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A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants

A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants
In this file photo, Southern Sudanese wave the national flag in the capital Juba. (AP)
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Updated 22 May 2025

A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants

A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants
  • Years of conflict have left South Sudan heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance

The United States is being asked to explain why it appears to be deporting migrants from as far away as Vietnam and Cuba to South Sudan, a chaotic country that’s once again in danger of collapsing into civil war.
A US judge ordered Trump administration officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions. The administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes in the US but refused to say where they would end up.
If South Sudan is the confirmed destination, that means people from Vietnam, Mexico and elsewhere are being sent to a nation they have no link to, thousands of miles from where they want to be. Vietnam’s list of its embassies in Africa shows the closest one to South Sudan is in Tanzania, over 800 miles away.
South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press that no migrants had arrived and if they did, they would be investigated and “redeported to their correct country” if not South Sudanese.
Some in the capital, Juba, worried their country would become a kind of dumping ground. “Those people who are deported, some of them are criminals, they have been involved in crimes. So once they are brought to South Sudan, that means that criminal activities will also increase,” said Martin Mawut Ochalla, 28.
This would not be the first time the Trump administration has pressured South Sudan over deportees. Recently, the administration abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying their government failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” South Sudan pushed back, saying the person in question was Congolese, but later said it would allow him to enter “in the spirit of maintaining friendly relations” with the US
South Sudan’s government has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver many of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance.
Here’s a look at South Sudan, whose own people had been granted US temporary protected status because of insecurity at home.
A deadly divide
The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2013.
The two men’s tensions have been so much at the heart of the country’s insecurity that the late Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in a plea for lasting peace.
Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the US and other international backers. South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.
His rivalry with Machar is compounded by ethnic divisions. Machar has long regarded himself as destined for the presidency, citing a prophecy years ago by a seer from his ethnic group.
Earlier this year, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and allies in the government and military were detained following a major escalation that included airstrikes and an attack on a United Nations helicopter. Machar’s opposition party announced South Sudan’s peace deal was effectively over.
“Let’s not mince words: What we are seeing is darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 civil wars, which killed 400,000 people,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.
Some Western countries have closed their embassies there while others, including the US, have reduced embassy staff. The US Embassy’s travel warning said that “violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba.”
A country in disarray
The Trump administration’s pressure on South Sudan to take in deportees, including foreign ones, is in sharp contrast to Washington’s past warm embrace as its rebel leaders — including Kiir and Machar — fought for independence.
Now there is less support than ever for most of South Sudan’s over 11 million people because of the cuts in US aid.
Climate shocks including flooding have long caused mass displacement and closed schools. South Sudan’s health and education systems were already among the weakest in the world. Aid organizations had offered essential help.
South Sudan’s government has long relied on oil production, but little money from that is seen, in part because of official corruption. Conflict in neighboring Sudan has affected landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports. Civil servants at times go months without being paid.
How South Sudan is equipped to handle migrants arriving abruptly from the US is yet to be seen.


Thousands of children at risk of death in Sudan's besieged al-Fashir, UN says

Updated 5 sec ago

Thousands of children at risk of death in Sudan's besieged al-Fashir, UN says

Thousands of children at risk of death in Sudan's besieged al-Fashir, UN says
"Health facilities have collapsed, and thousands of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition are now without treatment," agencies said
IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP said their representatives had seen widespread devastation in Darfur

