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Renewed Clashes in Tunisia's Deprived South

Tunisian protesters clash with security forces as they demonstrate in the southern city of Tataouine demanding authorities make good on a 2017 promise to provide jobs in the gas and oil sector | AFP
Tunisian protesters clash with security forces as they demonstrate in the southern city of Tataouine demanding authorities make good on a 2017 promise to provide jobs in the gas and oil sector | AFP
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Renewed Clashes in Tunisia's Deprived South

Tunisian protesters clash with security forces as they demonstrate in the southern city of Tataouine demanding authorities make good on a 2017 promise to provide jobs in the gas and oil sector | AFP
Tunisian protesters clash with security forces as they demonstrate in the southern city of Tataouine demanding authorities make good on a 2017 promise to provide jobs in the gas and oil sector | AFP

Protesters demanding jobs and the release of an activist in Tunisia's marginalized south clashed Monday with security forces for a second straight day.

Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters in the center of Tataouine city, an AFP correspondent said.

Defense ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekr said the army was deployed outside state establishments.

Demonstrators at a protest camp in the region have been demanding authorities make good on a 2017 promise to provide jobs in the gas and oil sector to thousands of unemployed.

For weeks they have blocked roads around the remote El-Kamour pumping station to prevent tanker trucks from entering the facility, but the protest had been largely peaceful.

On Sunday, protesters in Tataouine city burned tires and pelted security forces with stones to demand jobs and the release of activist Tarek Haddad, who was arrested the previous day, as security forces responded with tear gas.

Haddad is a key figure in the protest movement.

The governor of Tataouine, Adel Werghi, said Haddad was "wanted" by the authorities, without providing further details.

The interior ministry said 10 people were arrested Sunday after a group of protesters tried to attack police stations with Molotov cocktails.

Denouncing an "excessive and unjustified" use of force against protesters, the powerful Tunisian trade union confederation UGTT had called for a general strike in Tataouine.

Shops were open on Monday but public services and state institutions remained closed in adherence to the strike, AFP correspondents said.

In 2017, protesters blockaded Tataouine's El-Kamour pumping station for three months demanding jobs.

The sit-in ended after the employment minister signed a deal with representatives of the protesters, brokered by the UGTT, pledging to invest 80 million Tunisian dinars a year (almost $28 million) in Tataouine.

The UGTT branch in Tataouine said the promise was never kept.

The protests come as Tunisia, until now largely spared the worst of the novel coronavirus, faces tensions within its coalition government and the impact of restrictions imposed to combat the spread of the pandemic that have deepened inequalities.

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Arab World

Syria Says Two Soldiers Killed in Attack in Northeast

A member of Syria's security forces stands under a sign in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
A member of Syria's security forces stands under a sign in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Syria Says Two Soldiers Killed in Attack in Northeast

A member of Syria's security forces stands under a sign in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
A member of Syria's security forces stands under a sign in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on July 15, 2025. (AFP)

Syria said two soldiers were killed in an attack by unidentified assailants in the country's northeast on Monday, while a military source told AFP investigations were underway to identify the perpetrators.

In recent months, Syria's new government has expanded its control to parts of the country's north and northeast that were previously held by Kurdish-led forces, including areas near the site of Monday's attack.

The government has also formally joined the international coalition against the ISIS group, which has long launched attacks in those areas.

The two soldiers were killed "and others wounded in a treacherous attack by unknown assailants" on a bus in Hasakeh province, state news agency SANA quoted the defense ministry as saying.

A military source told AFP on condition of anonymity that a military bus "came under gunfire" along the highway between Ras al-Ain in Hasakeh province and Ain Issa in Raqqa province, adding that two soldiers were killed and two others wounded.

Investigations were underway to determine who was behind the attack, the source added.

Once in control of large swathes of Syria and Iraq, ISIS was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 in a battle spearheaded by Kurdish-led forces with support from a US-led international coalition.

The extremists however maintain a presence in Syria, mainly in the country's vast desert, and repeatedly attacked Kurdish-led forces while they controlled swathes of the northeast.

