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Arab World

UN Concerned over ‘Unacceptable’ Israeli Attacks on Lebanon’s Health Facilities

Mourners carry the flag-draped caskets of four people killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Naqoura, during their funeral procession on March 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Mourners carry the flag-draped caskets of four people killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Naqoura, during their funeral procession on March 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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UN Concerned over ‘Unacceptable’ Israeli Attacks on Lebanon’s Health Facilities

Mourners carry the flag-draped caskets of four people killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Naqoura, during their funeral procession on March 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Mourners carry the flag-draped caskets of four people killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Naqoura, during their funeral procession on March 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations has said that it was “deeply disturbed” by Israel’s “unacceptable” attacks on health facilities and health workers in Lebanon after up to 11 civilians were killed in a single day, including 10 paramedics.

“I am deeply disturbed by the repeated attacks on health facilities and health workers who risk their lives to provide urgent assistance to their local communities,” the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, said Thursday.

“Attacks on healthcare violate international humanitarian law and are unacceptable. The rules of war are clear: civilians, including healthcare workers, must be protected.”

He called for the protection of civilian infrastructure, including health facilities, saying “healthcare is not a target. Civilians are not a target.”

“The tragic events of the past 36 hours have resulted in a significant loss of life and injuries in south Lebanon. Up to 11 civilians were killed in a single day, including 10 paramedics,” Riza stated.

The UN peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel called for ending the escalation a day after exchanges of fire killed 16 people in Lebanon.

UNIFIL said Thursday it is very concerned over the surge of cross-border violence between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, a series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making it the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border.

UNIFIL said the escalation has caused a high number of civilian deaths adding that it is imperative that “this escalation cease immediately.”

“We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL said.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said its UN mission would file a complaint with the Security Council against the Israeli “massacres” in southern Lebanon.

The Ministry said on X that the complaint involves attacks on southern villages that have left more than 18 people dead, including civilians and paramedics, in only a few days.

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Arab World

Report: Ireland, Spain Could Recognize Palestinian State on May 21

Protesters gather and hold Palestinian flags inside a subway during a demonstration in support of the Palestinians, in Mexico City, Mexico May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Protesters gather and hold Palestinian flags inside a subway during a demonstration in support of the Palestinians, in Mexico City, Mexico May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Henry Romero
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Report: Ireland, Spain Could Recognize Palestinian State on May 21

Protesters gather and hold Palestinian flags inside a subway during a demonstration in support of the Palestinians, in Mexico City, Mexico May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Protesters gather and hold Palestinian flags inside a subway during a demonstration in support of the Palestinians, in Mexico City, Mexico May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Ireland, Spain and a number of other European Union member states are considering recognizing a Palestinian state on May 21, according to a report by Ireland's national broadcaster.
According to Reuters, RTE News on Wednesday evening said contacts between Dublin and Madrid, and between Slovenia and Malta, had intensified with a view to the countries jointly recognizing Palestinian statehood.
According to the report, the countries have been waiting for a vote by the United Nations General Assembly on May 10 which could lead to the recognition of Palestinians as qualified to become a full UN member.
In a joint statement on March 22, Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia said they had agreed to take the first steps towards recognizing a Palestinian state.
Spain and Ireland have long been champions of Palestinian rights. The efforts come as a mounting death toll in Gaza from Israel's offensive to rout out Hamas prompts calls globally for a ceasefire and lasting solution for peace in the region.
Since 1988, 139 out of 193 UN member states have recognized Palestinian statehood.
Israel has said that the four countries' plan constituted a "prize for terrorism" that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the Gaza conflict.

