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Arab World

UN: Sudan ‘Spiraling Out of Control’ as One Million Flee Country

A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)
A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)
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UN: Sudan ‘Spiraling Out of Control’ as One Million Flee Country

A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)
A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)

More than one million people have fled Sudan to neighboring states and people inside the country are running out of food and dying due to lack of healthcare after four months of war, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the capital Khartoum and sparked ethnically-driven attacks in Darfur, threatening to plunge Sudan into a protracted civil war and destabilize the region.

"Time is running out for farmers to plant the crops that will feed them and their neighbors. Medical supplies are scarce. The situation is spiraling out of control," UN agencies said in a joint statement.

The war has caused 1,017,449 people to cross from Sudan into neighboring countries, many already struggling with the impact of conflicts or economic crises, while those displaced within Sudan are estimated to number 3,433,025, according to the latest weekly figures published by the IOM.

Fighting erupted on April 15 over tensions linked to a planned transition to civilian rule, exposing civilians in the capital and beyond to daily battles and attacks.

The millions who remain in Khartoum and cities in the Darfur and Kordofan regions have faced rampant looting and long power, communications and water cuts.

"The remains of many of those killed have not been collected, identified or buried," but the UN estimates that more than 4,000 have been killed, Elizabeth Throssell, spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a briefing in Geneva.

Reports of sexual assaults have increased by 50%, said UN population fund official Laila Baker.

Blackout

Large swathes of the country have been suffering from an electricity blackout since Sunday that has also taken mobile networks offline, according to a statement from the national electricity authority.

Seasonal rains that increase the risk of water-borne diseases have destroyed or damaged the homes of up to 13,500 people, the UN estimates.

In a speech on Monday, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan accused the RSF of aiming "to take the country back to an era before the modern state" and "committing every crime that can be imagined."

The RSF has accused the army of trying to seize full power under the direction of loyalists of Omar al-Bashir, the longtime leader who was toppled during a popular uprising in 2019.

Efforts led by Saudi Arabia and the United States to negotiate a ceasefire in the current conflict have stalled, and humanitarian agencies have struggled to provide relief because of insecurity, looting and bureaucratic hurdles.

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Arab World

UN: Houthis Engagement in Regional War Alongside Iran Threatens to Deepen Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)
Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)
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UN: Houthis Engagement in Regional War Alongside Iran Threatens to Deepen Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)
Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)

A UN report warned that the Houthis' continued engagement in the regional war alongside Iran coupled with a sharp reduction in humanitarian funding, threaten to deepen Yemen’s humanitarian crisis when already 450 health facilities, including 76 hospitals, have closed in the last year.

“The Houthis’ engagement in the regional war may trigger displacement, civilian casualties, and damage to vital infrastructure, including ports and storage facilities, deepening humanitarian needs nationwide,” according to a Public Health Situation Analysis (PHSA) issued by the World Health Organization this week.

WHO called on the international community to take urgent action to close the worsening funding gap, warning that continued cuts in humanitarian assistance would lead to more loss of livelihoods, and increase exposure to hunger, disease, displacement and protection risk.

The UN agency noted that escalating conflict in the Middle East has spillover risks for Yemen.

In March 2026, it said Houthis began to engage in the regional war by launching military attacks against Israel.

“Renewed hostilities are already drawing forces into regional fighting,” it said, warning that strikes on Houthi-held areas may trigger displacement, civilian casualties, and damage to vital infrastructure, including ports and storage facilities, deepening humanitarian needs.

Decline in Funding

Surging needs, significant funding cuts, and shrinking access are forcing partners to scale back life-saving support, according to WHO.

The agency said in its report that Yemen enters 2026 at a critical tipping point, with 22.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

Nearly 5 million people are experiencing IPC Phase 3 or above (Crisis or worse) conditions between March and May 2026, with 1.4 million people experiencing IPC Phase 4 (Emergency).

Also, Yemen faces widespread outbreaks of vaccine -preventable diseases, including circulating vaccine -derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), acute watery diarrhea (AWD)/cholera, measles, diphtheria, dengue fever and malaria, exacerbated by low vaccination rates, misinformation.

The UN agency warned that without urgent action, lives will be lost, communities will destabilize, and essential systems will edge closer to collapse.

Hospitals Closing

WHO revealed that against a backdrop of increasing needs, the humanitarian response in 2025 operated under severe and unprecedented funding shortages, with the Yemen 2025 HNRP funded at only 29%, forcing clusters to scale down or suspend critical life saving services across sectors.

As of May 2026, it said reduced funding has resulted in a reduction of nutrition services by up to 63%. Over 450 health facilities, including 76 hospitals, have closed in the last year.

In a related development, WHO said Yemen has been engulfed in violent conflict.

It said that by 2019, the country had reversed human development by 21 years, and if the conflict continues until 2030, the developmental setback could extend to nearly four decades, more than one-and-a-half generation.

Forgotten Crisis

UNFPA Representative Francesco Galtieri said this week that Yemen has become a forgotten crisis, despite witnessing one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

He said around 650,000 pregnant women need support in a country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the Arab region.

Galtieri noted that three women die every day due to pregnancy complications or during childbirth. Around two-thirds of these deaths could be prevented if they had access to a midwife or doctor.

He also said funding cuts are putting the programs under severe strain. Galtieri told UN News that around 40% of UNFPA’s humanitarian funding was cut last year, forcing the agency to suspend or halt support for roughly one third of its services.

Arab World

Iraq Says Saddam Son-in-Law Plotted to Kill Security Chief

A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
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Iraq Says Saddam Son-in-Law Plotted to Kill Security Chief

A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)

Iraq’s National Security Service said it had thwarted a plot by an “opposition cell” linked to Jamal Mustafa, the son-in-law of late president Saddam Hussein, to assassinate its chief.

