Sudan is witnessing a widespread outbreak of dengue fever and acute diarrhea, especially in Gedaref State, which has recorded hundreds of deaths and thousands of infections. The increase in the number of fever cases comes due to the closure of 100 hospitals as a result of the war.
The number of people infected with dengue fever and acute diarrhea has increased at an alarming rate in Sudan, where the war has caused the closure of 100 hospitals, leading to the death of hundreds, the Medical Syndicate announced Monday.
The union warned that the most affected state is Gedaref, located on the Ethiopian border, which is witnessing “a catastrophic spread of dengue fever throughout the state, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of infections.”
The rainy season in Sudan, which witnesses the spread of malaria or dengue fever epidemics every year, has become more deadly this year after more than five months of war between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
A medical source in Gedaref told Agence France-Presse, refusing to reveal his name: “Hospitals are full and cases continue to increase, and the situation is complicated, especially for sick children, because while some are hospitalized, most of them are being treated at home.”
Amal Hussein, a resident of Gedaref, said, “In every house there are at least three people sick with dengue fever,” which is a disease transmitted by mosquitoes that causes a significant rise in body temperature and then bleeding, and can lead to death if not treated.
In the city of El Fasher, North Darfur State, “13 cases of malaria were recorded within one week,” according to the Ministry of Health. As for Khartoum, three people died due to acute diarrhea out of 14 people who were hospitalized on Sunday alone, in the Haj Youssef area, east of the capital, according to the Resistance Committee in this neighborhood.
The activist group, which has been organizing aid among residents since fighting began in Sudan on April 15, urged residents to "take the necessary precautions to avoid infection."
"Disaster imminent"
In addition to diseases, hunger is knocking on doors in Sudan, where more than half of the 48 million people need humanitarian assistance to survive, and six million of them are on the brink of famine, as humanitarian agencies have warned.
The second United Nations official in Sudan, Clementine Nkwita-Salami, said, “The disaster is threatening Sudan, and donor countries must immediately pay the promised funds for humanitarian assistance that could save lives.”
According to the media center of the Ministry of Health, “Rapid Support takes control of the main center for medical supplies, and medicines and medical equipment amounting to $500 million were lost, and 70% of the equipment of the specialized centers in Khartoum, such as the center for oncology treatment, laparoscopic surgery, heart and orthopedic surgery, and pediatric surgery, was lost.”
Since the outbreak of battles that centered in the Sudanese capital and the Darfur region in the west of the country, about 7,500 people have been killed, including at least 435 children, according to official data, a toll that is likely to be much lower than the actual number of victims of the conflict. About five million people were forced to leave their homes and flee within Sudan or seek refuge in neighboring countries, especially Egypt and Chad, in addition to 80% of the health sector facilities in the country being out of service.
The United Nations sounded the alarm about the impact of the current political crisis in Sudan on the health situation of children, and last week it expressed its fear of the death of thousands of children there due to acute malnutrition and the spread of diseases in light of the violence prevailing in the country, especially after about 1,200 children died as a result of measles. Malnutrition in nine refugee camps in Sudan since May
The Libyan Derna disaster Will it unite the two governments or increase the gap between them?
Istanbul: The invitation of the Libyan government, appointed by the House of Representatives, to the international community to participate in the Derna Reconstruction Conference, next October 10, reflects a desire to extract international recognition instead of the unity government, but from the gateway to the humanitarian crisis left by the hurricane that struck the city of Derna. (East), under its influence.
Despite the state of solidarity among the various groups of people with the Derna tragedy, which left thousands dead and missing, and the aid convoys departing from the cities of the West to the afflicted areas in the East, the situation on the political level hides a silent competition between the two governments regarding the “legitimacy of the status quo” and the management of reconstruction funds.
Political rivalry
There is a political competition between the governments of Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba in the capital, Tripoli (west), and Osama Hammad in the city of Benghazi (east) over relief for the afflicted, reconstruction funds, and also over international aid that flowed from more than 20 countries and international relief organizations.
Because it enjoys international recognition, most international aid reaches Libya through the unity government, and the Central Bank of Libya, even after its unification, only recognizes the Dabaiba government, which has greater financial, material, and human resources, which gives it an advantage in terms of providing aid to the afflicted in the East. And thus new legitimacy outside its areas of control.
On the other hand, the government appointed by the House of Representatives is trying to compensate for its lack of material and financial resources by trying to “impose a fait accompli,” given that Derna and the areas affected by the hurricane and floods are all under its influence and the authority of the eastern forces led by Khalifa Haftar.
Based on this fait accompli, activists from the western region accuse Hammad’s government and Haftar’s forces of obstructing the entry of aid convoys sent by the unity government and volunteers from western cities to the stricken areas in the east.
In this regard, MP Ibrahim Al-Darsi, who supports the Hammad government, justifies the reasons for obstructing the entry of unity government convoys into the affected areas, saying, “The disaster occurred in the east, and therefore it is natural for the eastern government not to allow the Western government to intervene.”
In a television statement, Al-Darsi called on the Central Bank, after its unification, to liquidate funds for Osama Hammad’s government, saying, “We must deal with reality.”
While the government appointed by the House of Representatives, which is recognized only by Cairo, invited the international community to attend a conference for the reconstruction of Derna, in the stricken city.
This was considered by media activists in the western region to be an attempt by “an internationally recognized government to achieve political gains.”
The puzzle of reconstruction “money.”
The House of Representatives’ adoption, during an emergency session, of a budget estimated at 10 billion Libyan dinars (more than two billion dollars) for the reconstruction of Derna, sparked a political crisis with the Supreme Council of State (the second chamber of Parliament), which objected to this decision.