Arab World

Several Dead in Israeli Airstrike in South Lebanon

Smoke plumes billow from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the village of Marwahin in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on May 8, 2024. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
Smoke plumes billow from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the village of Marwahin in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on May 8, 2024. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
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Several Dead in Israeli Airstrike in South Lebanon

Smoke plumes billow from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the village of Marwahin in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on May 8, 2024. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
Smoke plumes billow from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the village of Marwahin in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on May 8, 2024. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

An Israeli airstrike that targeted a vehicle in southern Lebanon left many people killed, the state-run National News Agency said on Thursday.
The airstrike hit a vehicle in the southern village of Bafliyeh.
NNA did not provide further details.
Clashes between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces began on Oct. 8, a day after Israel started bombarding the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ deadly rampage in southern Israel, and the tensions between the two sides continue to intensify.

Arab World

UN Food Agency Fears an Escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli Border Can Cripple Aid Efforts in Lebanon

Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), speaks during an interview with The Associated Press as he tours a WFP warehouse stocking food rations in the northern Beirut suburb of Dekwaneh, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), speaks during an interview with The Associated Press as he tours a WFP warehouse stocking food rations in the northern Beirut suburb of Dekwaneh, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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UN Food Agency Fears an Escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli Border Can Cripple Aid Efforts in Lebanon

Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), speaks during an interview with The Associated Press as he tours a WFP warehouse stocking food rations in the northern Beirut suburb of Dekwaneh, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), speaks during an interview with The Associated Press as he tours a WFP warehouse stocking food rations in the northern Beirut suburb of Dekwaneh, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

If the monthslong conflict playing out on the Lebanese-Israeli border continues to escalate, the United Nations food agency won't be ready for the spike in nutritional needs across crisis-hit Lebanon, its deputy executive director said Wednesday.
Clashes between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces began on Oct. 8, a day after Israel started bombarding the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ deadly rampage in southern Israel, and the tensions between the two sides continue to intensify.
“So far we’ve been able to manage based on the existing resources we have,” UN World Food Program’s Carl Skau, who is on a brief visit to the small Mediterranean nation, told The Associated Press.
The WFP provides aid to over 158,000 people in Lebanon affected by the hostilities, including 93,000 displaced from their homes. But the agency does not have the funding to address the growing humanitarian needs “should the situation further escalate and further deteriorate,” Skau said.
Given donor fatigue and shrinking international aid budgets, it isn't clear where the additional funding can come from.
Skau toured a WFP warehouse stocking food rations in the northern Beirut suburb of Dekwaneh, built during the COVID-19 pandemic when Lebanon’s economy began to spiral, allowing the agency to stockpile some supplies. With the current situation, the UN agency fears those supplies could drain quickly with no backup plan.
Lebanon has also been suffering from a crippling economic crisis since 2019. Additionally, the country of about 6 million people is hosting more than 1 million refugees from neighboring Syria.
Food inflation in Lebanon is among the worst worldwide, which Skau said is incomparable except with “maybe Zimbabwe or Argentina.”
The conflict on the border is fueling further concern.
What started as strikes limited to a handful of towns along the border has since spiraled, sparking fear of a regional war. Israeli jets continue to strike deeper into Lebanon, while Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, strikes Israel more frequently with rockets and explosive drones.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 370 people in Lebanon over the past seven months, and while most were fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, more than 70 civilians and non-combatants were also left dead. Strikes launched from Lebanon have killed at least 14 soldiers and 10 civilians in Israel.
Top officials from the World Bank also visited Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday to check on a couple of projects the agency is funding, including a cash assistance program in collaboration with the WFP that provides aid to about 100,000 vulnerable families in the country.
The World Bank’s Managing Director of Operations, Anna Bjerde, said the financial institution is working to address the “prolonged and severe economic and financial crisis which has increased poverty in the country.”
Skau also said he wants to find ways to scale up such assistance programs, but “funding is coming down.”
“We estimated about 25 percent of the Lebanese and refugees are acutely food insecure, and we assisted some 2.5 million people last year,” he said.“This year we’re estimating that we’ll be able to support maybe 1.5 million.”

