The protests are the first major outbreak of political violence in Kenya since Ruto became president in August 2022, a victory disputed by rival Odinga. A Kenyan Police officer arrests a protester following clashes with opposition supporters in Nairobi, Kenya on March 20, 2023 (© Luis Tato/AFP) A university student in Kenya was killed and more than 200 people arrested in nationwide protests against President William Ruto’s government over high living costs on Monday, police said. Protesters took to the streets of the capital, Nairobi, and several other cities in response to a call for demonstrations by opposition leader Raila Odinga. Some lit fires in the streets and threw rocks at police. Police fired tear gas and water cannon, including at Odinga’s convoy as he addressed supporters from the sunroof of his car. Police said 24 officers were injured in the clashes. They gave no figure for injuries among the protesters. The person killed, a student at Maseno University in western Kenya, was shot in the neck by the police when officers fired live rounds after running out of tear gas canisters and blank rounds, according to a police report seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The report said the officers were confronting students who had set fires in the road and vandalised local businesses. “The unwarranted day-long stand-off that was witnessed in Nairobi and Kisumu yesterday amounts to nothing short of violence against police and economic sabotage,” the police said in a statement on Tuesday. It was the first major outbreak of political violence in the East African nation since Ruto took office six months ago. Ruto handed Odinga his fifth loss in a row, although Odinga claims the election was “stolen”. He challenged the result last year before the Supreme Court, which upheld Ruto’s victory. Odinga, 78, cited the high cost of staples such as maize flour, which have kept inflation high, in calling for protests. At least four lawmakers were among those arrested during the protests, including the leaders of Odinga’s faction in both houses of parliament. They were released on bail and will appear in court on Thursday to answer charges of unlawful assembly, their lawyer, Danstan Omari, told Reuters. On Monday, Odinga called for the protests to be repeated weekly. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

By Fiona Kelliher Published On 29 Jun 2023 Meta oversight board recommends that Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts be suspended for six months for breaking rules on making violent threats. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen gestures during a press conference in Phnom Penh in 2021 [File: Tang Chhin Sothy/pool via AFP] Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has been accused of inciting violence against his political opponents on Facebook, prompting an oversight board for the social media platform to recommended that his Facebook and Instagram accounts be immediately suspended for six months. A board of experts for Meta Platforms Inc, which issues binding content moderation decisions for the company’s Facebook and Instagram platforms, announced on Thursday that Facebook content moderators had erred by allowing a livestreamed speech by Hun Sen, in which he threatened political opponents, to remain on his Facebook page. The “newsworthiness” of Hun Sen’s threatening comments was not a valid reason to allow his speech to remain on Facebook, the board said, adding that the platform had amplified Hun Sen’s incitement to violence ahead of the country’s July 23 national election by allowing the speech to remain online. “Hun Sen uses social media to amplify threats against his opponents, spreading them more widely and causing more harm than he would be able to do without access to Meta’s platforms,” the board wrote in its 26-page report, calling the Cambodian leader’s behaviour a “serious breach”. “Hun Sen’s use of the platforms to incite violence against his political opposition, taken in the context of his history, his government’s human rights abuses, and the upcoming election combine to require immediate action,” the board added. Meta has agreed to remove the video of the original, livestreamed speech, Reuters news agency reported. The social media company now has 60 days to decide whether it will accept the board’s recommendation and suspend Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. In the controversial speech livestreamed in January, Hun Sen railed against people who he said had accused his ruling Cambodian People’s Party of stealing votes in local elections last year. Hun Sen said that his critics had a choice between facing the court or being beaten with “a stick”. “Either you face legal action in court, or I rally [CPP] people for a demonstration and beat you up,” Hun Sen said. The video of his speech received about 600,000 views, according to Meta. The recommended suspension, if carried out, would place Hun Sen among the few world leaders sanctioned by the social media giant for inciting violence on its platform. Most notably former US President Donald Trump was suspended from Facebook and Instagram for two years in 2021 for praising the actions of the Capitol Hill rioters. Facebook remains extremely popular in Southeast Asia and Cambodia, and Hun Sen – who has ruled Cambodia with an iron grip for 38 years – has been an avid user of social media to spread his authoritarian political messaging. Hun Sen has some 14 million followers on Facebook, though questions have been raised regarding the provenance of his huge online audience. The Cambodian leader also appeared to preempt his possible suspension on Wednesday evening, posting on his Telegram channel that he would temporarily stop using Facebook and would, instead, use Telegram, where he has about 860,000 followers. He also said that he would create a TikTok account to connect with young people. Pro-government media quickly shared the QR codes for the accounts. Hun Sen did not mention the Meta board’s investigation of his account for incitement to violence. Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, told Al Jazeera that the Meta board’s recommendation was “long overdue” and its ruling on Hun Sen was “the sort of message Meta should be sending to authoritarians in the region”. “This kind of clear incitement to cause physical harm is precisely where Meta should be drawing the line,” Robertson said. “The real problem in the region is no institutions or organisations ever hold the likes of Hun Sen accountable for his words and actions, so it’s entirely appropriate for Facebook to make it clear they are a global platform with international standards not beholden to local dictators like Hun Sen,” he said. Aim Sinpeng, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney specialising in Southeast Asian digital politics, said that Meta had previously avoided moderating the comments of political leaders in the region. “I’m not sure why Hun Sen was targeted,” Sinpeng told Al Jazeera, adding that former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte had used Facebook in a manner similar to the Cambodian leader and was not sanctioned. “This is, in my view, something Meta has to tread carefully [with] to make sure it won’t appear to be ‘picking on’ a poor country but at the same time wanting to show strong support for human rights,” Sinpeng said. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network. All Rights Reserved