It was strange for a legislative institution (the House of Representatives) to interfere in allocating funds that it did not own, even though that was within the powers of the executive institution (the government).
In the earthquake in Morocco and before that in Turkey and Syria, we did not hear any parliament that approved an emergency budget and asked the Central Bank to allocate it for reconstruction, bypassing the executive institution.
This was raised by the President of the Supreme Council of State, Mohamed Takala, in an official correspondence with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, in which he drew his attention to the fact that spending to meet emergency needs was allocated a clause in the budget law, for which the government is responsible for spending on those needs without legislative intervention.
Takala, Aguila warned that the budget law is to be prepared by the executive authority and presented to the Council of State, which has not been done, and that in such circumstances (the budget law) is considered “a national security that no one or entity can monopolize due to the exploitation, confusion, and confusion that may surround it.” .
But what Takala did not say is that with this huge budget, which exceeds two billion dollars, the House of Representatives seeks to convince the Central Bank, headed by Governor Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir, to disburse it to Hammad’s government, and to marginalize the unity government, under the pretext of reconstruction.
Activists in western Libya and those affected in Derna express their fear that “reconstruction funds” will be diverted to other than their intended destination, and they demand that international bodies such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund supervise the reconstruction process.
In this context, the Government of National Unity officially requested the World Bank to help manage reconstruction funds for areas and cities that suffered massive losses due to the hurricane.
This request came in a letter from the Minister of Finance of the Unity Government, Khaled Al-Mabrouk, to the resident representative of the World Bank Group in Libya, Henriette von Kaltenborn, dated September 12.
The unity government limited the request for assistance to three points: a rapid assessment of the damage, the establishment of programs for rapid and emergency cash transfers to those affected, and the management of prospective reconstruction funds.
Through this step, which came two days after the hurricane that struck Derna, the unity government had previously removed from the government appointed by Parliament the card “management of anticipated reconstruction funds.”
The Dabaiba government is well aware that it is difficult for it to manage reconstruction funds in areas outside its control, and therefore it is at the mercy of the Hammad government and its supporters (Aqila and Haftar), so it proposed to the World Bank to manage these funds.
Division hampers reconstruction
Although the damage caused by the hurricane and the floods that caused the collapse of the Derna dams is greater than the capacity of Libya and all its institutions, the division between two governments, one in the West and the other in the East, has made relief missions difficult, and has even prompted international parties to hesitate in providing aid.
The internationally recognized government is in the West, the afflicted areas are in the East, and in between are fields of military and political mines that hinder the delivery of aid with the required speed, at a time when any moment could save a human life.
The unity and solidarity among the members of the Libyan people, whether from the West or from the East, was not reflected to the same extent in the political scene that is still torn between two governments, despite the convoys of relief and technical aid that the unity government sent to the stricken areas, as well as a fleet of planes that were transporting aid. And volunteers are free.
This situation prompted the victims of Derna to organize protests in the city on September 18, in which they called on the Speaker of Parliament to leave, called for those responsible for the disaster to be held accountable, accelerated reconstruction, and achieved national unity, and denounced discrimination.
These protests raised the concern of officials in the east that they would spread to the rest of the cities of Cyrenaica, as happened in 2020. Therefore, the Municipal Council of Derna was sacrificed, as it was dismissed by the Hammad government, against which popular pressure is increasing, especially with calls to open a local and international investigation into those responsible and negligent in the dam collapse. tuber.
Obtaining reconstruction funds, whether from the Central Bank or from the international community, represents a necessity for the Hammad government, to absorb the anger of the afflicted and the Libyan people, especially since the state budget goes mostly to the unity government.
The repercussions of the Derna floods on the “frozen” political scene have not stopped, and perhaps they have not yet begun, with everyone busy recovering the bodies and relieving the afflicted, but the next stage will increase popular pressure to end the political division, as the reconstruction of Derna will not be completed with the required speed except with executive authority.
The Nigerien Military Council demands a negotiating framework for the withdrawal of French forces
The ruling military junta in Niger demanded that the schedule for the withdrawal of French forces from the country be according to an agreed-upon deadline, after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of military cooperation between Paris and Niger’s coup leaders under the pretext of their unwillingness to fight terrorism.
Niger's coup leaders called for the establishment of a "negotiating framework" for the withdrawal of French forces from their country, after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would withdraw its soldiers from this country.
The military regime in Niger said in a statement, on Monday evening, that the timetable for the withdrawal of French forces, consisting of 1,500 soldiers in Niger to combat terrorism, must “take place within a negotiated framework and joint agreement for better effectiveness.”
The military in Niger confirmed that they expect official measures issued by the relevant French authorities after Macron announced on Sunday evening that France would withdraw its ambassador, Sylvain Eté, from Niger “in the coming hours” and then the approximately 1,500 French soldiers.
“We are ending our military cooperation with the de facto authorities in Niger, because they no longer want to fight terrorism,” Macron said on Sunday.
Since the French announcement, no special movement has been recorded in the vicinity of the French embassy in Niamey that leads to the belief that Eteh left the country.
Immediately after Macron's statements were issued, the ruling military regime in Niamey celebrated "a new step towards Niger's sovereignty."
In recent weeks, Niamey has witnessed several demonstrations against the French presence, in which tens of thousands of people participated.
For its part, the United States of America, which sent 1,100 soldiers to Niger, announced that it is evaluating its options.
The US Secretary of Defense said that Washington "did not implement any tangible change in the conditions of our forces and we really want to see a diplomatic solution and a peaceful end" to the crisis.