GENEVA: Thousands of children are facing an imminent risk of death as malnutrition rates skyrocket in the besieged city of al-Fashir in Sudan's Darfur region, four United Nations agencies said on Thursday.
More than a quarter of a million civilians, about half of them children, have been cut off from food and healthcare in the city during a 16-month-old standoff, the agencies said.
"Health facilities have collapsed, and thousands of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition are now without treatment," the agencies said.
Famine-stricken al-Fashir is the Sudanese army's last holdout in the vast, western region as it battles the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in a civil war that began in April 2023.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), refugee agency UNHCR, children's organisation UNICEF and the World Food Programme said their representatives had seen widespread devastation in Darfur and other parts of the country during visits.
Malnutrition rates were also soaring across the country as a whole, the agencies said.
"Famine was confirmed in parts of Sudan last year and the hunger situation remains catastrophic, with children among the hardest hit," the agencies said.
People who returned to the capital this year after the army retook Khartoum found devastated neighbourhoods.
"I met people coming back to a city still scarred by conflict, where homes are damaged and basic services are barely functioning," said Ugochi Daniels, IOM's Deputy Director General for Operations.
In all, more than 30 million people, including nearly 15 million children, were in dire need of aid, the agencies said.
Only a quarter of the $4.2 billion asked for in the 2025 U.N. Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan has been funded so far, they added.

Thousands of children are facing an imminent risk of death as malnutrition rates skyrocket in the besieged city of al-Fashir in Sudan's Darfur region, four United Nations agencies said on Thursday. (Reuters/File)

No reduction in Gaza hunger since truce: WHO

No reduction in Gaza hunger since truce: WHO
Updated 25 min 3 sec ago

No reduction in Gaza hunger since truce: WHO

No reduction in Gaza hunger since truce: WHO
  • “The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief said
  • He hailed the fact that the ceasefire was holding despite violations, but warned: “The crisis is far from over, and the needs are immense“

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Thursday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since a ceasefire took hold — and no observable reduction in hunger.
“The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online press briefing from the UN health agency’s Geneva headquarters.
Since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, there has been “no dent in hunger, because there is not enough food,” he warned.
Israel repeatedly cut off aid to the Gaza Strip during the war, exacerbating dire humanitarian conditions. The United Nations said that caused a famine in parts of the Palestinian territory.
Since the start of 2025, 411 people are known to have died from the effects of malnutrition in Gaza, including 109 children, Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters.
“All of these deaths were preventable,” stressed Teresa Zakaria, WHO’s unit head for humanitarian and disaster action. More than 600,000 people in Gaza were currently facing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity,” she added.
But while the agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump provides for the entry of 600 trucks per day, Tedros said currently only between 200 and 300 trucks were getting in daily.
And “a good number of the trucks are commercial,” he said, when many people in the territory have no resources to buy goods.
“That reduces the beneficiary size,” he said.

- 15,000 awaiting evacuation -

The WHO chief hailed the fact that the ceasefire was holding despite violations, but warned: “The crisis is far from over, and the needs are immense.
“Although the flow of aid has increased, it’s still only a fraction of what’s needed,” he added.
Citing figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, WHO health emergencies incident manager Nabil Tabbal said 89 people had been killed and some 317 wounded since the ceasefire took hold.
Gaza’s health system has been ravaged during Israel’s two-year war in the Palestinian territory following Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks.
Tedros warned that “the total cost for rebuilding the Gaza health system will be at least $7 billion.”
“There are no fully functioning hospitals in Gaza, and only 14 out of 36 are functioning at all. There are critical shortages of essential medicines, equipment and health workers,” Tedros said.
“More than 170,000 people have injuries in Gaza, including more than 5,000 amputees and 3,600 people who have major burns,” he pointed out.
He said that since the ceasefire took effect, WHO had been sending more medical supplies to hospitals, deploying additional emergency medical teams and striving to scale up medical evacuations.
The agency had facilitated the evacuation of 41 patients and 145 companions on Wednesday.
But he warned that “there are still 15,000 patients who need treatment outside Gaza, including 4,000 children.”
Tedros urged more countries to step up to receive patients from Gaza for specialized care. He called on Israel to allow “all crossings to be opened to allow more patients to be treated in Egypt, and to enable the scale-up of aid.
“The delay in medical evacuation, especially for some patients, means they could die while waiting,” he warned.
Since the start of the war, Tedros pointed out, “more than 700 have died while waiting for evacuation.”


