Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

British Museum to return Buddhist heads looted in Afghan war

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Stolen artefacts likely removed by Taliban will go on display before being sent to Kabul

Fourth-century Buddhist terracotta heads probably hacked off by the Taliban and found stuffed in poorly made wooden crates at Heathrow are to be returned to Afghanistan where they will be star museum exhibits.

The British Museum gave details on Monday of one of the most significant repatriation cases it has dealt with relating to the illegal looting of artefacts from Afghanistan and Iraq.

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UK ministers challenge court ruling on Saudi Arabia arms sales

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Exclusive: Corbyn says government is risking lives in Yemen by seeking to set aside judgment

Ministers have asked the courts to set aside a landmark ruling that British arms sales to Saudi Arabia are unlawful, a legal manoeuvre that prompted Jeremy Corbyn to accuse the Conservatives of prioritising military exports over civilian lives.

The government has applied for a stay of last month’s judgment pending an appeal, according to Campaign Against Arms Trade, which is fighting the case, at a time when conflict between the Saudis and Houthi rebels in Yemen has intensified.

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Iran nuclear deal in jeopardy after latest enrichment breach

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Tehran defiant in face of condemnation by European signatories to joint comprehensive plan of action

The Iran nuclear deal was put on life support on Sunday after Iran took a further step to breach its rules by taking its low-enriched uranium limit over the agreed threshold.

It was the second Iranian breach of the agreement in a matter of weeks, although Iran took only a relatively modest step by increasing enrichment from the agreed 3.7% level – enough to generate to civil nuclear power – to 5%, still well below the 20% threshold that is seen as putting Iran on course to developing a nuclear bomb.

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How Ifrah Ahmed, the girl from Mogadishu, took her FGM story to the world

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As a Somali girl she underwent the horrific practice. Now a new film tells how she risked her life to end it

Ifrah Ahmed refuses to let the horrific female genital mutilation she suffered at the age of eight define her. “I don’t want to be a victim. I want to be a voice,” says the 32-year-old campaigner.

She is one of the first women to publicly speak out about female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia – a country where it is estimated that 98% of women have undergone the ritual – and now her journey from powerless victim to powerful role model has been dramatised in a film. A Girl from Mogadishu has just had its UK premiere at the Edinburgh film festival and will be released across the UK in cinemas later this year.

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At least 544 civilians killed in Russian-led assault in Syria, rights groups say

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Syrian Network for Human Rights says two-month offensive has left 130 children dead

At least 544 civilians have been killed and over 2,000 people injured since a Russian-led assault on the last rebel bastion in north-western Syria began two months ago, according to rights groups and rescuers.

Russian jets joined the Syrian army on 26 April in the biggest offensive against parts of rebel-held Idlib province and adjoining northern Hama provinces in the biggest escalation in the war between the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, and his enemies since last summer.

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Second migrant rescue boat defies Salvini and docks in Italy

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Mediterranea’s Italian-flagged Alex arrives in Lampedusa with 41 shipwrecked migrants

A charity rescue vessel brought 41 shipwrecked migrants into port in Lampedusa on Saturday, the second boat to defy far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini’s bid to close Italian ports to them.

Mediterranea’s Italian-flagged Alex arrived in port where a strong police presence was waiting for them but everyone remained on board after spending two days with the rescued migrants and asylum-seekers on the sailboat.

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Survivor of shipwreck off Tunisia describes vessel going down

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Malian was one of four out of over 80 people on board who were rescued after raft sank

One of only four survivors after an inflatable raft carrying more than 80 people capsized off the coast of Tunisia has recounted his ordeal as 54 rescuees from a separate shipwreck headed to Malta.

Soleiman Coulibaly, from Mali, said he had spent two days clinging to a piece of wood after the engine caught fire and the inflatable sank.

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Bust of Tutankhamun sold at auction for £4.7m despite Egypt protests

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The ‘rare and beautiful’ 3,000-year-old sculpture goes under the hammer in defiance of claims it was stolen

A brown quartzite head of young king Tutankhamun has sold at auction in London for more than £4.7m despite Egyptian demands for its return.

The more than 3,000-year-old sculpture, displayed at Christie’s London auction house, shows the boy king taking the form of the ancient Egyptian god Amen.

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Joss Stone ‘detained and deported’ from Iran

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Singer says authorities did not believe she would not be playing a public show

The British singer Joss Stone says she has been deported from Iran, claiming the authorities believed she would play an unsanctioned concert in the country, where there are strict restrictions on female musicians performing in public.

In a video posted on Instagram, the 32-year-old said: “We got detained and then we got deported,” while dressed in a white headscarf, adding that she was on a “blacklist” and that the authorities “don’t believe we wouldn’t be playing a public show” on what would have been the final leg of her world tour.

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More than 80 feared dead as migrant boat capsizes off Tunisia

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Four men were pulled from sinking vessel with one later dying in hospital, says official

More than 80 people trying to reach Europe from Libya are feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia, according to the UN migration agency.

