Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

37 people missing after boat capsizes between Tunisia and Lampedusa

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Boat capsized in strong winds with most passengers feared dead, according to four survivors cited by migrants’ organisation

Thirty-seven people are missing after their boat capsized between Tunisia and the Italian island of Lampedusa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, citing an account by four survivors of the shipwreck.

The UN agency said the survivors, all from sub-Saharan Africa, arrived on Lampedusa late on Thursday, having been rescued from the shipwreck by another vessel.

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Spanish investigation launched into fatal boat rescue delay

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Spanish and Moroccan authorities blamed for 12-hour delay after up to 60 people seen stranded en route to Canary Islands

Spain’s public ombudsman has begun an investigation into why as many as 60 people stranded on an inflatable boat bound for the Canary Islands had to wait more than 12 hours to be rescued, leading to the loss of at least 35 lives, among them a child.

Passengers on the boat – which got into difficulties off the coast of Western Sahara on Tuesday afternoon – appealed for help, but a Moroccan rescue boat did not appear until the following day, when it picked up 24 people.

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Yemen peace talks must accept country is divided in two, says southern leader

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Exclusive: Maj Gen Aidarus al-Zoubaidi says a Houthi-run north and STC-led south is the new reality

The leader seen as integral to solving Yemen’s nine-year civil war has said the west has to accept a new reality in which Yemen’s north is controlled by the Houthis and the south is run by his separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC).

In a Guardian interview, Maj Gen Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, the president of the STC and vice-president of the UN-recognised government of Yemen, said the planned talks on the country’s future had to be reconfigured to meet that new reality, including by putting the issue of a separate southern state at the foreground of discussions. The talks are largely under the control of Saudi Arabia, which wants to find a way to extricate itself from a war that is estimated to have caused more than 250,000 deaths.

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At least 35 people feared dead after dinghy sinks en route to Canary Islands

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Child among the dead and 24 people rescued in Moroccan-led operation, say Spanish maritime sources

At least 35 people are feared to have drowned after an inflatable boat carrying up to 60 migrants and refugees sank while en route to the Canary Islands early on Wednesday morning.

The Spanish migration NGO Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said 60 people were on the boat, of whom 39 were missing. Another migration NGO, Alarm Phone, put the number of people onboard at 59 and said 35 were missing.

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US Senate asks governor of Saudi wealth fund to testify over LIV-PGA merger

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Invitation raises possibility Yasir al-Rumayyan could be questioned under oath about execution of Jamal Khashoggi

The powerful governor of Saudi Arabia’s state-backed investment fund has been invited to testify before a Senate committee in the wake of a proposed merger between the Saudi-backed LIV Tour and the PGA, raising the possibility the executive could be questioned under oath about issues ranging from the future of golf to the execution of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, was invited to testify on 11 July by the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, whose chairman, the Democratic senator Dick Blumenthal, is one of the toughest critics of Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill.

This article was amended on 21 June 2023 to clarify that Yasir al-Rumayyan is the governor of Saudi Arabia’s state-backed investment fund, rather than the chairman.

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Armed Israeli settlers rampage through Palestinian town in revenge attack

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Palestinians say man was killed and 10 were injured after settlers rampaged through West Bank town and army opened fire

A large group of Israeli settlers have attacked a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to homes, cars and fields in a revenge rampage that left one Palestinian dead from gunfire and 10 others injured, according to Palestinian witnesses and officials.

Many of the hundreds of settlers who raided the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, on Wednesday were armed.

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At least four people killed by Palestinian gunman in West Bank

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Israeli security forces say gunman was shot and search for other attackers continues after incident near settlement of Eli

A Palestinian attacker has opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics have said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.

Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker’s driver had fled the scene.

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Disgraced Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn sues former employer for $1bn

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Executive who jumped bail in Japan and escaped to Beirut has filed claim in Lebanese court

Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan executive who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon, has filed a $1bn lawsuit against his former employer.

Ghosn, the mastermind of a carmaking alliance with Renault that also later involved Mitsubishi Motors, was detained in Japan in November 2018 amid allegations of financial misconduct involving a plot to deliberately underreport his remuneration.

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Soft power: Saudi Arabia flexes muscles with launch of new Gulf airline Riyadh Air

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Launch comes amid resurgent demand for air travel after end of Covid lockdowns

As the deafening roar of an F35 fighter jet washes over the Paris air show, Tony Douglas allows himself a moment of nostalgia: he was formerly responsible for the UK government agency charged with buying the planes.

Now he is in charge of a different aviation proposition, leading the launch of a new commercial airline belonging to the Saudi Arabian state.

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Israeli forces launch helicopter raid on Jenin in occupied West Bank

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Five Palestinians killed and 45 injured, according to Palestinian officials as Israeli army enters city to arrest ‘suspects’

The Israeli military has used combat helicopters in the occupied West Bank for the first time in years, as an arrest operation in Jenin encountered unexpectedly fierce Palestinian resistance.

The heavy fighting intensified calls by settler leaders to call for a broader military campaign in the West Bank.

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Sudan paramilitary group boasts of detaining Islamists

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Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces, wants to frame Islamist opponents as a threat

Hundreds of Islamist leaders and activists in Sudan have been detained by the Rapid Support Forces in a wave of repression targeting the paramilitary group’s political opponents.

