Braving Rocket Attack, Iraqi MPs Elect New State President

Presidential candidate Abdel Latif Rashid attends a parliamentary session to vote for a new head of state president in Baghdad, Iraq, October 13, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office/Handout via Reuters)
Presidential candidate Abdel Latif Rashid attends a parliamentary session to vote for a new head of state president in Baghdad, Iraq, October 13, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office/Handout via Reuters)
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Braving Rocket Attack, Iraqi MPs Elect New State President

Presidential candidate Abdel Latif Rashid attends a parliamentary session to vote for a new head of state president in Baghdad, Iraq, October 13, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office/Handout via Reuters)
Presidential candidate Abdel Latif Rashid attends a parliamentary session to vote for a new head of state president in Baghdad, Iraq, October 13, 2022. (Iraqi Parliament Media Office/Handout via Reuters)

Despite a rocket attack on Baghdad's Green Zone, Iraqi lawmakers Thursday elected a new president in hopes of ending a year of political gridlock and violence in the war-scarred nation.

Iraqi Kurd Abdel Latif Rashid, 78, was elected as the new Iraqi head of state, replacing Barham Salih, by the assembly in the capital's heavily fortified government and diplomatic district.

Rashid won more than 160 votes against 99 for the incumbent Salih, an assembly official said.

Rashid's first task was expected to be nominating a candidate for prime minister to replace the current caretaker premier, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, and attempt to form a new government for the crisis-hit nation.

A favored candidate for the prime minister's post was Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, 52, of the Shiite Coordination Framework, which includes pro-Iranian former paramilitary groups.

When Sudani was first proposed in July, this sparked mass protests by backers of his Shiite rival, the fiery populist and cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose followers breached the Green Zone and stormed parliament.

A new reminder of Iraq's troubles came Thursday as the lawmakers headed into parliament, when a barrage of nine Katyusha-style rockets rained down on the area, the security forces said.

At least 10 people were wounded, including six members of the security forces or bodyguards of lawmakers, as well as four civilians in a nearby district, a security official told AFP.

US Ambassador Alina Romanowski condemned the attack "in the strongest terms" on Twitter and warned that "the people of Iraq must resolve their political differences & grievances solely thru peaceful means.

"Attacks like these undermine democracy & trap Iraq in a perpetual cycle of violence."

'Crisis breeds instability'

The democratic institutions built in oil-rich Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein remain fragile, and neighboring Iran wields major influence.

Over a year since its last general elections, Iraq has so far failed to form a new government to tackle the problems facing the country plagued by unemployment, decaying infrastructure, corruption and the impacts of climate change.

The United Nations mission in Iraq warned this week that "the protracted crisis is breeding further instability" and that the divisive politics are "generating bitter public disillusion".

Lawmakers had made three previous attempts to elect a new head of state, in February and March, but failed to even reach the required two-thirds threshold for a quorum.

Under Iraq's post-Saddam power-sharing system, meant to avoid more sectarian conflict, the state president by convention is Kurdish, the prime minister is a Shiite and the parliament speaker a Sunni.

The presidency has usually been held by the PUK of Rashid and Salih. This year the rival Democratic Party of Kurdistan had demanded the presidency but finally abandoned the bid.

Rashid, a hydraulic engineer versed in environmental issues, is seen as a compromise candidate for the polarized country.

Iraq's rival Shiite political factions have been bitterly vying for influence and the right to select the new premier.

Sadr has pushed for parliament to be dissolved and new elections, while the Coordination Framework has urged a new government before fresh polls are held.

The standoff has seen both sides set up protest camps in the Green Zone this year.

Tensions boiled over on August 29 when more than 30 Sadr supporters were killed in battles with Iran-backed factions and the army.



UN Seeks $6 Billion to Ease Hunger Catastrophe in Sudan

Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Seeks $6 Billion to Ease Hunger Catastrophe in Sudan

Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

UN officials on Monday asked for $6 billion for Sudan this year from donors to help ease what they called the world's worst ever hunger catastrophe and the mass displacement of people brought on by civil war.

The UN appeal represents a rise of more than 40% from last year's for Sudan at a time when aid budgets around the world are under strain, partly due to a pause in funding announced by US President Donald Trump last month that has affected life-saving programs across the globe.

The UN says the funds are necessary because the impact of the 22-month war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - that has already displaced a fifth of its population and stoked severe hunger among around half its population - looks set to worsen.

World Food Program chief Cindy McCain, speaking via video to a room full of diplomats in Geneva, said: "Sudan is now the epicenter of the world's largest and most severe hunger crisis ever."

She did not provide figures, but Sudan's total population currently stands at about 48 million people. Among previous world famines, the Bengal Famine of 1943 claimed between 2 million and 3 million lives, according to several estimates, while millions are believed to have died in the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-61.

Famine conditions have been reported in at least five locations in Sudan, including displacement camps in Darfur, a UN statement said, and this was set to worsen with continued fighting and the collapse of basic services.

"This is a humanitarian crisis that is truly unprecedented in its scale and its gravity and it demands a response unprecedented in scale and intent," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said.

One of the famine-stricken camps was attacked by the RSF last week as the group tries to tighten its grip on its Darfur stronghold.

While some aid agencies say they have received waivers from Washington to provide aid in Sudan, uncertainty remains on the extent of coverage for providing famine relief.

The UN plan aims to reach nearly 21 million people within the country, making it the most ambitious humanitarian response so far for 2025, and requires $4.2 billion - the rest being for those displaced by the conflict.