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Yemeni Authorities Try to Contain Clashes Between Ethiopian Immigrants That Killed 10

Ethiopian migrants in Yemen call on international organizations to facilitate their return to their homeland (AFP)
Ethiopian migrants in Yemen call on international organizations to facilitate their return to their homeland (AFP)
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Yemeni Authorities Try to Contain Clashes Between Ethiopian Immigrants That Killed 10

Ethiopian migrants in Yemen call on international organizations to facilitate their return to their homeland (AFP)
Ethiopian migrants in Yemen call on international organizations to facilitate their return to their homeland (AFP)

The Yemeni security authorities launched a campaign in Aden to contain the bloody clash between Ethiopian immigrants, which killed ten and injured dozens of others.

Yemeni sources reported that the authorities in Aden are transferring migrants to temporary camps in Mansoura and Sheikh Othman.

According to the sources, although the security forces ended the clashes, the issue persists, and police vehicles were seen in the streets transporting migrants to a gathering point near the Basateen camp in Sheikh Othman District.

The Yemeni police and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) remained silent about the reasons for the outbreak of confrontations.

The President of Oromo Human Rights, Arafat Jibril Barki, stated that the main reason for the confrontations was the refusal of the Ethiopian authorities to receive migrants from the Amhara and Tigray nationalities.

Ethiopia denied their entrance because of the security conditions in the regions and only accepted nationals of the Oromo ethnicity.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Jibril said the problem began last Thursday in front of the office of the International Organization for Migration.

The migrants were demanding to return to their country, but the Ethiopian government asked the UN not to allow the return of two ethnic groups. The individuals banned from traveling attacked the international immigration representative and one of the guards.

Arafat Jibril reported that the protesters tore up a travel ticket given to an Oromo national, and one of them stabbed an employee while the guard responded and shot the attacker, killing him.

Clashes began and expanded to other areas, killing ten, six of whom were from Amhara, one from Tigray, and three from Oromo.

The official stated that the news of excluding the Amhara and Tigray ethnicities spread quickly among migrants, which led to heated discussions that developed into violent clashes before the security forces intervened.

- Yemeni tries to contain the situation

The Yemeni authorities proceeded with their campaigns against illegal immigrants and are discussing the issue with international organizations.

Government sources confirmed that transferring them to the Kharaz camp in Lahj is the best option, given the complexities associated with the internal situation in Ethiopia.

Yemeni officials told Asharq Al-Awsat that the largest Kharaz camp in the country lacks many services. But it is the only place capable of accommodating the thousands of migrants pouring in, exceeding 86,000 over the past months.

Officials confirmed that thousands of migrants wanted to return to their country after discovering that smugglers deceived them, bringing them to a nation at war rather than taking them to the Gulf.

The International Organization for Migration had suspended the voluntary return program for thousands of migrants due to lack of funding, but it has recently reactivated it.

UN estimates indicate that the number of African immigrants in Yemen exceeds 200,000, including 43,000 stranded people.

The organization explains that thousands of migrants are unable to continue their journey onward. They cannot return to their countries of origin and are currently living in dire humanitarian conditions.

According to the organization that monitors and tracks the movement of migrants and internal displacement, thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa continued to flow to Yemen.

About 11,000 immigrants have returned to their home countries as part of the voluntary return program, as the organization works to support stranded migrants to ensure a safer return.

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Arab World

Aoun from Nabatieh: No New Negotiations with Israel at Present

Smoke rises in Mansouri following Israeli strikes as seen from Naqoura, Lebanon, September 11, 2026. REUTERS/Raghed Waked
Smoke rises in Mansouri following Israeli strikes as seen from Naqoura, Lebanon, September 11, 2026. REUTERS/Raghed Waked
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Aoun from Nabatieh: No New Negotiations with Israel at Present

Smoke rises in Mansouri following Israeli strikes as seen from Naqoura, Lebanon, September 11, 2026. REUTERS/Raghed Waked
Smoke rises in Mansouri following Israeli strikes as seen from Naqoura, Lebanon, September 11, 2026. REUTERS/Raghed Waked

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visited the country's south on Saturday, in a surprise trip to Nabatieh, a city close to the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge captured from Hezbollah and blown up by Israel.

Official Lebanese media said he arrived in Nabatieh unannounced and accompanied by security officials.

The National News Agency (NNA) quoted Aoun as saying that there would be no new negotiations with Israel at present, stressing that the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the return of prisoners and displaced people, and reconstruction remain national principles that Lebanon is committed to upholding.

Aoun expressed solidarity with locals who greeted him, according to footage broadcast by Lebanese media.

He praised staff at Nabatieh Governmental Hospital, saying they were risking their lives to provide medical services in the area, which most people have fled.

He spoke a day after a senior US diplomatic official said a new round of US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon, initially scheduled for next week, had been pushed back to October.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had eased off between late June and last week, thanks to a US-sponsored framework agreement between the two countries as well as a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran in the wider Middle East war.

But the Israeli army has in recent days stepped up attacks again, particularly in the Nabatieh region.

On Thursday it blew up underground fortifications on Ali al-Taher ridge after seizing the site, which lies a few kilometers from Nabatieh city.

The explosion was large enough to trigger a tremor detected by seismic monitoring agencies.

Israeli strikes in the area have killed at least 29 people in the last few days, including 12 members of the same family.

The Lebanese army, which has deployed in Nabatieh city, warned on Wednesday that Israel's actions threatened the implementation of the framework agreement.