In February, after government forces seized control of many of those areas, ISIS urged its members to fight Syria's new authorities.

Days later, state media said four Syrian security personnel were killed in an ISIS attack in the northern city of Raqqa, which had been recently taken by Damascus's forces.

Arab World

UN: Sudan Drone Strikes Killed at Least 880 Civilians between January and April

Sudanese Army elements celebrate after seizing control of an area in northern Khartoum Bahri on January 25, 2025 (Reuters)
Sudanese Army elements celebrate after seizing control of an area in northern Khartoum Bahri on January 25, 2025 (Reuters)
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UN: Sudan Drone Strikes Killed at Least 880 Civilians between January and April

Sudanese Army elements celebrate after seizing control of an area in northern Khartoum Bahri on January 25, 2025 (Reuters)
Sudanese Army elements celebrate after seizing control of an area in northern Khartoum Bahri on January 25, 2025 (Reuters)

At least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes in Sudan between January and April this year, the UN said Monday, warning such strikes were pushing the conflict towards a "new, even deadlier phase".

Drone attacks by both Sudan's army and paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war since April 2023, have intensified across the country in recent months, reported AFP.

The United Nations rights office said that its Sudan team had determined that "drone strikes accounted for at least 880 civilian deaths -- more than 80 percent of all conflict-related civilian deaths -- between January and April this year".

"Armed drones have now become by far and away the leading cause of civilian deaths," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in the statement.

A growing use of drones allows fighting to continue "unabated" in the rainy season, which in the past has seen a lull, he said.

"An intensification of hostilities in the coming weeks... risks hostilities expanding even further to central and eastern states, with lethal consequences for civilians across enormous areas," he said.

More than three years of civil war in Sudan have already killed tens of thousands, displaced over 11 million and thrust several areas into famine.

But now, Turk warned that "unless action is taken without delay, this conflict is on the cusp of entering yet another new, even deadlier phase".

Most of the civilian deaths attributed to drone strikes in the first three months of the year were recorded in the Kordofan region and Darfur.

Those strikes have continued, with most recently on May 8 drones striking Al Quoz in South Kordofan and near El-Obeid in North Kordofan, reportedly killing 26 civilians and injuring others, the rights office said.

It said belligerents had used drones to repeatedly strike civilian objects and infrastructure, "diminishing access to sufficient food, clean water and health care".

Markets have been repeatedly targeted, with at least 28 such attacks resulting in civilian casualties in the first four months of the year.

Health facilities have been hit at least 12 times, it added.

Now, the rights office said, drone strikes by the RSF and the Sudanese army were increasingly spreading beyond Kordofan and Darfur, to Blue Nile, White Nile and Khartoum.

Turk warned that heightened violence would disrupt provision of critical humanitarian assistance. 

"Much of the country, including Kordofan, is now facing an increased risk of famine and acute food insecurity," he said, adding that the situation was being exacerbated by fertilizer shortages linked to the Middle East war. 

Arab World

Israel Says Soldier Killed Near Border with Lebanon

This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of Israeli bombardment that targeted the village of Tair Harfa on May 11, 2026. (AFP)
This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of Israeli bombardment that targeted the village of Tair Harfa on May 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says Soldier Killed Near Border with Lebanon

This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of Israeli bombardment that targeted the village of Tair Harfa on May 11, 2026. (AFP)
This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of Israeli bombardment that targeted the village of Tair Harfa on May 11, 2026. (AFP)

Israel's military said Monday that one of its soldiers had died in fighting near the border with Lebanon, bringing its losses to 18 personnel since the war with Hezbollah began in early March.

Sergeant Major Alexander Glovanyov, 47, "fell during combat near the Israel-Lebanon border", the military said.

He was killed on Sunday.

Since the war began, one Israeli civilian contractor has also been killed in addition to the 18 soldiers.

Israel and Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah have been trading fire in south Lebanon despite a ceasefire in place since April 17 between Israel and Lebanon that aimed to halt the fighting.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 when it launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion. Its troops are operating behind an Israeli-declared "yellow line" that runs around 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Lebanon's border.