UN to investigate fate of 130,000 people missing in Syria war Syria, Russia, Belarus, China, North Korea, Cuba and Iran were among those voting against UN resolution. A still image from a video showing Syrian army soldiers firing a heavy weapon as they advance on the town of Kafr Nabl, Syria, in 2020 [File: Reuters TV/via Reuters] The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution that will establish an independent body to determine what happened to more than 130,000 people missing as a result of the conflict in Syria. The resolution, an important response to appeals by their families and loved ones, was adopted on Thursday by the 193-member world body with 83 votes in favour, 11 opposed and 62 abstentions. Among those opposing the resolution was Syria, which said it will not cooperate with the new institution. Russia, China, Belarus, North Korea, Cuba and Iran also voted no. The resolution, spearheaded by Luxembourg, noted that after 12 years of fighting in Syria “little progress has been achieved in alleviating the suffering of families by providing answers as to the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons“. The resolution authorises the establishment of an Independent Institution of Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic, under UN auspices, “to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons … and to provide adequate support to victims, survivors and the families of those missing”. Victims, survivors and the families of the missing should be represented in the new body, which will be guided by principles including “do no harm”, impartiality, transparency and the confidentiality of sources and information, according to the resolution. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres must now present terms of reference for the new institution within 80 working days and take steps to speedily establish the body and put it into operation. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the new organisation needs to have the right tools at its disposal to do its job. “UN member countries should ensure that this new institution has the staff and resources necessary to determine what happened to so many thousands of people who vanished during Syria’s 12 years of conflict,” Louis Charbonneau, the group’s UN director, said in a statement. “The people of Syria deserve no less,” Charbonneau said. Syrian Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh called the resolution “politicised”, saying it clearly reflects “flagrant interference in our internal affairs” and provides new evidence of the “hostile approach” of the United States and other Western nations to his country. Urging a “no” vote, he said Syria has addressed the issue of missing persons, processed all claims of disappearances submitted to law enforcement authorities and carried out “independent investigations in accordance with Syrian law and on the basis of available information and resources”. Syria’s uprising-turned-civil war conflict, now in its 13th year, has killed nearly a half million people and displaced half of its pre-war population of 23 million. The International Commission on Missing Persons cites UN estimates that in 2021 more than 130,000 Syrians were missing as a result of the conflict. Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the resolution was notable for the number of Arab countries that did not participate in the vote. “It’s interesting among those that abstained, it was nearly all of the Arab countries. Countries in the past that used to support the Syrian opposition. In fact, the only two countries in the Arab world that supported this were Kuwait and Qatar,” Bays said. “What the problem now for the UN is going to be is cooperation from the Syrian government,” he said. In the 12-year-long Syrian war, the Syrian government has not cooperated with any of the existing international bodies looking into missing people, he said. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

UN expert slams Syria dention of minors over parents' ISIL ties. Visit to northeastern Syria by UN special rapporteur finds 'cradle-to-grave detention' of children violates international law. Fionnuala Ni Aolain describes conditions at al-Hol as "dire and extreme," saying the temperature was 50C (122F) during her visit [File: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters] A United Nations expert has expressed concern that tens of thousands of children remain in arbitrary detention in northeastern Syria based on their parents’ alleged ties to ISIL (ISIS) in violation of international law. “The thing I will say that concerned me the most and my team the most as we visited northeast Syria was the mass indefinite and arbitrary detention of children, particularly boys, in various types of facilities,” Fionnuala Ni Aolain said on Friday, a day after returning from what she said was the first visit to the region by a UN human rights expert. Ni Aolain, an independent UN rapporteur on the protection of rights while countering terrorism, said the children’s detentions were “premised on the alleged threat that they pose to security based on their or their parents’ alleged prior links with Daesh”, she said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL. “There appears to be no understanding that it is in absolute contravention of international law to detain children in what appears to be an unending cycle of cradle-to-grave detention,” she added. 'Snatching of children' Ni Aolain also raised concerns about the separation of hundreds of adolescent boys from their mothers in camps based on the alleged security risk they pose. She did not say where the boys have gone but has previously said they went to unknown locations. “Every single woman I spoke to made clear that it was the snatching of children that provided the most anxiety, the most suffering, the most psychological harm,” she said. “The rationale for taking these boys simply does not stand up to scrutiny.” Among the places she visited was the Kurdish-run al-Hol site, which holds about 55,000 people, including 31,000 children. It also contains third-party nationals from Western countries despite UN pressure to take them back. Northeastern Syria including al-Hol falls under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a United States-backed group. SDF officials regularly call on foreign countries to repatriate families of ISIL fighters in the camps. Ni Aolain described conditions at al-Hol as “dire and extreme”, saying the temperature was 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) during her visit. The term “camp” is inappropriate, she said, since people are not free to come and go. In February, UN rights experts expressed grave concern about reports that at least 10 boys were taken away from another site, Roj, by the authorities in northeastern Syria. They said there was a pattern of forcibly removing boys who reach the ages of 10 or 12 from the camps, separating them from their mothers and taking them to unknown locations. They called this practice unlawful. The SDF-affiliated autonomous administration said in a statement at the time that the report was “far from the truth”. It said the camps’ administration from time to time removed adolescents because they were at the age at which they were at the highest risk of being influenced by extreme views, saying they were put in “rehabilitation centres”. