Six aid workers have been killed in an ambush in famine-hit South Sudan, the United Nations said on Sunday, without specifying what organisation they worked for. The victims were attacked on Saturday as they travelled from the capital, Juba, to the eastern town of Pibor, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian … Read more
South Sudanese rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In-Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by former Vice President Riek Machar has accused government forces of killing six aid workers on Saturday. Spokesperson for the military wing Paul Gabriel Lam told local media Sudan Tribune that the attack was unfortunate and an independent investigation should be launched into the … Read more
Iraq has deployed snipers to target jihadists using civilians as human shields in Mosul, as it investigates air strikes that reportedly killed large numbers of residents in the city, the military said Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are still trapped in Mosul, caught between advancing Iraqi forces and the Islamic State group jihadists that … Read more
Coalition says it struck area in west Mosul where officials say scores of civilians were killed by aerial bombardment. The US-led coalition bombing ISIL positions in Iraq has admitted that it carried out air raids last week at a location in west Mosul where officials and residents say scores of civilians were killed. The acknowledgement … Read more
Air strikes have killed dozens of civilians in west Mosul in recent days, officials said Saturday, as the number of people fleeing fighting against jihadists in the area topped 200,000. Hundreds of thousands more are still in danger inside the city, where Iraqi forces have recaptured a series of neighbourhoods since the operation to retake … Read more
Iraqi forces battled Islamic State group fighters on Monday to push into Mosul’s Old City where thousands of civilians remain trapped under jihadist rule. The city’s historic centre is home to the Al-Nuri mosque, where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in July 2014 proclaimed an IS “caliphate” in jihadist-controlled territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria. … Read more
Elite Iraqi forces said they were battling house by house in the Old City of Mosul on Saturday, inching towards the mosque where the Islamic State group proclaimed its “caliphate” in 2014. Iraq began an operation on February 19 to retake west Mosul, which is the last major Islamic State group urban bastion in the … Read more
Iraqi forces said Friday they had seized ground inside Mosul’s Old City, a district expected to see some of the fiercest clashes in the battle for the jihadist stronghold. An operation began on February 19 to retake Mosul’s west, the last major Islamic State group urban bastion in the country, which includes the Old City. … Read more
A mother-of-two sobs as she carries her young son down a street in war-torn Mosul following heavy clashes today between the Iraqi Army and ISIS. Iraqi forces have taken more territory in the west of the city from the jihadists as the number of people fleeing the city reaches 45,000. Since launching an offensive on … Read more
An Iraqi minister on Saturday sharply criticised UN efforts to aid civilians fleeing fighting in west Mosul, even as the United Nations insisted that providing such assistance was the “top priority”. Tens of thousands of people have fled west Mosul since Iraqi forces launched an operation to retake it from the Islamic State jihadist group … Read more
Twelve people, including women and children, are being treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in Mosul, where Islamic State is fighting off an offensive by U. S.-backed Iraqi forces, the United Nations said on Saturday. The U.N.’s World Health Organization has activated with partners and local health authorities “an emergency response plan to … Read more
Seven people detained in a rebel-held part of Yemen for using recycled boxes originating in Saudi Arabia to distribute aid have been released, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Thursday. “We are greatly relieved by the release of our staff members and the driver,” said Mutasim Hamdan, the organisation’s Yemen country director. “They are in … Read more
Yemeni government forces made gains around the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha in heavy fighting overnight as they rebuffed a rebel counter-offensive, a military source said on Thursday. Seven loyalist troops and 16 rebels were killed in the fighting, hospital sources said. Twelve soldiers and 28 rebels were wounded. Government forces captured Yakhtul, 14 … Read more
The United Nations raised concerns Wednesday over newly announced demolition plans in a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank that threaten dozens of buildings including a primary school. Israeli officials have over the past week issued dozens of demolition orders threatening “nearly every structure” in a part of the village of Khan al-Ahmar, … Read more
Yemeni rebels hit back at government forces advancing up the Red Sea coast killing a deputy army commander in a missile strike, a military source said on Wednesday. Army deputy chief of staff Major General Ahmad Saif Al Yafii was killed by a heat-seeking missile on the outskirts of the coastal town of Mokha, the … Read more
Seven million Yemenis are closer than ever to starvation, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country warned Tuesday, almost two years since a conflict escalated between the government and rebels. “Seven million Yemenis do not know where their next meal will come from and are ever closer to starvation” in a country of 27 million … Read more
South Sudan’s government said on Monday that the country’s over three-year war has led to famine in parts of the nation, while nearly five million people — half the population — is going hungry. Isaiah Chol Aruai, the chairman of South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics, said some parts of the northern Greater Unity region … Read more
Yemeni rebels have abducted a dozen local staff working for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Red Sea district of Hodeida, a minister and local sources said Monday. Local sources told AFP the employees, all Yemeni citizens, were taken in a Thursday raid over accusations they had accepted and distributed aid from a Saudi-led coalition, … Read more
U. S.-backed Iraqi forces on Sunday launched a ground offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in Mosul, in the western part of the city, and put an end to their ambitions for territorial rule in Iraq. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the offensive in the northern Iraqi city, … Read more
The United Nations said Sunday as Iraqi forces launched their offensive to retake west Mosul that it was rushing to build more shelters ahead of an expected wave of displacement. “We are racing against the clock to prepare emergency sites south of Mosul to receive displaced families,” the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Lise Grande, … Read more