Sultan of Oman, Turkish president reaffirm commercial, industrial cooperation

Sultan of Oman, Turkish president reaffirm commercial, industrial cooperation
Updated 58 min 21 sec ago

Sultan of Oman, Turkish president reaffirm commercial, industrial cooperation

Sultan of Oman, Turkish president reaffirm commercial, industrial cooperation
  • Agreements were signed in sectors such as media, investment, food, information technology, military cooperation, and mining
  • Formation of Omani-Turkish Coordinating Council announced to enhance cooperation

LONDON: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said of Oman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasized the importance of establishing the Omani-Turkish Coordinating Council to enhance cooperation and monitor the implementation of bilateral agreements.

The two sides held talks on Thursday in Muscat to enhance bilateral relations and expand cooperation, reaffirming their commitment to developing their strategic partnership, the Oman News Agency reported.

During the meeting, several agreements were signed in sectors such as media, investment, food, information technology, military cooperation, and mining. An agreement was also made to allocate land for an educational institution, the ONA added.

The two sides expressed their commitment to boost trade, investment, and industrial cooperation, while promoting public-private partnerships and activating joint committees to enhance trade exchange between Muscat and Ankara.

They also announced the formation of the Omani-Turkish Coordinating Council and reaffirmed their support for the negotiations regarding the free trade agreement between Turkiye and the GCC states.

Oman welcomed Turkiye’s decision to exempt Omani citizens from pre-entry visas and announced that Turkish citizens with ordinary passports would also be exempt.

The two sides welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and emphasized its full implementation, noting that its positive outcomes should aid the two-state solution. Turkiye was one of four guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire agreement alongside Qatar, Egypt and the US.

Erdogan visited Qatar and Kuwait this week to discuss agreements on defense, trade, and maritime cooperation with their leaders.


Algeria’s Sonatrach resumes exploratory drilling in Libya, NOC says

Algeria’s Sonatrach resumes exploratory drilling in Libya, NOC says
Updated 23 October 2025

Algeria’s Sonatrach resumes exploratory drilling in Libya, NOC says

Algeria’s Sonatrach resumes exploratory drilling in Libya, NOC says
  • “The company plans to complete drilling at an expected final depth of 8,440 feet,” said the NOC
  • Libya is one of Africa’s biggest oil producers

TRIPOLI: Algeria’s oil and gas firm Sonatrach resumed its exploratory drilling in Libya’s Ghadames basin in mid-October, Tripoli’s National Oil Corp. (NOC) said in a statement on Thursday.
The well is located in contract area (95/96) in the Ghadames Basin, near the Libyan-Algerian border, NOC said in the statement. It is also approximately 100 km (62.14 miles) from Wafa field.
“The company plans to complete drilling at an expected final depth of 8,440 feet,” said the NOC.
It said that Sonatrach halted its activities and left the site more than 10 years ago “due to unstable security situation at that time.”
Libya is one of Africa’s biggest oil producers, but output has been disrupted repeatedly in the chaotic decade since 2014, when the country split between rival authorities in the east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi.


Arab-Islamic states condemn Israel’s move to impose sovereignty over West Bank

Arab-Islamic states condemn Israel’s move to impose sovereignty over West Bank
Updated 23 October 2025

Arab-Islamic states condemn Israel’s move to impose sovereignty over West Bank

Arab-Islamic states condemn Israel’s move to impose sovereignty over West Bank
  • The statement reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories

ֱ and several Arab and Islamic countries condemned on Thursday the Israeli Knesset’s approval of draft laws seeking to impose so-called “Israeli sovereignty” over the occupied West Bank and illegal settlements. 

They called it a flagrant violation of international law and UN Security Council Resolution 2334, a statement from the Saudi foreign ministry said. 

The statement reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories.
It welcomed the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion, which reiterated the illegality of the occupation.
The opinion also underscored Israel’s duty to ensure humanitarian access to Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, through the UN and its agencies, including UNRWA.
The countries warned against Israel’s unilateral actions and urged global powers to stop its violations and support a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.