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Referrals had temporarily stopped earlier in July after UN failed to agree on extension to cross-border aid mechanism. Photograph: Turkey MFA Cancer patients are once again being allowed to cross the border from northwest Syria to Turkey to access essential medical care, after a vital crossing reopened. The United Nations had said that the cross-border referral of cancer patients from the opposition-controlled area of Syria to Turkey would resume through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on Wednesday. The referral system had stopped after the devastating earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria in February, but resumed again on June 5. However, after the UN Security Council failed to agree on an extension to the authorisation necessary for Bab al-Hawa to be used for UN aid operations, the authorisation expired on July 10, and the crossing was closed. The Syrian government – whose attacks on the opposition-held northwest have made it necessary for aid to be routed away from areas under government control – eventually gave permission for Bab al-Hawa to be used for aid delivery on July 13, and following several protests by activists and humanitarian workers in recent days, Turkey has now allowed those being referred for cancer treatment to cross the border again. The protests reflected the desperation of cancer patients and their families in northwest Syria, which, having been torn apart by war for more than a decade, does not have facilities capable of fully treating patients, with a shortage of supplies, medication and medical staff. Al Jazeera’s Nour Qormosh, reporting from the Turkey-Syria border, said that Turkey’s decision to open its borders, allowing the “most vulnerable” to seek medical aid, was “a glimpse of hope” for the patients. Um Ahmed, the mother of a toddler with cancer waiting to be transported to Turkey, told Al Jazeera that her family had exhausted all their options to provide proper care for her son at the hospitals in Idlib, “but it was not enough”. “He was very close to dying and I hope that the treatment in the Turkish hospitals will help him get better in the long run,” she said. According to the UN, there are at least 4,300 active cancer cases in northwest Syria, with 600 diagnoses in Idlib this year alone, more than half of whom are children. Radiography equipment will now be installed in two hospitals in northern Aleppo, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told reporters on Tuesday, in an attempt to improve care in opposition-held areas of Syria. “Our partners are working to ensure that there is long-term capacity to operate these machines. Prior to this, there was no radiotherapy equipment in northwest Syria,” said Haq. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

The implementation of a transitional justice framework in Iraq could address atrocities committed by ISIL. But for many, it feels like too little too late. Nine years ago, ISIL launched a genocidal campaign against the Yazidi community in the Sinjar region of Iraq (© Muhsen Naif/Al Jazeera). By Alannah Travers Kabartu Camp, Duhok – By 10am, it is already nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104F) in a displacement camp in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Fawziya Choko, 20, walks across the sprawling Kabartu Camp where she has grown up. The delicate, dark-haired young woman was 11 when the sound of gunfire startled her awake on August 3, 2014, in the village of Siba Sheikh Khidir. That was the day nine years ago the genocidal campaign ISIL (ISIS) launched against the Yazidi community in the Sinjar region reached them. Fawziya, her mother and her siblings have been displaced since. 'Looking for over shoulders the whole time' She remembers gripping her blanket in panic, paralysed. She, her mother and her seven siblings were taken to her uncle’s house in the nearby village of Hayale, while her father, Choko, stayed behind to defend their home with other male neighbours. They never saw him again. Her family initially hoped he had been captured along with some 6,000 Yazidis – more than 2,700 of whom are still missing, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). But Choko was most likely killed that day, which is all it took ISIL to conquer Sinjar, following their capture of Samarra, Tikrit, and Mosul two months earlier. Estimates vary, but at least 5,000 people – mostly men and elderly people – were shot or beheaded. There are more than 80 mass graves across Sinjar, still being excavated. Hours after arriving at her uncle’s, ISIL fighters entered the home and gave the family a two-hour ultimatum: Convert to Islam or be taken. In the chaos, and against the odds, they managed to flee to the mountains. “There were 30 of us crammed into one car,” she says. “We couldn’t even breathe. We drove as fast as we could, looking over our shoulders the whole time.” At one point, they abandoned the vehicle and walked. “We were tired and scared and hungry,” she says, describing seven days in the mountains that she cannot forget. “My mother forbade us from using any light at night, scared the fighters would see us.” She was also terrified for her father. “I knew enough at such a young age already to understand that we would not see him again,” she adds, dark eyes shining. Fawziya has not returned to Sinjar, but her older brothers did after ISIL was defeated, finding their home destroyed. “After everything our community has gone through, how can we live there again,” she asks. 'Justice is important' Fawziya attends the camp’s one high school, which teaches some 1,200 students in three shifts, a 20-minute walk from her tent. At home – five small canvas tents Delal, 48, and her eight children share – Fawziya helps her mother cook and tries to keep the space clean. “The boys don’t help so much, but we watch films together and sometimes we go for picnics around the area or in Duhok.” “It’s not comfortable here,” Fawziya says. “The [federal] government pays us $150 per month,” she adds, which just covers the family’s basic food costs. Her eldest brother Ammar, 30, works as a barber in the camp, helping support the family. The psychological scars cut deep as children come of age to an uncertain future. “Everyone is missing family members, everyone has a story of what ISIL did, and so many people are suffering in the camp, especially those who cannot afford to pay for generators for electricity and air conditioning.” Temperatures veer between extremes. “When it’s cold and wet, water gets inside [the tent],” she says. “But in the summer, the water system here is very bad. We get deliveries [of water] only once a week.” Fires recently burned several homes to the ground in a nearby camp. Floral fabric hangs inside the tent, marking off sections. As the third-eldest, Fawziya is grateful to have her own space where she can study for her upcoming final exams in August. “I’d like to study law if I can go to Australia or somewhere abroad,” she says thoughtfully. “Justice is important, I want to help my people here who are suffering.” 