Arab World

Algeria's Leader Demands Justice over French Colonial-era Wrongdoing

A general view of Algiers city, Algeria, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. (AP)
A general view of Algiers city, Algeria, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. (AP)
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Algeria's Leader Demands Justice over French Colonial-era Wrongdoing

A general view of Algiers city, Algeria, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. (AP)
A general view of Algiers city, Algeria, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. (AP)

While France celebrated the anniversary of victory over the Nazis on Wednesday, Algeria commemorated a more somber anniversary: The crackdown by French colonial forces on Algerian independence activists the same day 79 years ago.

Both events took place on May 8, 1945.

In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron lay a wreath Wednesday at the eternal flame beneath the Napoleon-era Arc de Triomphe, honoring those killed fighting the Nazis and marking the end of World War II in Europe.

At the time of the war, Algeria was the crown jewel in France’s colonial empire, and Algerian soldiers were among those sent to fight for France in Europe. The end of World War II unleashed independence movements across the former French and British empires.

In Algiers on Wednesday, ceremonies were being held to honor demonstrators who took to the streets in the towns of Guelma, Sétif and Kherrata to call for freedom from French rule.

“On this day we are remembering the massacres of May 8, 1945, committed by the colonizer with extreme brutality and cruelty, to repress a growing national activist movement that had resulted in massive demonstrations expressing the revolt of the Algerian people and its aspiration to freedom and emancipation,’’ Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said in a statement, The AP reported.

They were unusually strong remarks from the Algerian leader, and a reminder of the lingering tensions with France more than 60 years after Algeria won its independence in a painful 1954-1962 war.

Algeria and France today have close economic, security and energy ties, but the question of historical justice remains a sore spot.

Tebboune is expected to raise it on a trip to France later this year. The issue of historical memory ‘’will remain at the center of our concerns until it enjoys an objective treatment that pays justice to historical truth,’’ Tebboune said in his statement this week.

During a visit to Algeria in 2022, Macron struck a chummy rapport with Tebboune and agreed to create a commission of historians from both countries to make proposals for reconciliation. The commission released proposals this year, including returning documents and artifacts from French archives to Algeria.

Algerian politicians have also sought financial reparations over French nuclear tests in the Sahara — and, most importantly, an official apology from France for colonial-era crimes.

As France’s first leader born after that era, Macron has sought to confront his country’s past wrongdoing while pivoting to a new era of relations with former colonies. But he has faced criticism at home, amid growing public support for far-right nationalists who champion the grievances of some French descendants of colonizers.

Arab World

Lebanon Body Puts Israeli Bombardment Damage at $1.5 Bln

Debris are scattered around buildings damaged by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Mays al-Jabal on May 5, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
Debris are scattered around buildings damaged by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Mays al-Jabal on May 5, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
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Lebanon Body Puts Israeli Bombardment Damage at $1.5 Bln

Debris are scattered around buildings damaged by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Mays al-Jabal on May 5, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
Debris are scattered around buildings damaged by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese border village of Mays al-Jabal on May 5, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)

Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon in seven months of cross-border hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah has caused more than $1.5 billion in damage, a Lebanese official said on Wednesday.

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement began attacking Israel in support of ally Hamas a day after the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah has stepped up its attacks in recent weeks, while Israel's military has struck deeper into Lebanese territory, saying it has targeted fighters and "infrastructure" used by the group.

Lebanon's Southern Council, an official body tasked with assessing the destruction, has estimated that since October 8, the cost of "damage to buildings and institutions stands at more than one billion dollars".

Infrastructure, including water, electricity, roads and health services have also suffered damage estimated at around an additional $500 million, according to the figures provided by council chief Hashem Haidar.

The information used to make the assessment was mostly gathered by "our teams on the ground", Haidar said.

With the hostilities ongoing, the estimates do not include all the destruction in particularly hard-to-reach areas, where the council relies on "engineers and municipality chiefs and local officials" for information, he added.

