Sudan's RSF Agrees with UN on Steps to Ease Aid Delivery

Sudanese farmers plow a field on the outskirts of Sudan's eastern city of Gedaref on July 18, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Sudanese farmers plow a field on the outskirts of Sudan's eastern city of Gedaref on July 18, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Sudan's RSF Agrees with UN on Steps to Ease Aid Delivery

Sudanese farmers plow a field on the outskirts of Sudan's eastern city of Gedaref on July 18, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Sudanese farmers plow a field on the outskirts of Sudan's eastern city of Gedaref on July 18, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces agreed with the United Nations on some steps to ease aid delivery in areas under its control, a member of the RSF told Reuters on Thursday.

The Sudanese army has not reached any understandings on aid delivers with the RSF, he added. It is unclear if these steps could be implemented without the army's participation.

Meanwhile, a key supply route into Sudan's Darfur region, deemed at risk of famine by a global monitor, has been cut off due to heavy rains, a World Food Program official told Reuters on Thursday.
The UN agency has described Sudan as the world's biggest hunger crisis, with the western Darfur region most at risk as Sudan's 15-month civil war that has displaced millions and sparked ethnic violence grinds on.
WFP's Country Director Eddie Rowe said thousands of tons of aid are stranded at the Tina crossing on the Chad border, prompting the body to reopen talks with the army-aligned government to open an alternative, all-weather crossing further south called Adre.
"You have these huge rivers. As I speak now, our convoy, which is supposed to move over 2000 metric tons is stranded," he told Reuters from Port Sudan. Asked on the status of the talks that resumed this week, he said: "It's 50/50.”
WFP is now seeking clearances to move a large 70-truck convoy via a little-used, over 1000 kilometer route from Port Sudan to Darfur which Rowe said will involve crossing the battle lines of both the Sudan Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces and various militias.
He added that this mostly desert route has worked in the past but outside of the rainy season and that the last journey took weeks and was "fraught with a lot of challenges.”
In a separate interview, Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, told Reuters that she had met Darfur refugees in Chad who told her stories of escaping with virtually no water and eating grass along the route. "There's no doubt that people are starving," she said.



UK Police Arrest Two Men over Alleged Hezbollah Links

A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel
A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel
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UK Police Arrest Two Men over Alleged Hezbollah Links

A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel
A protester holding a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. AP Photo/Emrah Gurel

British counter-terrorism police said on Thursday they had arrested two men accused of being linked to the banned group Hezbollah, saying their investigation involved alleged activity both overseas and in Britain.

Detectives from London's Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) arrested a 39-year-old man in north London on suspicion of being a member of a proscribed group, preparing acts of terrorism and being involved in funding for the purposed of terrorism, Reuters said.

A second man, 35, was arrested in west London on suspicion of being a member of a banned organization.

"Our investigation remains ongoing, but I hope that these arrests show we will take robust action against anyone here whom we suspect as being involved in terrorist activity regardless of whether their activity is focused here in the UK or elsewhere," said commander Dominic Murphy, head of the CTC.

Police said the investigation related to the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah which Britain outlawed in 2019 when it classified it as a terrorist group. There was no immediate threat to the public, they said.

The two men were released on police bail until mid-July.