'The conflict hasn't stopped in Sinar' About 400,000 Yazidis fled to the Kurdish region of Iraq, and some 300,000 remain there, UNHCR says. Four months into their displacement, Fawziya’s family was able to move from Duhok to Kabartu Camp, half an hour’s drive southwest. Some 10,000 IDPs call the rows of canvas tents home, says Farhad Ahmed, assistant director of Kabartu. Many of these IDPs, Fawziya says as the sun beats down, have left the camps over the past two years; some returning to Sinjar while “maybe 60 percent” moved to informal settlements nearby. They work on farms, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, and sunflowers in return for being able to stay on the land: private agreements with landowners that keep most in crowded, achingly hot tents that swelter in the blistering sun, but offer a sense of greater independence. Six years after ISIL’s defeat, 80 percent of the six million Iraqis who fled between 2014 and 2017 have returned, but the one million who remain displaced include Kabartu residents who are afraid to go back. “We are scared of the [Turkish] air raids, and we feel like we have no control,” Fawziya says. “The conflict hasn’t stopped in Sinjar; everyone is fighting for the area.” Successive Iraqi governments have failed to rebuild Sinjar despite promises. It remains mired in complex political power play with competing mayors and actors, including Iraqi security forces, Kurdish groups, and Turkish, Iranian-backed and Yazidi militias. “Yazidis displaced by Da’esh [ISIL] deserve dignified solutions to their plight,” Jean-Nicholas Beuze, UNHCR representative in Iraq, told Al Jazeera. “Return … will only be possible once security and law enforcement, basic services and livelihoods opportunities will be achieved – this is what the Yazidi families tell us repeatedly, including their demand on justice: accountability for the perpetrators, compensation for the survivors and guarantee that they will not be subjected to such heinous acts in the future.” As humanitarian funding dwindles, the federal government is pushing for returns to Sinjar, which, the IDPs say, is unsafe and impossible to settle in without financial means. “Some camp residents feel pressure to return to Sinjar,” Fawziya says. “But we don’t want to, we are still scared.” The Yazidi [Female] Survivors Law Fawziya, like many in the camp, is unaware of legislation passed two years ago to give reparation to survivors of ISIL crimes, including women and girls who were subjected to sexual violence and child survivors who were abducted before the age of 18; some of whom were forced to fight. While no official number for these children exists, an estimated 20,000 children were abducted or mistreated in some capacity. Others, born of rape and unwelcome by the community, are growing up in orphanages. On March 1, 2021, Iraq’s parliament passed the Yazidi [Female] Survivors Law (YSL), promising reparations to Yazidi women and survivors from other ethnoreligious groups – like the Shabak, Christian and Turkmen communities – as well as financial, medical and psychological support, land, housing, education, and a 2 percent quota in public sector employment. Campaigners say there have been issues in the way the YSL has been implemented to date. The online application process for reparations was launched only in early September 2022 and it took about six months for the General Directorate for Survivors’ Affairs to disburse the first monthly payments. By June, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Ahmed Jasim al-Asad said1,670 requests had been submitted, approvals given to 485 women and 353 children, and that the YSL was getting 25 billion Iraqi dinars ($19m) in the new budget. But this is a fraction of those needing support, and implementation is slow, especially with an eleventh-hour requirement that survivors file criminal complaints over what happened to them and submit investigation documents to support their YSL applications. “Compensation, rehabilitation … memorialisation, genocide recognition … returning those who were kidnapped and criminal justice are just some of the measures … survivors, their families and communities expect Iraqi authorities to deliver,” says Wansa Shamoon, spokesperson for the Coalition for Just Reparations (C4JR), an alliance of Iraqi NGOs calling for comprehensive reparations. According to C4JR, successful applicants receive a fixed minimum salary of 800,000 Iraqi dinars ($600). While Fawziya likely doesn’t meet the conditions for YSL, her 25-year-old relative Hadia, who has lived with the family since escaping ISIL captivity in 2017, likely would. But Hadia is not sure she wants to apply – instead, she is hoping to be settled in Australia under a UN scheme. “I want to leave too,” Fawziya says. “Iraq is not safe, anywhere will be better.” She often wonders what happened to the children she used to play with in Sinjar. “Some of them were killed for sure, others may have left the country, and the rest could be in camps, like me, wondering what the future holds.” © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

The hospital was established as an urgent response to the earthquake disaster and the region’s need for expanded medical services. Staff work in a treatment room at the hospital, put together in the aftermath of the deadly earthquakes in February. © Ali Haj Suleiman / Al Jazeera. By Ali Haj Suleiman and Husam Hezaber Afrin, Syria – When patients first arrive at the Amanos Hospital, the tents the facility is solely built of are a reminder of what this region of northwestern Syria has been through in recent months. Constructed on the outskirts of Afrin, the hospital was pieced together in an unusual style because of the thousands of people who suddenly needed attention but had nowhere to go. Six months ago, devastating earthquakes hit this region, with the epicentres just across the border, in southeastern Turkey. More than 4,000 people died in Syria, alongside the 50,000 or so who were killed in Turkey. With aftershocks common in the wake of the quakes, a tent hospital seemed safer than already destabilised buildings. “The hospital was established as an urgent response to the earthquake disaster and the region’s need for expanded medical services,” Dr Osama Darwish, a specialist in general surgery and the director of the Amanos Hospital, told Al Jazeera. “It is designed to operate for 15 years, according to the tents’ manufacturer.” The structure may be made of tents, but it is expansive. A total of 112 beds, distributed across several sterilised tents, are available, along with two operating rooms, an emergency department, a radiology department, clinics, and a laboratory. “The primary goal of constructing the hospital from tents was to provide a safer environment during natural disasters, and since our region is considered a war zone, it also allows for easier relocation to a safer place,” said Darwish, referring to the ongoing war in Syria, which is now more than a decade old and which has particularly affected opposition-controlled areas such