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Dozens Injured after Bus Overturns in Sharm el-Sheikh

A bus overturned in Sinai (The Directorate of Health and Population in Suez)
A bus overturned in Sinai (The Directorate of Health and Population in Suez)
    Cairo - Mohammed Ajam
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Dozens Injured after Bus Overturns in Sharm el-Sheikh

A bus overturned in Sinai (The Directorate of Health and Population in Suez)
A bus overturned in Sinai (The Directorate of Health and Population in Suez)

A bus overturned in South Sinai, injuring 47 people, including children, on Monday, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population.

The Ministry announced in a statement that 26 ambulances had been dispatched to the site of the accident on Oyoun Mousa in Sharm el-Sheikh.

The Ministry stated that the initial outcome indicates that 47 passengers were injured, 43 were transferred to General Suez Hospital, and four were transferred to Ras Sedr Hospital.

The Directorate of Health and Population in Suez announced that the General Hospital received 43 injured people, including seven Palestinians.

It explained that the bus was coming from Alexandria en route to Sharm El-Sheikh, pointing out that it immediately dispatched ambulances to the scene.

The injuries varied between fractures and bruises.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and Population in Suez, Ismail el-Hefnawi, followed up on the injured. He directed health institutions to provide care to the wounded.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in South Sinai, Ayman Rakha, said in a press statement that the injured people transferred to Ras Sedr Hospital were in stable condition, and all radiology and medical analyzes are being conducted to ensure their safety.

The bus belongs to one of the private tourism companies in Alexandria, which told Asharq Al-Awsat that the bus was carrying passengers to Sharm El-Sheikh, as part of the company's domestic tourism program during the mid-year vacation.

The company refused to provide any details about the causes of the accident and the number of passengers inside the bus at the time of the accident.

Road traffic accidents in Egypt record high rates.

According to official figures issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, 2021 witnessed 7,101 deaths due to road accidents, a 15.2 percent increase compared to 2020, which saw 6,164 deaths.

In 2021, 51,511 were injured, a 9.3 percent drop from the previous year, which recorded 56,789 injuries.

Accidents cause dozens of deaths annually due to speed, road conditions, or poor application of traffic laws.

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International Conference Rallies Aid for Sudan after 2 Years of War, but Peace Is Elusive

A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP)
A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP)
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International Conference Rallies Aid for Sudan after 2 Years of War, but Peace Is Elusive

A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP)
A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP)

Diplomats and aid officials from around the world met Tuesday in London to try to ease the suffering from the 2-year-old war in Sudan, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 14 million and pushed large parts of the country into famine.

The African Union, which co-hosted the one-day conference with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities.” But UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy acknowledged that achieving peace would take time, renewed international effort and “patient diplomacy.”

The main aim of the conference was not to negotiate peace, but to relieve what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Attendees included officials from Western nations, international institutions and neighboring countries – but no one from Sudan. Neither the Sudanese military nor the rival paramilitary it is fighting has been invited.

Lammy told delegates that “many have given up on Sudan,” concluding that continued conflict is inevitable. He said a “lack of political will” is the biggest obstacle to peace.

“We have got to persuade the warring parties to protect civilians, to let aid in and across the country and to put peace first,” Lammy said.

Sudan plunged into war on April 15, 2023, after simmering tensions between the Sudanese military and a paramilitary organization known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Fighting broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread across the country, killing at least 20,000 people – though the number is likely far higher.

Last month the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, a major symbolic victory in the war. But the RSF still controls most of the western region of Darfur and some other areas.

More than 300 civilians were killed in a burst of intense fighting in Darfur on Friday and Saturday, according to the UN.

The war has driven parts of the country into famine and pushed more than 14 million people from their homes, with more than 3 million fleeing the country, to neighboring countries including Chad and Egypt. Both sides in the war have been accused of committing war crimes.

The World Food Program says nearly 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — face extreme hunger.

Aid agency Oxfam said the humanitarian catastrophe risks becoming a regional crisis, with fighting spilling into neighboring countries. It said that in South Sudan, itself wracked by recent war, “the arrival of people fleeing Sudan’s conflict has put more pressure on already scarce resources, which is deepening local tensions and threatening the fragile peace.”

Lammy, who visited Chad’s border with Sudan in January, said that “instability must not spread."

“It drives migration from Sudan and the wider region, and a safe and stable Sudan is vital for our national security,” he said.

Lammy said the conference would try to “agree a pathway to end the suffering,” but the UK and other Western countries have limited power to stop the fighting.

Sudan's government has criticized conference organizers for excluding it from the meeting.

The US, which recently cut almost all its foreign aid, also was expected to be represented at the London conference.

Ahead of the meeting, Lammy announced 120 million pounds ($158 million) in funding for the coming year to deliver food for 650,000 people in Sudan, from Britain’s increasingly limited foreign aid budget.

In February the UK cut its aid budget from 0.5% of Gross Domestic Product to 0.3% to fund an increase in military spending. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said Sudan, along with Ukraine and Gaza, will remain a priority for British aid.