The boat sank on Wednesday off the port town of Zarzis and 82 of the migrants who had been onboard were missing, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Fishermen pulled four men from the sinking boat, said Lorena Lando, the agency’s head in Tunisia. One of the four died later in hospital.

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Iran fury as Royal Marines seize tanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria

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Iran summons UK ambassador over incident off Gibraltar as tensions escalate over nuclear deal

Royal Marines have helped seize an Iranian supertanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria off the coast of Gibraltar, escalating tensions between the UK and Tehran as the agreement aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear programme unravels.

A detachment of nearly 30 British troops working with the Gibraltarian police intercepted the vessel, believed to be carrying 2m barrels of oil, in a dramatic manoeuvre Spain said had been conducted at the request of the US.

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Libya may shut migrant detention centres after deadly airstrike

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Reports suggest guards shot at refugees as they tried to flee after first missile hit

Libya’s government is considering closing all migrant detention centres in the wake of an airstrike that killed 53 people after it was reported that guards shot at detainees trying to flee the attack.

Overnight the air force of Gen Khalifa Haftar kept up its bombardment of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, mounting raids on the international airport.

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UN calls for inquiry into Libya detention centre bombing

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Attack widely blamed on warlord Khalifa Haftar, which left at least 44 dead, labelled ‘war crime’

The United Nations has called for an independent inquiry into the bombing of a Libyan migrant detention centre that left at least 44 dead and more than 130 severely injured, describing the attack as “a war crime and odious bloody carnage”.

The detention centre east of Tripoli was housing more than 610 people when it was hit by two airstrikes. The bombing was attributed to the air force of Gen Khalifa Haftar by the Italian interior minister, Matteo Salvini, as well as by the UN-recognised Government of National Accord.

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Why attack on Libya detention centre was grimly predictable

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The EU has long been aware of the terrible plight of migrants detained or trapped in Libya

Shocking as the precise circumstances are behind the deaths of at least 44 people in an airstrike that hit a detention centre in Tajoura in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, it is a predictable incident.

Even as footage circulated online claiming to show blood and body parts mixed with rubble and migrants’ belongings from the air raid blamed on the forces of the warlord Khalifa Haftar, it emerged the detainees had been housed in a hangar next to a weapons store – the likely target of the strike.

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Tripoli detention centre hit by airstrike, killing at least 44 people – video

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At least 44 people have been killed after an airstrike hit a detention centre on the outskirts of the Libyan capital, according to an official in the UN-supported government. The death toll is the highest that has been reported from an airstrike since forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to take the city three months ago

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Khalid Al Qasimi, UAE sheikh and fashion designer, dies aged 39

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Son of the ruler of Sharjah has died, three weeks after showing at London fashion week

The fashion designer Khalid Al Qasimi has died, it has been announced. He was the crown prince and second son of Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, where a three-day period of mourning has been decreed with flags ordered to fly at half-mast. Details surrounding the cause of death were not officially disclosed.

The designer, also known as Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi, showed his spring/summer 2020 collection for his eponymous brand, Qasimi, on the London fashion week men’s showcase three weeks ago to critical acclaim. The 39-year-old designer was a graduate in architecture and fashion design from Central Saint Martins in London and presented his first collection, which was launched in collaboration with the designer Elliott James Frieze, in the capital in 2008.

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Syria accuses Israel of ‘heinous aggression’ after airstrikes

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Syria accuses Israel of ‘practising state terrorism’ after strikes reported to have killed at least 15 people

Syria has accused Israel of “heinous aggression” after alleged Israeli airstrikes killed several civilians.

“Israeli authorities are increasingly practising state terrorism,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency on Tuesday. “The latest heinous Israeli aggression falls within the framework of ongoing Israeli attempts to prolong the crisis in Syria,” it added.

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EU powers resist calls for Iran sanctions after breach of nuclear deal

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Focus is on averting further breaches and UK says it remains committed to 2015 deal

European leaders have resisted calls to start reimposing sanctions on Iran after the country said it had for the first time broken the terms of the nuclear deal it signed with foreign powers in 2015.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Monday it had allowed its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to exceed 300kg. The move is a carefully calibrated and reversible step intended to put pressure on Europe to do more to help mitigate the effect of crippling US sanctions.

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Stray missile from Syria-Israel clash lands in Cyprus – video

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A stray missile has exploded in mid-air over villages in northern Cyprus, thought to have been fired by Syrian forces in response to an Israeli attack. Hours after the projectile struck the area at about 1am local time (11pm BST) debris was still being discovered in Turkish Cypriot villages

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Scores of protesters wounded and seven dead on Sudan’s streets

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Security forces block roads and fire teargas in Khartoum in first protests since army crackdown

Seven people have died and nearly 200 have been wounded during huge demonstrations in Sudan, the first large-scale protests since a crackdown on a camp early in June left at least 128 people dead.

Tens of thousands took part in protests across the country. In Khartoum, the capital, protesters demanded that the ruling transitional military council (TMC) hand over power to civilians, as security forces fired teargas at them.

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