as Afrin. “We are working on expanding the hospital further, either by adding caravans or constructing a more permanent structure to provide additional services needed in the area, such as a central pharmacy,” Darwish said. Half a year on from the earthquakes, the healthcare sector in northwestern Syria is still suffering the consequences, because of what healthcare professionals say is the scarcity of aid provided by international organisations. “The healthcare sector is still suffering from many gaps and the need for modern medical equipment and quality medications,” said Dr Zuhair al-Qarrat, the head of the Idlib Health Directorate. Additionally, healthcare workers lack sufficient training in this field.” Al-Qarrat told Al Jazeera that hospitals and medical centres in Idlib had received some medicine and medical equipment after the earthquakes, but that it only covered around 20 percent of the health sector’s needs, despite appeals to several international and Arab entities. The closure of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey has further worsened the health situation in the region, especially for cancer patients. “We urgently need specialised centres for cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, and neonatal care, in addition to a radiology centre equipped with all the necessary devices,” said al-Qarrat. Cancer patients For cancer patients in particular, healthcare facilities in northwestern Syria are not capable of providing proper treatment. Many have instead taken to travelling to Turkey for care, but the earthquakes brought on a new problem, as Turkish authorities temporarily halted the entry of Syrian cancer patients, saying that the process of rebuilding from the earthquakes had left Turkish hospitals in the south unable to receive Syrian patients. Entry has since been restored for pre-existing patients to continue their treatment, but has not been allowed for cancer patients diagnosed after the earthquakes, according to officials on the Syrian side of the Bab al-Hawa crossing. Medical sources in northern Syria estimate that the number of these new patients is more than 600, with some having already lost their lives while waiting for permission to enter and receive treatment in Turkey. “The halt in entry for cancer patients seeking radiation therapy has put us under tremendous pressure, and we can no longer accommodate the large numbers of patients coming for chemotherapy,” said Dr Ayham Jamou, a specialist in haematology and oncology and the director of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) Oncology Department at Idlib Central Hospital. The services provided by the SAMS Cancer Treatment Center are now limited to diagnosing new cases and administering the available chemotherapy to patients for free, making it the only facility in northwest Syria offering such medical care. “We are left powerless in the face of patients who require radiation therapy due to the unavailability of radiation devices in the area, as well as patients who need expensive immunotherapy,” said Jamou. In response to the plight of cancer patients in opposition-controlled areas of Syria, staff from medical and humanitarian organisations in Idlib, as well as activists, have staged an ongoing protest near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing since July, demanding urgent action from the international community to facilitate the treatment of those affected. The Turkish government responded to demands by allowing cancer patients with permission to cross to receive free treatment within its territory. “I am six months late for the treatment prescribed by the doctor in Turkey, because of the closure of the border crossing,” said Hala al-Ahmad, a 17-year-old displaced girl from Aleppo residing in Sarmada city near the Syrian-Turkish border. Al-Ahmad has been suffering from kidney cancer for two years and used to receive treatment in Turkish hospitals. She returned to Syria just before the earthquakes, waiting for her next treatment dose, but has not been able to re-enter Turkey after the border crossing closure, which has put her in a difficult situation as she waits for permission. “The decision to reopen Bab al-Hawa crossing for cancer patients to receive treatment has given me hope for life again,” said al-Ahmad. “But today, I went to the crossing, and they scheduled my entry to Turkey for three months from now. I’m now worried about what will happen to me.” © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

The deaths occurred during an apparent human smuggling attempt along US-Mexico border. Law enforcement officers work at the scene where people were found dead inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas, US, on June 27, 2022 [Kaylee Greenlee Beal/ Reuters] At least 50 people have been found dead inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas, in what appears to be a human smuggling attempt along the United States-Mexico border. Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said on Tuesday that at least 22 Mexican, seven Guatemalan and two Honduran nationals were identified among the dead. San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood had previously said that 16 people found in the trailer on Monday were transported to the hospital for heat stroke and exhaustion. They included four minors. “The patients we saw were hot to the touch. They were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion. There were no signs of water in the vehicle,” he said. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible air conditioning unit on that rig.” Police Chief William McManus said a city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6pm on Monday (23:00 GMT). Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer, he said. The vehicle was found next to railway tracks in a remote area on the city’s southern outskirts, and McManus said three people were taken into custody over the incident. Ebrard had earlier called the suffocation of the refugees and migrants a “tragedy in Texas” and said the local consulate was en route to the scene. US President Joe Biden called the deaths “horrifying and heartbreaking”. The Department of Homeland Security was leading the investigation and “initial reports are that this tragedy was caused by smugglers or human traffickers who have no regard for the lives they endanger and exploit to make a profit,” he said in a statement shortly after arriving in Spain on the second stop of a trip in Europe. “Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy,” Biden said, promising his administration would continue to do “everything possible” to halt smugglers and trafficking. The numbers of migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border has sharply increased since Biden became president. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, in a press conference, urged residents “to think compassionately and pray for the deceased, the ailing, the families.” “And we hope that those responsible for putting these people in such inhumane conditions are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. Monday’s disaster may be one of the deadliest incidents of human smuggling along the US-Mexico border in recent decades. The I-35 highway near where the truck was found runs through San Antonio from the Mexican border and is a popular smuggling corridor because of the large volume of truck traffic, Jack Staton, a former senior official with ICE’s investigative unit who retired in December, told Reuters news agency. Ten people died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck that was parked at a Walmart in San Antonio, while in 2003, 19 people were found dead in a sweltering truck southeast of the city. Temperatures in San Antonio, which is about 260 km (160 miles) from the Mexican border, swelled to a high of 39.4C (103F) on Monday with high humidity. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg called Monday’s incident a “horrific human tragedy”. “They had families and were likely trying to find a better life,” he said. “We hope those responsible for putting people through such inhumane conditions are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

