Sudan: Burhan’s Office Denies News on his Quarantine

Head of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. EPA
Head of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. EPA
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Sudan: Burhan’s Office Denies News on his Quarantine

Head of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. EPA
Head of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. EPA

Head of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is healthy and is spending the Eid el-Fitr holiday in his hometown in River Nile state, his office affirmed on Thursday.

It also denied news on his alleged quarantine after meeting with his late advisor, Najwa Gadaheldam, who died from COVID-19 on Wednesday.

The office issued a statement noting that Burhan spent his holiday exchanging greetings with kings and heads of state.

According to the statement, he received on Wednesday phone calls from US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy and US Special Envoy for Sudan Donald Booth.

He also received a call from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who offered him condolences on Gadaheldam’s death.

A Chinese medical team arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Thursday to support the country’s efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The medical team was received by Health Minister Akram Ali al-Tom and Chinese Ambassador in Khartoum Ma Xinmin.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Sudan has risen to 4,346 and 195 deaths.



Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes 'Cruelty'

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes 'Cruelty'

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.

Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican's various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza, Reuters reported.

"Yesterday, children were bombed," said the pope. "This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart."

The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel's military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that "what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope's remarks amounted to a "trivialization" of the term genocide.

Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.

The patriarch's office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope's remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.