The Southern Council estimates that some 1,700 buildings have been completely destroyed, while around 14,000 have been damaged.

Emergency personnel have reported huge damage and villages emptied of residents.

The International Organization for Migration says more than 93,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, while Israel has evacuated tens of thousands of people from swathes of the country's north.

Many journalists have been reluctant to travel to Lebanon's border areas due to the heavy bombardment, while damage to some roads makes reporting trips more difficult.

The bombardment has also impacted farmland and livelihoods, with Lebanese authorities accusing Israel of using incendiary white phosphorus bombs that have triggered fires.

Authorities are waiting for a ceasefire in order to better assess the damage, but potential compensation procedures remain vague in a country suffering a crushing four-year economic crisis.

After Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating war in 2006, Gulf countries and Iran helped with reconstruction efforts, and Lebanese officials in recent months have expressed hope for foreign support this time around as well.

The cross-border violence has killed at least 390 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but also including more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israel says 13 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

Arab World

Israel, Hezbollah Trade Heavy Fire as Violence Escalates

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the border on May 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the border on May 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
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Israel, Hezbollah Trade Heavy Fire as Violence Escalates

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the border on May 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the border on May 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)

Israel carried out heavy airstrikes in south Lebanon and Hezbollah said it had launched explosive drones and powerful rockets at Israeli targets on Wednesday in an escalation of seven months of hostilities in the border region.

Israeli attacks killed three people in Lebanon, security sources said.

The conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel has rumbled on since October in parallel to the Gaza war, uprooting tens of thousands of people on both sides of the frontier and fueling concern of a bigger war between the heavily armed adversaries.

The Israeli military said it had hit military structures and infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah in three locations in south Lebanon, including more than 20 strikes on Hezbollah targets in the Ramyeh area.

Hezbollah said it had launched explosive drones at a military headquarters in the Israeli border town of Ya'ara, and fired its powerful Burkan rockets at a barracks in Biranit, among at least 10 attacks announced by the group on Wednesday.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on 28 towns and villages of south Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Two security sources in Lebanon said the Israelis were using powerful munitions in an apparent attempt to hit Hezbollah underground bunkers.

The Israeli military said secondary explosions had been identified during the attack by its artillery and fighter jets in the Ramyeh area, indicating there were weapons storage facilities in the location.

The displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel has prompted calls within Israel for firmer military action against Hezbollah. Across the border in Lebanon, some 90,000 people have also been displaced by Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military said in April it had completed another step in preparing for possible war with Hezbollah that centered on logistics, including preparations for a broad mobilization of reservists.

More than 250 Hezbollah members and 75 civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since October, sources in Lebanon say. In Israel, some 20 people - including soldiers and civilians - have been killed.

The United States and France have both been seeking to defuse the conflict through diplomacy.

Arab World

Only Three Days of Fuel for Health Services in South of Gaza, Says WHO

Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)
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Only Three Days of Fuel for Health Services in South of Gaza, Says WHO

Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)

There is only enough fuel to run health services in the south of Gaza for three more days, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge in the south of Gaza from combat further north in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel has threatened a major assault on the southern city of Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are holed up there, and its troops are now battling the Islamist group on Rafah's outskirts.

The WHO said a delivery of fuel to the area had been denied on Wednesday.

It also said that Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah was already no longer functional, one of three hospitals in the city. Some of its equipment has been moved to field hospitals, WHO said.

"WHO has pre-positioned some supplies in warehouses and hospitals, but without more aid flowing into Gaza, we cannot sustain our life-saving support to hospitals," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that WHO would remain in the area to provide health services.

Arab World

Main Maternity Hospital in Rafah Stops Admitting Patients

An Israeli military vehicle fires near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in southern Israel, May 8, 2024. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle fires near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in southern Israel, May 8, 2024. (Reuters)
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Main Maternity Hospital in Rafah Stops Admitting Patients

An Israeli military vehicle fires near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in southern Israel, May 8, 2024. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle fires near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in southern Israel, May 8, 2024. (Reuters)

The main maternity hospital in the Gaza Strip's crowded southern city of Rafah has stopped admitting patients, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) told Reuters on Wednesday.

