Category World News

According to sources in the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), South Sudanese soldiers are fighting alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group in battles that have erupted this week in a central region of the nation.

More than 10 people were taken on Thursday in Kazqil and al-Rayash in the north of North Kordofan State, according to sources who spoke to Al Jazeera.

They added that Sudan is set to address South Sudan’s government and that these individuals have provided official documentation of their involvement in the RSF.

RSF security adviser al-Basha Tabiq reported on Thursday evening that Hamid Ali Abubakar, security adviser to RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, was killed along with several aides in a drone attack by the SAF near Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur state.

“Commander Adviser Hamid Ali Abubakar,” who also led the RSF’s “al-Saif al-Battar,” which is primarily active in the northern, central, and western parts of the Darfur region, was announced in a Facebook post.

Tabiq accused the SAF of “assassinating” Abubakar and warned that the country would “pay a high price for this crime.”

Tens of thousands of people have fled in the three Kordofan states, North, West, and South, after weeks of bloody hostilities between the army and the RSF.

worse humanitarian crisis

In the city of Kosti, dozens of families have arrived from Kordofan and Darfur, only to find dwindling international support and overcrowded camps.

The Umbro locality of North Darfur State, where intense fighting is still happening as a result of an RSF offensive, was the subject of a warning from the North Darfur Emergency Chambers Council.

More than 6,500 families have been forced to leave the area as a result of the council’s claim that the area is in tragic circumstances.

The RSF is in charge of all five of Sudan’s 18 states in the west, aside from some of the region’s northern regions, which are still under the control of the army.

In addition, the army controls the majority of the remaining 13 states’ southern, northern, eastern, and central regions, including Khartoum, in order to maintain military dominance.

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A structure next to a body of water in Caracas was visible in video footage taken by Al Jazeera that showed thick smoke and flames coming from it early on Saturday.

According to Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, who is reporting from Santiago in Chile, the explosion occurred close to or around Fortuna, the main military base in Caracas.

A significant military base is located there, Fortuna. The area’s mayor Newman reported that there were several explosions coming from the area, followed by a blackout.

Our correspondent added that there is a “presumption” that the US is involved in the incident.

“We are still unsure about how this explosion occurred. Additionally, Newman cited the possibility that this is an internal sabotage plot by military personnel who are attempting to remove President Nicolas Maduro.

At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in the capital, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Maduro, the president of Venezuela, made it clear in recent days that the country was ready to work with the US to stop drug trafficking, despite his silence on a rumored CIA-led strike last week against his nation.

In the midst of Washington’s months-long sanctions and military pressure campaign, Maduro has toned his remarks more diplomatically toward the US.

Despite Washington’s months-long sanctions and military exercises, Maduro has refuted his claims that the US is attempting to overthrow his government and access Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Maduro, who was blatant about whether he had confirmed or refuted a US attack on Venezuelan soil, said: “This could be something we talk about in a few days.”

According to Maduro, the Trump administration’s strategy makes it “clear” that the US “seeks to impose themselves” on Venezuela through “threats, intimidation, and force.”

At least five people were killed when the US military struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats on New Year’s Eve, according to Maduro’s interview, which was recorded on the same day.

According to the Trump administration’s announcements, the number of known boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific has increased to 35, and there have also been at least 115 fatalities.

The US Coast Guard announced that its search for survivors had been postponed in response to the US military’s ongoing military exercise in Venezuelan waters, which included the killing of two additional boats in the eastern region.

The Coast Guard stated in a statement posted on its website on Friday that the three-day search had been focused on water “approximately 400 nautical miles]about 740 kilometers] southwest of the Mexico/Guatemala border” and had searched for more than 65 hours, but that no survivors had been seen.

Prior to this, US media reported that the search was being conducted in a region with “nine-foot seas, and 40-knot winds.”

According to the US military’s Southern Command, three boats were struck by a convoy in the eastern Pacific on Tuesday. The passengers of the other boats jumped overboard, “distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” according to the statement that three people were killed on one of the boats.

The military, which did not specify the location, claimed that two more people were killed by a subsequent attack on a different boat.

Without providing any supporting documentation, the military claimed that the boats were smuggling drugs in both instances.

According to the administration of US President Donald Trump, the number of known boat strikes and the total number of fatalities has increased to 33 since early September.

On Friday, the Coast Guard did not release the number of people who are thought to be in the water. Prior to this, the military had previously stated that because there were no Navy ships nearby, it should notify the Coast Guard right away.

The Coast Guard then alerted ships in the area and sent a plan from California.

According to human rights organizations and international law experts, US military strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats constitute extrajudicial killings, meaning they are occurring without the aid of proper authorities or due process.

According to the Trump administration, the targets are allegedly ‘narcoterrorists’ who are driven not by profits but by an attempt to destabilize the US through the drug trade.

Following the military’s follow-on strike on a boat in the Caribbean in early September, which appeared to have killed survivors of the first strike, the organization faced particular scrutiny. The attack allegedly violated the military’s own armed conflict laws and regulations.

Other cases of passengers surviving the strike are well documented, including one in late October, when the Mexican Navy had to halt a search for four days. The other two survivors of a submersible vessel’s attack in the Caribbean Sea that same month were found and transported to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia.

The man was later released by Ecuadori authorities, who claimed there was no proof that he had committed a crime there.

The US military has largely targeted vessels in Venezuelan waters, which have seen an increase in US sanctions and a significant increase in US military installations along its borders, and what Trump has described as an attack on a dock in Venezuelan territory.

Venezuelan oil tankers that have been sanctioned have also been subject to a blockade by the Trump administration.

Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, claimed that the US wants to seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and overthrow his government.