Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Lebanese author Hoda Barakat wins International prize for Arabic fiction

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The Night Mail takes $50,000 prize and secures funding for an English translation

Lebanese author Hoda Barakat has won the $50,000 (£39,000) International prize for Arabic fiction (Ipaf) for her novel The Night Mail, which tells the stories of people in exile through their letters.

Billed as the “Arabic Booker”, the Ipaf also provides funding to translate the book into English. The Night Mail has already been acquired by UK publisher Oneworld, which will publish the English version in 2020.

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Sisi wins snap Egyptian referendum amid vote-buying claims

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Voters given food boxes to back constitutional changes that could extend Sisi rule to 2030

Supporters of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have claimed victory after almost 90% of Egyptian voters backed sweeping constitutional changes that could result in him ruling until 2030.

Election officials claimed 88.8% of voters had confirmed the changes, with a turnout of 44%. The results overhaul the 2014 constitution: they extend presidential term limits to six years, allowing Sisi to run for re-election in 2024; expand presidential control over the judiciary, and enshrine the military’s role in politics.

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Libya: EU officials hoping Trump will pull support for warlord

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President has backed Khalifa Haftar, seen by UK and UN as aggressor in Libya conflict

European officials are hoping Donald Trump’s surprise expression of support for the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar can be reversed amid division in Washington over US policy on the north African country.

A clarification of US policy is considered necessary in order to build an international consensus condemning the attack on Tripoli that has claimed nearly 300 lives and injured more than 1,000, including migrants trapped in detention centres, since it began this month.

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Ending the Iranian sanctions waiver could be own goal for Trump

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Preventing Iran’s oil from reaching the market will raise oil prices and US business costs

The past two and a bit years have shown that it is naive to expect Donald Trump’s strategic and economic policies to demonstrate coherence. Even so, the lack of joined-up thinking in the decision to end the waiver against sanctions from nations that buy oil from Iran takes some beating.

Related: US toughens stance on Iran, ending exemptions from oil sanctions

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US toughens stance on Iran, ending exemptions from oil sanctions

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Mike Pompeo says any nation interacting with Iran should do its diligence and err on the side of caution

The US has announced it will no longer exempt countries from sanctions that aim to impose a complete oil embargo on Iran.

Officials said the Trump administration would not renew any of the sanctions waivers granted to a handful of countries, including China, India, Turkey, Japan and South Korea, when those waivers expire on 2 May.

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Sri Lanka terrorist attacks among world’s worst since 9/11

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Death toll from Easter Sunday’s eight bomb blasts nears 300, with 500 others injured

The wave of bombings on Sunday targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka is among the worst terrorist attacks carried out worldwide since September 11, in which 2,977 people died.

On Monday, police said the death toll had surged overnight to 290, with the number expected to rise further. About 500 people were injured, according to reports.

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Beyoncé rocks, but so did Woodstock | Brief letters

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Roger Waters | Rock concerts | Use-by dates | Exercise | Smartphones

Regarding Jeremy Beecham’s thoughts on Roger Waters (Letters, 19 April), I think we can take it as read Waters would not encourage Madonna to support the Assad regime by playing Damascus.
John Warburton
Edinburgh

• You failed to mention the two most important filmed rock concerts (Homecoming review – Beyoncé documentary is a triumphant celebration, 19 April): Monterey Pop and Woodstock. To write about seminal filmed rock gigs without mentioning them is like writing about influential 60s groups without mentioning the Beatles or the Stones.
Jon Ingram
Ilkley, West Yorkshire

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Tripoli hit by airstrikes as Haftar steps up assault on Libyan capital

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It is unclear whether aircraft or drones carried out the strike, which follows US statement in support of Haftar

Several airstrikes, including the first alleged use of armed drones in the conflict, shook Tripoli overnight in an escalation of the United Arab Emirate-backed assault on the Libyan capital led by Khalifa Haftar. The allegations about the use of drones were made by the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli, and supported by eyewitnesses.

A Reuters reporter and several Tripoli residents said they saw an aircraft circling for more than 10 minutes over the capital late on Saturday, and that it made a humming sound before opening fire on several areas. Drone strikes make a noticeably different noise from missile strikes.

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Iraq’s oldest Christian town celebrates Easter without Isis

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Hamdaniya has been reclaimed from the extremists who made it a hotbed of violence

The church ceiling was still scorched and some cherished relics missing, but after five years of war and exile, their tormentors were finally gone.

When the men and women of Iraq’s oldest Christian town gathered for Easter mass this weekend, they did so knowing that the Islamic State extremists who had chased them away were not coming back. Their battlefield defeat two months ago meant the people of Hamdaniya (also called Qaraqosh) could once again celebrate without fear.

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Members of ousted president’s former ruling party arrested

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Seizure of officials from Omar al-Bashir’s NCP appears to be aimed at placating protesters

Sudanese authorities have arrested several members of the former ruling party of the ousted president Omar al-Bashir, an official of Bashir’s National Congress party (NCP) has said.

Sudan’s attorney general has also asked the country’s intelligence and national security agencies to lift the immunity of a number of their officers suspected of killing a teacher who died in custody after protests in February, according to the state news agency.

