Alliance says corridors will help delivery of life-saving aid to starving Yemenis in Hodeidah and the capital Sanaa. The Saudi-UAE military alliance fighting in Yemen says it will open humanitarian corridors between two rebel-held areas, the Red Sea city of Hodeidah and the capital Sanaa, to allow life-saving aid to be delivered to millions of starving Yemenis. Turki Al Maliki, a spokesman… Read more »
Dozens of Iraqi men and boys have been forcibly disappeared by Iraqi security forces since 2014, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a report published on Thursday, the rights group said 74 mostly Sunni Arab men and four boys had been disappeared between April 2014 and October 2017, often in the context of counterterrorism operations. Since 2014, pro-government forces have carried… Read more »
AIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian prosecutors are investigating the death of a monk who was from the monastery where a bishop was murdered in July, a case that has rattled the biggest church in the Middle East. Zenon al-Makari, 45, died while being rushed to hospital after suffering severe stomach pains. He had served as a confessional priest for one of… Read more »
Yemen has been a place of civil war since 2015. As the Yemeni government lead by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Iranian backed houthi militia clash against each other, they both claim that they constitute the Yemeni government. As this civil war is taking place, millions of people are put at risk with ongoing attacks by both sides. Three UN… Read more »
Arab and EU states expected to increase donations to UNRWA, as $185m required to keep agency running until end of 2018. New York, United States – The UN Palestinian refugee agency has welcomed the “huge solidarity” shown by several countries as the humanitarian organisation seeks to rapidly plug the hole left by the US, which pulled its financial support in August…. Read more »
The case of a 12-year old Kurdish Syrian girl recruited to fight alongside local militias has highlighted ongoing concerns about the recruitment of child soldiers by Kurdish forces. Avin Saroxan appeared on a Kurdish TV channel dressed in military uniform with a group of other underage girls in Deir ez-Zor, apparently all engaged in fighting against Islamic State forces. According… Read more »
IWPR Syria project coordinator Zaina Erhaim has been awarded the 2016 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for journalism. Erhaim, 30, returned to the war-torn Syria in 2013. Based in Aleppo, she has since trained about 100 citizen reporters, around a third of them women, who are now among the very few able to provide eyewitness accounts of events… Read more »
Palestinian officials rejected US President Donald Trump‘s comments supporting a two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis, saying American policies were destroying any hope for peace. Trump made the statement during the annual United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said a two-state solution could resolve the decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Gaza Strip – Almost six months have passed since the start of a massive wave of protests known as the Great March of Return, organised by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They started on March 30, the commemoration of Land Day, which marks the events of March 30, 1976, when Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel as they… Read more »
The 450km Haramain High-Speed railway, which cost $16bn, will link Mecca and Medina via the Red Sea city of Jeddah. Saudi Arabia has launched a high-speed railway connecting Islam’s two holiest cities in a bid to improve traffic congestion for the millions of Muslim pilgrims that visit the country annually. King Salman launched the 450km Haramain High-Speed Rail System linking… Read more »