World
Air strikes shake Khartoum as warring sides agree to one-week ceasefire
Air strikes and artillery exchanges shook the Sudanese capital Saturday and armed men ransacked the Qatari embassy as the country’s warring generals kept up their struggle for control even as they agreed to a brief humanitarian pause.
With heavy fighting raging in Khartoum, the rival sides struck a deal on a seven-day ceasefire beginning the evening of Monday, May 22, the United States and Saudi Arabia said Saturday in a joint statement after talks in Jeddah.
The ceasefire “shall remain in effect for seven days and may be extended with the agreement of both parties,” it said.
Multiple announced truces have been violated since fighting broke out five weeks ago, which the Saudi foreign ministry acknowledged in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency early Sunday.
“Unlike previous ceasefires, the Agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism,” it said.
It said subsequent talks “will focus on additional steps necessary to improve security and humanitarian conditions for civilians such as vacating forces from urban centers, including civilian homes, accelerating removal of impediments to the free movement of civilians and humanitarian actors, and enabling public servants to resume their regular duties.”
The power struggle between regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), erupted into fighting on April 15.
The conflict has killed hundreds of people, most of them civilians, and displaced more than one million.
The United Nations has warned of a fast-deteriorating humanitarian situation in Africa’s third-largest country, where one in three people already relied on aid before the war.
World
Fire at Saudi factory kills 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers
A major fire at a sofa manufacturing factory in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, killed 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers, officials in Dhaka said on Monday.
The fire broke out on Sunday in the Musa Sanaiya industrial area, Reuters reported.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is monitoring the situation, while officials from the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh are working with Saudi authorities to complete the repatriation formalities.
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury has instructed officials to bring back the bodies as soon as possible and ensure necessary government assistance and compensation for the bereaved families.
With around 3.5 million Bangladeshis living in Saudi Arabia, the country remains the largest destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, who sent home more than $2.7 billion in remittances last year.
World
Israel rejects Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, PM Netanyahu says
Israel has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace 15-point plan for Gaza, and will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, Reuters reported.
World
Ex-U.S. President Biden’s cancer has spread, is very painful, son says
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