But one member of the three-man cell questioned whether it could target a heavily protected senior security official.

The service said in a statement late Friday that its units in Baghdad, under the direct supervision of its head, Abdul Karim al-Basri, had “managed to foil a dangerous criminal plot” by a cell linked to the so-called Iraqi National Gathering for Liberation and Change, which it described as one of the banned Baath Party’s fronts, after intelligence work that included surveillance, tracking and infiltration.

Jamal Mustafa founded the National Gathering, which seeks to change the political system, a few years ago after he was released from custody and left Iraq for a regional country.

US forces arrested Mustafa on April 20, 2003, just 11 days after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government. He remained in detention until mid-2021, before Iraqi authorities decided to release him in June that year because of insufficient evidence over the charges against him.

The National Security Service statement said “investigations and interrogations revealed that the cell members had moved beyond the stage of incitement and threats to the stage of assignment, target selection and weapons preparation ahead of carrying out assassination operations targeting National Security Service chief Abdul Karim al-Basri, the service’s official spokesman, the Baghdad security director and a number of officers.”

It said that “through a preemptive effort and based on judicial approvals, the service’s units were able to uncover the plot, track its members, arrest those involved and seize evidence and materials linked to the case before it reached the execution stage.”

Image taken from a video distributed by Iraqi security forces showing a light weapon allegedly used to assassinate the head of the National Security Service

The statement concluded by saying that “the report presented will include part of the suspects’ confessions, the mechanism of assignment and the planning stages that preceded the foiling of the plot.”

Audio and video recordings released by the service showed calls between the alleged plotters, in which one person speaks about an attempt to assassinate the service chief, while another, who was tasked with carrying it out, denies owning even a single firearm.

In another exchange between the two men, one of them questions whether “only a few people” could carry out a major operation of this kind against “the huge security convoys used by the service commander, Abu Ali al-Basri, and the other targeted officers.”

But in one video clip, one of the men is seen threatening the service’s leaders and declaring his absolute loyalty to Jamal Mustafa.

Image taken from a video distributed by Iraqi security forces showing the arrest of a cell member who claimed the cell was linked to the Baath Party.

Drug gang brought down

Alongside the arrest of the “Baathist cell,” the National Security Service announced that two of the most dangerous drug traffickers in the southern province of Maysan had been killed in a special security operation that involved an armed clash with a security force.

The service said in a statement on Saturday that “the operation came as part of continuing efforts to pursue organized crime gangs and drug traffickers. It was carried out in the al-Uzair area of Maysan province and resulted in the killing of two of the most prominent wanted men in this file.”

The statement said one of the men killed was considered the main crystal meth trafficker in Iraq. Known as Abu Fatim, he was wanted by the judiciary under Article 27 of the Anti-Narcotics Law and was classified as one of the country’s most prominent drug distributors.

Arab World

Syria: Former Assad Intelligence Deputy Arrested

Qais Hassan al-Abd al-Rajab (SANA) 
Qais Hassan al-Abd al-Rajab (SANA) 
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Syria: Former Assad Intelligence Deputy Arrested

Qais Hassan al-Abd al-Rajab (SANA) 
Qais Hassan al-Abd al-Rajab (SANA) 

Syria’s Counterterrorism Directorate has arrested Major General Qais Hassan al-Abd al-Rajab, the former deputy director of the General Intelligence Directorate (State Security) under the government of Bashar al-Assad, state news agency SANA reported.

According to a statement posted Friday by the Interior Ministry on Telegram, al-Abd al-Rajab is considered “one of the most prominent officials involved in committing serious violations” against residents of the Hajar al-Aswad district, the cities of Daraya and Moadamiyat al-Sham, and a number of towns and villages in Daraa province.

The ministry said the arrest followed “continuous security monitoring” of his movements and efforts to evade detection and legal prosecution.

Interior Minister Anas Khattab said the Counterterrorism Directorate, working in coordination with provincial internal security authorities, would continue pursuing suspects and bringing them before the courts.

The effort involves search, surveillance and investigative operations aimed at gathering information, he said, “in fulfillment of a promise we made to our patient people that there will be no leniency toward those whose hands are stained with blood.”

SANA said the arrest forms part of broader efforts by the Interior Ministry and other authorities to pursue and hold accountable those implicated in crimes and violations against Syrians, in line with the principles of ending impunity, advancing transitional justice and protecting the rights of victims’ families.

In a related development, 18 Syrian organizations and associations representing victims of abuses said in a position paper issued Thursday that the collapse of the Assad regime presents “a historic opportunity” to dismantle the legacy of torture and grave violations and to lay the foundations for justice and accountability.

The statement marked the third anniversary of the Dutch-Canadian case against Syria before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The organizations, including the Sednaya Prison Detainees Association, the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability, and Huquqyat, praised the governments of the Netherlands and Canada for bringing the case before the court.

They said the lawsuit filed in 2023, along with the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ, represented “an important milestone” in efforts to secure justice for Syrian victims.

The groups also welcomed a June 2025 declaration by the Syrian government committing to address the legacy of torture and abuses, saying the current period offers a genuine opportunity to launch meaningful reforms. These include closing secret detention facilities, dismantling structures linked to torture and strengthening cooperation with international judicial and human rights mechanisms.

The organizations called for a comprehensive approach based on holding all perpetrators accountable without exception, arguing that such a process is essential to safeguarding victims’ rights and restoring confidence in justice institutions.

They concluded that the ICJ proceedings remain a key pillar in building a new Syria based on the rule of law, preventing future abuses and protecting human dignity.