The UNFPA told Reuters that the hospital, Emirati Maternity Hospital, had been handling some 85 out of a daily total of 180 births in Gaza prior to an escalation of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops on Rafah's outskirts.

Around half of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been crowded into Rafah after fleeing other parts of the enclave during seven months of war.

Emirati Hospital has only five delivery beds. But following the mass influx of people into Rafah that began in December due to Israeli airstrikes and fighting further north, the hospital became the main place for women to give birth in Rafah, Dominic Allen, the UNFPA’s top official for the occupied Palestinian territories, said in an interview with Reuters last month.

Other hospitals in the city, like Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital, have for months been admitting war wounded and directing women in labor to Emirati.

It was not immediately clear where women in Rafah trying to deliver in a hospital would be able to do so.

"Humanitarian partners, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, have set up alternative health facilities that can provide different levels of care", the UNFPA statement to Reuters read.

Arab World

Russia Says Gaza War Is Escalating and No Sign of Any Peace Settlement 

Israeli soldiers move on armored personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)
Israeli soldiers move on armored personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)
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Russia Says Gaza War Is Escalating and No Sign of Any Peace Settlement 

Israeli soldiers move on armored personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)
Israeli soldiers move on armored personnel carriers (APC) near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP)

Russia said on Wednesday that the war in Gaza was escalating due to Israel's incursion into Rafah and that Moscow so far saw no prospect for a peace settlement in Gaza or the wider Middle East.

Israel invaded Rafah, a southern Gazan city where more than one million displaced Palestinian civilians have sought shelter from Israel's offensive throughout the tiny territory.

"An additional destabilizing factor, including for the entire region, was the launch of an Israeli military ground operation in Rafah," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.

"About one and a half million Palestinian civilians are concentrated there. In this regard, we demand strict compliance with the provisions of international humanitarian law."

Speaking more broadly about efforts to find a lasting settlement in the Middle East, Zakharova said: "I would like to call it a settlement, but, alas, it is far from a settlement."

"There are no prospects for resolving the situation in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, the situation in the conflict zone is escalating daily."

The war began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's offensive has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in the conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Arab World

Sudanese Army Denies Link to Disembowelment Video

Sudanese drink from water extracted from an underground well in eastern Sudan. (AFP)
Sudanese drink from water extracted from an underground well in eastern Sudan. (AFP)
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Sudanese Army Denies Link to Disembowelment Video

Sudanese drink from water extracted from an underground well in eastern Sudan. (AFP)
Sudanese drink from water extracted from an underground well in eastern Sudan. (AFP)

The Sudanese army has distanced itself from a widely circulated disturbing video showing two people in military clothing disemboweling another person.

The army rejected any link between its forces and the individuals shown in the video, who were said to be associated with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Nabil Abdullah, the army’s official spokesperson, said media affiliated with the RSF “terrorist militia” tried to blame the military for the crime.

The army clarified that the people in the video were not part of their forces and weren’t wearing military uniforms.

The spokesperson said this was not the first time the RSF and its allies have attempted to fabricate such lies.

In a statement, the army reaffirmed its commitment to respecting international humanitarian laws and the rules of war.

Last Sunday, a video circulated on Sudanese social media purportedly showing individuals dressed in Sudanese military fatigues disemboweling an alleged RSF member. The victim was killed and his body desecrated.

RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo condemned the “horrific” video, rejecting such barbaric acts targeting innocents based on their identity and tribe. He assured that his forces would not engage in such behavior and would uphold international humanitarian laws and the Geneva conventions.

Several months ago, the army pledged to investigate an incident involving beheadings allegedly carried out by some of its members against three RSF members. The results of the probe are still pending.