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Huge crowds gather in Sudan to demand civilian rule – video

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Large numbers of people join a protest outside Sudan’s defence ministry to demand that the country’s transitional military council hand over power to civilians. The crowds were the largest since Omar al-Bashir was ousted last week after almost 30 years in power and the military council took over.

Protesters chanted: ‘Freedom and revolution are the choice of the people’ and ‘civilian rule, civilian rule’, and waved national flags. Some soldiers were seen joining the protest, firing rifles as the crowds cheered them on.

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Egypt holds snap vote on extending president’s term limit

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Voting in referendum to begin just four days after MPs backed constitutional changes

Egyptians are due to vote in a referendum that is expected to confirm sweeping changes to the constitution and could allow President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi to remain in power until 2030.

The rush to the ballot boxes was triggered when 531 out of 596 members of parliament backed the constitutional amendments on Tuesday. The national electoral commission declared the next day that the public vote would begin on Saturday.

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Sudan: huge crowds call for civilian rule in biggest protest since Bashir ousting

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Hundreds of thousands converge on defence ministry demanding military hand over power

Huge crowds formed outside Sudan’s defence ministry to demand the country’s transitional military council hand over power to civilians.

Hundreds of thousands packed the streets by early evening on Thursday – the largest crowds to gather in the centre of the capital since last week, when the former president Omar al-Bashir was ousted and the military council took over.

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Roger Waters is too simplistic on Israel | Letters

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Readers share their views on the musician’s call for other artists to stay away from Israel over its human rights record

Roger Waters’ mother imploring her son to “decide for yourself” and execute the “right thing to do” was no doubt in reference to the juvenile politics of the playground (If you believe in human rights, Madonna, don’t play Tel Aviv, 17 April). Unfortunately, these simple values can not be transposed to the labyrinthine issues of the Middle East in general and the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular.

Sadly “bad stuff” occurs in all conflicts, which are not as clearcut as Waters would suggest: baddie Israelis (“apartheid”, “ethnic cleansing”, “slaughter”) versus goodie Palestinians (“fortitude”, “grace”, “heads high”).

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Crusader armies were remarkably genetically diverse, study finds

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DNA research adds to evidence soldiers heading east struck up relationships with locals

Crusader armies were made up of people from remarkably genetically diverse backgrounds, hailing not just from western Europe but also much further east, according to a new study that gives unprecedented insight into the fighters’ lives.

The Crusades to the Holy Land were spread over two centuries, with many Europeans heading east to fight, and others turning up to trade.

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Tunisia holds UN Libya arms trafficking expert in jail

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UN says arrest and detention of Moncef Kartas violates diplomatic immunity

A UN-appointed expert on breaches of the Libyan arms embargo has been arrested and kept in a Tunisian jail for nearly a month.

Moncef Kartas, a Tunisian-German dual national, was arrested on 26 March. He is one of six UN experts appointed to investigate breaches of the UN-imposed embargo on arms to Libya first introduced in 2011. The UN says his detention is a violation of his diplomatic immunity.

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Devastation of shelling in Hodeidah: ‘My daughters died hungry’ | Rod Austin and Karl Schembri

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As a voluntary agreement is struck for forces to withdraw from the port city, two friends recount the horror of conflict in their neighbourhood in Yemen

Friends Majed Al-Wahidi and Ali Al-Zazai remember the constant buzzing of drones overhead in Hodeidah on 18 November last year.

Majed, a teacher and father of six daughters, had left Ali’s house to return to his home nearby, but went back because he had forgotten his lighter. It was about 5pm and Majed’s daughters were in their bedroom, having taken a break from studying to pray in their modest, corrugated iron-covered home.

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Sudan: former president Omar al-Bashir moved to prison

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Ousted leader is being held in solitary confinement in the notorious Kobar prison

Deposed ex-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Khartoum’s grim high-security Kobar prison from the presidential residence, family sources said on Wednesday, as military rulers announced steps to crack down on corruption.

Bashir, 75, had been detained under heavy guard in the presidential residence inside the compound that also houses the defence ministry, before being transferred to Kobar prison late on Tuesday, the sources said. He was being held in solitary confinement at Kobar, a prison source said.

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Mounting concern over cholera health crisis in Yemen

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More than 2,000 new cases reported every day, with 25% of those affected being children under five

Yemen is facing a massive resurgence of cholera in what was already one of the world’s worst outbreaks, with more than 137,000 suspected cases and almost 300 deaths reported in the first three months of this year.

With well over 2,000 suspected cases being recorded every day – a doubling since the beginning of the year – aid agencies fear they could be facing a major new health crisis.

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Nearly 180 dead and 800 injured in Haftar’s assaults on Tripoli

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Libya’s government denounces attacks as barbaric and says evidence will be passed to ICC

Nearly 180 people have died as a result of General Khalifa Haftar’s assault on Tripoli, with at least four civilians killed in aerial bombardment on the Libyan capital overnight.

More than 800 have been wounded since the warlord who controls the east of the country began his attempt to seize the city from the UN-recognised government of national accord nearly a fortnight ago.

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