JUBA – The South Sudan opposition said one of its army bases near the capital Juba was bombarded late Monday as Washington warned it was “deeply concerned” by escalating violence between the rival factions. Clashes between forces allied to president Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, first vice president Riek Machar, have left their 2018...
JERUSALEM – The Israeli army yesterday said it had again struck two military bases in central Syria, a day after the European Union’s foreign policy chief warned strikes there and in Lebanon risked escalation. “A short while ago, the IDF struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian military bases of Tadmur and T4,” the...
SANAA – The first US strikes against Yemen’s Huthis since Donald Trump took office killed 31 people, the rebels said yesterday, with the US president warning “hell will rain down upon” the Iran-backed group if it did not stop attacking shipping. The Huthis, who have attacked Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war,...
ADDIS ABABA – The African Union yesterday said the announcement of a parallel government in war-torn Sudan risked cleaving the country, already ravaged by nearly two years of unrest.The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been locked in a brutal conflict with Sudan’s army (SAF) since April 2023 in a war that has claimed tens...
MAPUTO – The latest cyclone to hit northern Mozambique has claimed at least six lives and destroyed more than 900 homes, authorities said yesterday, as the storm weakened.Cyclone Jude hit the Indian Ocean country on Monday, bringing winds of up to 195 kilometres an hour and more than 250mm of rain within 24 hours, the...
KRAMATORSK- For Ukrainian soldiers holding the frontline in the war-battered east of the country, the prospect of a 30-day ceasefire with Russia brought little relief – only distrust and suspicion. Senior Ukrainian and US officials walked away from high-stakes talks in Saudi Arabia late Tuesday agreeing to present Russia with a proposal to halt more...
BEIRUT – At least 1,383 civilians, the vast majority of them Alawites, were killed in a wave of violence that gripped Syria’s Mediterranean coast, a war monitor said yesterday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were killed in “executions by security forces and allied groups”, after a wave of violence broke out...
GENEVA – Palestinians who say they suffered brutal beatings and sexual abuse in Israeli detention and at the hands of Israeli settlers testified about their ordeals at the United Nations this week. “I was humiliated and tortured,” said Said Abdel Fattah, a 28-year-old nurse detained in November 2023 near Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital where...
SIBI – Pakistan security sources yesterday said the military had freed 190 train passengers taken hostage by gunmen on the second day of a siege in the mountainous southwest. More than 450 passengers were on board when a separatist militant group captured the train in a remote frontier district, with an unknown number of hostages...
EKURHULENI – A bus overturned in an area of Johannesburg near South Africa’s main airport early yesterday, killing at least 12 people, city officials said, with dozens more injured.The bus was carrying more than 50 people to work when it crashed on a busy road near Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport, officials said.Twelve people were...