The agreement involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon's south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as "pilot zones.”

Arab World

Lebanon Moves to Protect Land Ownership in Occupied South

Smoke rises after Israeli demolition operations targeted the occupied southern Lebanese town of Khiam (AFP)
Smoke rises after Israeli demolition operations targeted the occupied southern Lebanese town of Khiam (AFP)
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Lebanon Moves to Protect Land Ownership in Occupied South

Smoke rises after Israeli demolition operations targeted the occupied southern Lebanese town of Khiam (AFP)
Smoke rises after Israeli demolition operations targeted the occupied southern Lebanese town of Khiam (AFP)

Lebanon’s government has approved a draft law banning property sales in Israeli-occupied parts of the south, seeking to prevent wartime displacement and destruction from being exploited to transfer land through intermediaries, front companies, or fictitious buyers.

The cabinet approved on Thursday, at the Finance Ministry’s request, “a ban on real estate sales in areas occupied by the Israeli army.”

Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government’s decision to ban land sales in occupied southern areas was intended to protect property rights and prevent any attempt to transfer ownership to parties linked to the occupation.

He said the preventive measure would protect the land from sales conducted through indirect or deceptive means.

“The government was keen to take a clear measure in light of the concerns raised about this issue, preventing any sales that could effectively lead to land ownership being transferred indirectly to undisclosed parties,” Jaber said.

The aim, he added, was to prevent sales “to fictitious individuals or companies,” referring to the potential use of names or corporate entities as fronts for indirect purchases.

Jaber linked the decision to efforts to preserve and protect land ownership in the south, saying it was part of “strengthening the resilience of southern communities, preserving and protecting the land in every respect, and safeguarding coexistence.”

The draft law comes as southern areas face widespread destruction, while residents remain displaced and some are unable to return to their towns. The situation has raised concerns extending beyond physical damage to the future of property ownership and residents’ ability to return.

Lebanese MP Abdel Rahman al-Bizri said the protection of property ownership was part of an effort to prevent the destruction and displacement from becoming permanent.

“It is clear that the Israeli occupier is pursuing a scorched-earth policy and working to eliminate every possibility for people and communities to return to the occupied territories in southern Lebanon,” al-Bizri told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The systematic destruction it is carrying out — whether of homes, infrastructure, crops, schools, clinics, shelters or hospitals — targets every element people need to live and build a functioning community.”

“This indicates a deliberate plan to ensure that these lands remain unfit for the residents’ return, even if the Israeli occupier withdraws from them,” he added, pointing to “repeated visits and tours of Lebanese territory by extremist groups from within Israeli society.”

“This recalls similar scenes in the Syrian Golan Heights and the West Bank,” al-Bizri said. “Despite the Israeli government’s denials, it raises concerns about possible parallel activity by the Israeli authorities and extremist movements.”

Al-Bizri said the Lebanese government had prohibited land sales as a pre-emptive and preventive measure, barring the sale of property in occupied areas to Lebanese and non-Lebanese buyers alike.

The measure was intended to prevent such transactions from becoming “an entry point for a broader process that could later be exploited,” he said, recalling “what happened historically in Palestine before the Nakba.”

“Sovereignty does not mean only the deployment of the Lebanese army and security forces. It also means the return of the state, with all its services, to those areas — from municipalities and schools to healthcare and social protection,” al-Bizri said, adding that a substantial part of the responsibility rested with the government itself.

“Preventing land sales is part of the confrontation and part of our insistence that this land is Lebanese and that we want to keep it Lebanese,” he said. “This must go hand in hand with the state’s return and presence across all Lebanese regions.”

Ayoub Hmayed, an MP from the Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government’s decision was a “precautionary measure” aimed at protecting the land and closing any loophole that Israel could exploit.

The measure “reinforces Lebanese sovereignty over Lebanese territory,” he said.

Hmayed said the decision’s importance stemmed, “as a matter of principle,” from the need to prevent sales or transfers of ownership that could be exploited under occupation.

On the demographic implications, Hmayed said the problem extended beyond land sales to the conditions created by the war and occupation, including residents’ displacement and the inability of some to return to their towns. If the situation persisted, he warned, it would “certainly produce a different reality” on the ground.

He said the ban provided additional protection to landowners even when their homes had been destroyed and they were unable to return.

“Preventing land sales protects these people, just as it reinforces Lebanese sovereignty over Lebanese territory,” Hmayed said.

Arab World

Iraqi Army Commander Sacked After Drone Attacks Targeted Saudi Arabia

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi (Reuters)
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Iraqi Army Commander Sacked After Drone Attacks Targeted Saudi Arabia

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi (Reuters)

The office of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced on Saturday the dismissal of the commander in charge of the southern Maysan province after Saudi Arabia said drones launched from Iraq hit the East-West pipeline and led to its closure.

The commander was fired following the "confirmation that the attacks targeting our brethren in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia originated from a location within the governorate,” said al-Zaidi’s office.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned "the targeting of the East-West pipeline in the Riyadh and Madinah regions by several drones coming from Iraq, which caused human injuries and damage.”

"The pipeline was stopped as a precaution, and the attacks resulted in some injuries," an Energy Ministry official told the SPA news agency earlier.

"At the request of the Iraqi Prime Minister... (Riyadh) has chosen not to respond at this stage and to support the efforts of the Iraqi government ... to prevent attacks launched from Iraq against the Kingdom and neighboring countries," the Foreign Ministry said.