The arrests began before the outbreak of fighting in April between the RSF and forces loyal to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto military leader, but have intensified since.

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US ‘deeply troubled’ as Israel plans to approve thousands of homes in West Bank

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Palestinians condemn move and Washington calls for return to dialogue amid Israeli plans to give go-ahead to 4,560 housing units in occupied territory

The United States says it is “deeply troubled” by the Israeli government’s tabling of plans to approve thousands of building permits in the occupied West Bank and has called on Israel to return to dialogue aimed at de-escalation.

The plans for approval of 4,560 housing units in various areas of the West Bank were included on the agenda of Israel’s Supreme Planning Council that meets next week, although only 1,332 are up for final approval, with the remainder still going through the preliminary clearance process.

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Sudan: paramilitary forces blamed for assassination of West Darfur governor

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Khamis Abdallah Abbakar was murdered hours after criticising Rapid Support Forces on television

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been blamed for the assassination and mutilation of a senior government official, amid growing reports of mass killings in the restive Darfur region in the country’s devastating war.

Khamis Abdallah Abbakar, the governor of West Darfur, was murdered this week just hours after he gave an interview to a Saudi-owned TV station in which he criticised the RSF and described a “genocide”.


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Greek shipwreck highlights divided Libya’s inability to stem flow of refugees

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Absence of unified Libyan national government leaves Europe lacking effective allies to tackle people-smuggling trade

The mass drowning of refugees heading from Libya for Italy as their large boat capsized off the coast of Greece underlines Libya’s continuing power vacuum and the inability of its divided leaders to deliver on their promises to stem the profitable people-smuggling trade. It is striking that the ship sailed from the eastern port of Tobruk, a city where local leaders have mounted a campaign against illegal migration.

On 4 May, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, granted Libya’s strongman in the east, Khalifa Haftar, a meeting in Rome at which she offered to invest in Libya’s east – the country has been divided into a rival east and west since 2015 – in return for action on the smugglers.

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Benjamin Netanyahu suffers rebellion in vote linked to Israeli judicial overhaul

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Political chaos weakens prime minister as he pursues controversial changes

A rebellion by members of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, government in an important vote related to controversial judicial changes has dealt the longtime leader a political setback, bringing divisions in his coalition to the fore and scuppering compromise talks with the opposition.

The Knesset was expected on Wednesday to elect two political representatives to Israel’s nine-member judicial selection committee, one of the key issues in the six-month-old debate over the nature of Israeli democracy, and a vote widely viewed as a referendum on the future of the overhaul.

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‘The people don’t want us’: inside a camp for Iraqis returned from Syrian detention

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Exclusive: As Iraq steps up transfers from al-Hawl, speaking to returnees raises questions over a process mired in complexities

The Iraqi government plans to accelerate the repatriation of its nationals with confirmed or suspected ties to Islamic State (IS) from north-east Syria, in a politically charged process that has ignited a struggle for power and money while highlighting the challenges of reintegrating a partly radicalised population.

After months of deadlock, about 650 civilians, mostly women and children, were transferred last week from Syria’s notorious al-Hawl camp to a closed facility in northern Iraq called Jeddah-1, where they will spend several months before they are allowed to leave. Though they have not committed crimes, many have relatives who joined the terrorist group and have for years been exposed to extremist ideology.

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Israel’s Knesset vote to be delayed as judicial overhaul row continues

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Fresh protests expected against proposals as opposition members threaten to quit compromise talks

A key vote in Israel’s Knesset related to the government’s bitterly contested judicial overhaul is set to be delayed at the behest of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a move that could torpedo negotiations with the opposition and galvanise the anti-legislation protest movement.

Parliamentarians were due on Wednesday to elect two political representatives to the country’s nine-member judicial selection committee, the composition of which is one of the most important issues in the now six-month-old political crisis.

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Anguish as rape survivors in Sudan unable to access vital medication

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Emergency contraception, HIV-prevention and abortion drugs are locked in a warehouse in Khartoum – leaving women to turn to desperate measures

Rape survivors in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are struggling to get hold of emergency contraception and abortion medication.

Access to a warehouse where 47,000 medical post-rape kits are stored has been cut off since the conflict began in April. Women are using social media to share information about where to find drugs to prevent pregnancies and infections – or are using herbal remedies.

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Israel prepares for vote related to controversial judicial reform plan

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Knesset to elect two members to judges selection committee, with hardliners in ruling coalition pushing to pick both members

Israeli politics is once again reaching a fever pitch before a crucial vote related to the government’s controversial proposals to overhaul the judiciary.

The Knesset will convene on Wednesday to elect two representatives to Israel’s judicial selection committee – the composition of which is at the heart of the now six-month-old battle over the future of Israeli democracy.

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Twenty-two troops injured in helicopter ‘mishap’ in Syria, US military says

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Ten evacuated to care facilities outside region after incident on Sunday that is being investigated

Twenty-two US service members were injured in a helicopter “mishap” in north-east Syria on Sunday, the US military said late on Monday, without disclosing the cause of the incident or detailing the severity of the injuries.

The military’s Central Command said 10 service members had been evacuated to higher-level care facilities outside the region.

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