNA)
The Khartoum Refinery (SUNA)
TT

Sudanese Refinery Resumes Full Operations After ‘Sabotage’

The Khartoum Refinery (SUNA)
The Khartoum Refinery (SUNA)

An oil refinery in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum resumed operations following a brief halt due to an act of “sabotage” on one of its pipelines, state-run media said on Monday.

According to the SUNA news agency, the pipeline was “forced to stop for a limited period due to sabotage of the crude carrier line.” The report did not elaborate when the purported sabotage took place or what it entailed. It said all pipelines were back working now, it said.

The report comes as Sudan’s ruling generals and the pro-democracy movement’s main factions continue negotiations toward finding a political settlement, The Associated Press reported.

Sudan’s fragile democratic transition was upended by a military coup last October when the ruling generals led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan wiped away the civilian half of the country’s power-sharing government following three decades of repressive rule under Omar Al-Bashir.



20 Migrants Die in Shipwreck Off Tunisia

Tunisian coast guards try to stop migrants at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off the coast off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui /File Photo
Tunisian coast guards try to stop migrants at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off the coast off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui /File Photo
TT

20 Migrants Die in Shipwreck Off Tunisia

Tunisian coast guards try to stop migrants at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off the coast off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui /File Photo
Tunisian coast guards try to stop migrants at sea during their attempt to cross to Italy, off the coast off Sfax, Tunisia April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui /File Photo

Tunisian authorities recovered the bodies of 20 people who appeared to have drowned after a shipwreck off the country's Mediterranean coastline, near a popular point of departure for migrants attempting to reach Europe by boat.
The country's National Guard said in a statement on Wednesday that coast guard members dispatched to the sinking ship rescued five people and retrieved the bodies of 20 others 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the coast north of Sfax. The coastline is roughly 81 miles (130 kilometers) from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
According to The Associated Press, the National Guard said that it continued to search for missing people and did not indicate how many may have been on board when the ship set off.
With assistance from Europe, authorities in Tunisia have strengthened the policing of their borders in an effort to prevent deaths at sea and combat smugglers and migrants crossing illegally to southern Europe. Yet drownings and corpses washing ashore are regularly reported, including last week when authorities found the bodies of nine people who appeared to have drowned at sea along the same stretch of coastline.
The iron boats that migrants and smugglers use to attempt to cross the Mediterranean are often unseaworthy. Though there is no official count, international groups and Tunisian NGOs believe hundreds have perished at sea this year. The United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates more than 1,100 have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean off the coasts of Tunisia and Libya. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights believes between 600 and 700 people have died or gone missing off the coast of Tunisia.
More than 19,000 migrants have embarked from Tunisia and arrived in Italy this year, including many who subsequently applied for asylum, according to UNHCR. That's far fewer than the more than 96,000 who made the journey by the same point in 2023. The majority who have arrived in Italy in 2024 have been from Bangladesh, Tunisia and Syria.
There is no official numbers regarding migrants in Tunisia. However, thousands are living in makeshift camps among olive trees near Sfax's coastline.