At least 70 people killed in air raid on prison in northern city of Saada, and dozens of others wounded. This image grab from a handout video made available by the Ansarullah Media centre shows destruction at a prison in the Houthi rebel stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen after it was hit in an air raid [Ansarullah media center via AFP] Dozens of people have been killed in an air raid on a prison in northern Yemen, a Houthi official and medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) have said, after a night of deadly bombing underlined a dramatic escalation in violence in the country’s long-running conflict. A Saudi-led military coalition has intensified attacks on what it has said are military targets linked to the Houthi rebel movement, after the Houthis conducted an unprecedented assault on coalition member the United Arab Emirates on Monday and launched missiles and drones at Saudi cities. Footage released by the Houthis on Friday showed rescue workers pulling bodies from out of the rubble, following the dawn raid on the temporary detention centre in Saada. Taha al-Motawakel, health minister in the Houthi government, which controls the country’s north, told The Associated Press news agency that 70 detainees were killed at the prison. He said the death toll was expected to rise since many of the wounded were seriously hurt. An MSF spokesperson told the AFP news agency at least 70 people were killed and 138 others were wounded in the attack. The figures came from one hospital in Saada, the spokesperson said, adding, “Two others in the city have received many wounded as well and the rubble is still being searched.” Further south in the key port city of Hodeidah, video released by the Houthis showed bodies in the rubble and dazed survivors after an overnight air attack carried out by the Saudi-led coalition took out a telecommunications hub. Yemen suffered a nationwide internet blackout, a web monitor said. NetBlocks said the internet disruption began around 1am local time (22:00 GMT on Thursday) and affected TeleYemen, the state-owned monopoly that controls internet access in the country. The San Diego-based Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis and San Francisco-based internet firm CloudFlare also noted a nationwide outage affecting Yemen beginning around the same time. More than 12 hours later, the internet remained down. The Norwegian Refugee Council condemned the attack as “a blatant attack on civilian infrastructure that will also impact our aid delivery.” According to the UK-based charity Save the Children, at least three children were killed in the Hodeidah air raid. “The children were reportedly playing on a nearby football field when missiles struck the port town of Hodeidah,” it said in a statement. The organisation said at least 60 people were killed in the air raid in Saada and more than 100 others wounded, most of them migrants, it added. “The initial casualties report from Saada is horrifying,” Gillian Moyes, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen, said in a statement. “Migrants seeking better lives for themselves and their families, Yemeni civilians injured by the dozens is a picture we never hoped to wake up to in Yemen.” The Saudi-led military coalition said the reports would be fully investigated. “We take this report very seriously and it will be fully investigated as all reports of this nature are, using an internationally approved, independent process. Whilst this is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further,” said coalition spokesman Brigadier-General Turki al-Malki. The attacks on Yemen were also condemned by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In a statement, the UN said Guterres “reminds all parties that attacks directed against civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited by international humanitarian law.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also call for calm. “The escalation in fighting only exacerbates a dire humanitarian crisis and the suffering of the Yemeni people,” he said in a statement released by the State Department on Friday. Escalation Al Jazeera’s Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said thousands of Houthi supporters took to the streets in Sanaa and other cities across Yemen to condemn the air raids. The air raids came five days after the Houthis claimed a drone-and-missile attack on the United Arab Emirates that killed three people and prompted warnings of reprisals. According to Save the Children, the escalation of the conflict resulted in a 60 percent increase in civilian casualties in the last three months of 2021, with 2022 already poised to have wider consequences for civilians. The United Nations Security Council was due to meet at 15:00 GMT on Friday in an emergency session on the Houthi attacks against the UAE, at the request of the Gulf state, which has occupied one of the non-permanent seats on the council since January 1. A statement released by the UN body before the meeting condemned the latest attacks in Yemen. “We are very concerned… It’s not acceptable,” Mona Juul, the Norwegian ambassador to the UN, said. Juul called for “de-escalation and restraint” in the conflict, and also condemned the deadly attacks on Abu Dhabi earlier this week claimed by the Houthis as “heinous terrorist attacks” and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the rebels since 2015, in an intractable conflict that has displaced millions of Yemenis and left them on the brink of famine. The coalition said it carried out air raids in Hodeidah, a lifeline port for the shattered country, but did not say it had carried out any raids on Saada. Saudi Arabia’s state news agency said the coalition carried out “precision air strikes … to destroy the capabilities of the Houthi militia in Hodeidah.” Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis overran the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year. Tensions have soared in recent weeks after the UAE-backed Giants Brigade drove the rebels out of Shabwa province, undermining their months-long campaign to take the key city of Marib further north. On January 3, the Houthis hijacked a United Arab Emirates-flagged ship in the Red Sea, prompting a warning from the coalition that it would target rebel-held ports. The ship’s 11 international crew members are being held captive. And on Monday, they claimed a long-range attack that struck oil facilities and the airport in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, killing two Indians and a Pakistani, and wounding six other people. The attack – the first deadly assault acknowledged by the UAE inside its borders and claimed by the Houthis – opened up a new front in Yemen’s war and sent regional tensions soaring. In retaliation, the coalition carried out air raids against rebel-held Sanaa that killed 14 people. The UN has estimated the war killed 377,000 people by the end of 2021, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease. UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash warned the country would exercise its right to defend itself after the Abu Dhabi attack. “The Emirates have the legal and moral right to defend their lands, population and sovereignty, and will exercise this right to defend themselves and prevent terrorist acts pursued by the Houthi group,” he told US special envoy Hans Grundberg, according to the official WAM news agency. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

The Norwegian Refugee Council urges the reinstatement of monitors after their ejection opened the door to ‘unchecked, horrific violations’. In this file photo from 2017, Yemenis carry the bodies of a child killed in a reported air raid in Sanaa [File: Yahya Arhab/EPA] Civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen’s war have almost doubled since UN human rights monitors were controversially removed in October, a non-governmental organisation has said. The ejection of monitors had opened the door to “unchecked, horrific violations”, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Thursday, urging their reinstatement. It said 823 civilians were killed or injured in the four months before the end of monitoring, and 1,535 in the four months after their departure. The report added that civilian casualties caused by air raids, a tactic favoured by the Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels, had multiplied by 39 in the same period. “The removal of this crucial human rights investigative body took us back to unchecked, horrific violations,” country director Erin Hutchinson said in a statement. “Who is responsible for the deaths of these children and families? We will probably never know because there is no longer any independent, international and impartial monitoring of civilian deaths in Yemen.” The UN Human Rights Council voted to disband its Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen in October, in a move that was strongly criticised by rights groups. It was the first time that the United Nations’ top rights body had rejected a draft resolution since it was founded in 2006. The resolution, brought forward by European nations and Canada, was defeated by 21 votes to 18. “The people of Yemen have been abandoned. Betrayed. Yet again,” Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard said at the time. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed directly or indirectly in Yemen’s seven-year war, while millions have been displaced in what the UN calls the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. “The UN member states should urgently reinstate the monitoring body to ensure that parties to the conflict stop committing grave breaches of international humanitarian law with impunity,” Hutchinson said. “With no one to hold perpetrators accountable, civilians will continue to be killed by the thousands and [to be] the hardest hit by the escalation of the conflict.” According to the World Food Programme (WFP), some 16.2 million Yemenis, or about 45 percent of the population, are food insecure. The UN agency has warned that more than five million people were on the brink of famine while 50,000 others were living in famine-like conditions. The food crisis has been compounded by a sharp increase in the price of basic commodities, which have seen a 30 to 70 percent spike since the start of the conflict. In December, the body also said it was “forced” to cut aid to Yemen due to a lack of funds. The ongoing conflict has recently entered a new front, with the Houthis launching attacks on the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the coalition. Analysts have said that Yemen faces a bleak future, stoking fears that ongoing violence may exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

Right-wing Hindu groups hold processions in Muslim neighbourhoods and make hate speeches during Ram Navmi celebrations in several states. Hindu devotees take part in a religious procession to celebrate Ram Navmi festival in Hyderabad [Mahesh Kumar A/AP] Muslims in several Indian states are on edge after mobs came out in processions, making hate speeches and attacking their properties during the Hindu festival of Ram Navmi. Most of the violence was reported from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and West Bengal on Sunday as the Hindu community celebrated the birthday of the god Ram, one of the religion’s chief deities. “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram) is a chant that has lately become a rallying cry by right-wing Hindu groups as they target Muslims and other minorities. Dozens of videos have been going viral on Indian social media since Sunday, showing processions of Hindu men wearing saffron scarves – and, in some cases, carrying sticks and swords – stopping their motorcycles in Muslim neighbourhoods, playing provocative songs laced with threats of genocide outside homes and mosques, and raising hate slogans. In one of the videos, purportedly from the eastern state of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, a man was seen climbing a mosque wall and planting a saffron flag on its entrance as others cheered, flashing swords and hockey sticks. Al Jazeera has not independently verified the authenticity of those videos. In some places, the provocations led to members of the minority community throwing stones at the processions, leading to tensions. In some instances, even police personnel were seen joining the mob. Some of the worst rioting was reported from the district of Khargone in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Fazluddin Shaikh, a resident of Khargone, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that a mosque in the Sarafa Bazar area was set on fire by a Hindu mob on Sunday night during the Ram Navmi procession. At least 10 houses were also set on fire and more than 24 people, including a police officer, were injured in the violence that erupted in Khargone, forcing the administration to impose a curfew in some parts of the district. Khargone District Collector Anugraha P told Al Jazeera on Monday the “situation in the area was under control” and nearly 50 people, belonging to both the communities, had been arrested. However, Shaikh said, two days after the incident, they were still “struggling to register” a report with the police. “At least 11 FIRs (first information reports) have been registered against Muslims and over 84 people have rounded up, but police is neither registering a case nor arresting anyone from the majority community,” he said. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday said the “rioters have been identified”. “Those who have pelted stones will be punished but along with it they will be made to pay for the losses to both public and private properties.” Properties bulldozed The same day, the Khargone district administration bulldozed at least 16 houses and 29 shops – belonging to those accused of throwing stones at Ram Navmi processions – in five localities of the district, a report in The Indian Express newspaper said on Tuesday. Bulldozing the homes and properties of Muslims accused of crimes – even if a trial is still under way in the courts – is a phenomenon that has been seen before in BJP-ruled states. The practice started in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, governed by a hardline saffron-clad Hindu monk known for his hate speech against Muslims. When asked about the bulldozing of properties, Anugraha P told Al Jazeera they were connected to “earlier cases of encroachment”. She did not provide further details. Many Muslim leaders and activists have condemned the government for bulldozing the properties of the accused, questioning the legality of such moves. “Under what law the government of Madhya Pradesh has demolished houses of the Muslim community? It clearly shows (chief minister’s) biased attitude towards Muslim minority,” parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi told India’s ANI news agency on Tuesday, calling it “a state-complicit violence and grave violation of the Geneva Convention”. Incidents of violence during the Ram Navmi celebrations were also reported from Sendhwa, a town in the neighbouring Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh. Shivraj Singh, district collector of Barwani, told Al Jazeera over the telephone on Monday that loud music played near a mosque provoked some Muslims who threw stones at a Ram Navmi procession, leading to clashes between the two groups. Singh, however, added that no restrictions had been imposed in the city and that the situation was “totally under control now”. In the western state of Gujarat, also ruled by the BJP, incidents of violence were reported from the town of Khambhat in the Anand district and Himmatnagar in the Sabarkantha district on Sunday. “We have detained seven people after the clashes and tight security arrangements have been put in place to prevent further tension,” M J Chaudhari, a police official in Khambat, was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency on Monday. Media reports said a number of shops and vehicles were set on fire in Khambhat and Himmatnagar, with at least one person dying in the violence. In the southern state of Telangana, hardline BJP legislator, T Raja Singh, attended a Ram Navmi procession, where provocative slogans and songs were played. One of the songs played in the march said: “Those who don’t take Ram’s name will have to leave the country.” ‘Well-crafted and organised’ A similar pattern of hate speech against Muslims and violence was also reported in several other Indian states, including Jharkhand and West Bengal in the east – both states governed by parties opposed to the BJP. Owaisi, a member of parliament from the southern city of Hyderabad and head of a political party, accused the police of “provoking and participating” in the violence. “In many places, Ram Navmi (processions) were used to make hate speeches against Muslims,” Owaisi tweeted. Meanwhile, in the capital New Delhi, students belonging to a Hindu group were accused of attacking other students at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University over non-vegetarian food served in one of its hostels on Ram Navmi. Several students, including women, belonging to left-wing groups were injured in the attack. Rahul Gandhi, India’s main opposition leader, tweeted on Monday: “Hate, violence and exclusion are weakening our beloved country. “The path to progress is paved with the bricks of brotherhood, peace and harmony. Let’s stand together to secure a just, inclusive India.” Another opposition parliamentarian, Manoj Kumar Jha, said Sunday’s incidents “should be the last warning signal for everyone that we are in the closest vicinity of a possible ‘civil war’ with genocidal tenor”. New Delhi-based activist Nadeem Khan, founder of the United Against Hate group, told Al Jazeera the hate speech against Muslims and attacks on mosques in various parts of the country during Ram Navmi “clearly shows that it was a well-crafted and organised activity to instigate communal violence in the country”. “Failing to stop these attempts may lead to civil violations and systematic attacks on minorities. All peace-loving citizens and human rights defenders must come together to resist the situation and keep peace in order,” he said. © Al Jazeera 2022

Dozens of Afghan civilians have been killed in recent weeks in blasts, some of which have been claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) group. A powerful blast has hit a mosque in western Kabul during prayers, killing at least 10 and wounding 20, officials said, amid a spate of attacks on Afghan places of worship and civilian targets during the holy month of Ramadan. Besmullah Habib, deputy spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, said the blast on Friday hit the Khalifa Aga Gul Jan Mosque in western Kabul at about 2pm local time (10:00 GMT). Hundreds of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan and the mosque was packed, local residents told the Reuters news agency – fearing the casualty toll could rise further. The Taliban-appointed interior ministry spokesman, Mohammad Nafi Takor, could not provide more details and Taliban security men cordoned off the area. The source of the explosion was not immediately known and no one has claimed responsibility for the blast. One man, who was inside the mosque at the time, told Reuters a huge blast tore through the building during prayers, the explosion burning his feet and hands. Mohammad Sabir, a resident in the area, said he had seen people being loaded into ambulances after the explosion. “The blast was very loud, I thought my eardrums were cracked,” he said. A nurse at a nearby hospital who declined to be named said they had received several injured people in critical condition from the attack. Dozens of Afghan civilians have been killed in recent weeks in blasts, some of which have been claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have said that they have secured the country since taking power last August and largely eliminated the ISIL’s local offshoot, but international officials and analysts said the risk of a resurgence in attacks remains. Many of the attacks have targeted the Shia religious minority. Sunni mosques have also been attacked. Bombs exploded on two passenger vans carrying Shia Muslims in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday, killing at least nine people. Last Friday, a blast tore through a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers in the city of Kunduz, killing 33 people. The latest attack came on Friday, the Islamic holy day – the last in the month of Ramadan, during which most Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and before the religious holiday of Eid next week. © Al Jazeera 2022