��������

OSLO: Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), networks of volunteers risking their lives to feed and help people facing war and famine in the country, were on Wednesday awarded Norway’s Rafto Prize for human rights work.
Already one of the world’s poorest countries, Sudan has been ravaged by a deadly war since April 2023 between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), each side led by generals vying for power.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven more than 14 million from their homes, according to figures from the United Nations.
The UN has called it “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” where famine has spread in parts of the country and cholera has affected large areas.
The Rafto Foundation honored the ERRs “for their courageous work to preserve the most fundamental human right — the right to life.”
Shortly after the first shots of the conflict rang out, a surge of solidarity emerged in the country that has no functioning state, infrastructure or basic services.
Despite meagre resources, neighborhood volunteers quickly set up self-funded “community kitchens” to feed their neighbors, at times going door-to-door.
The movement also provides civilians with health care and evacuation help.

- ‘Innovative aid efforts’ -

The ERRs rose out of the resistance committees that organized pro-democracy protests during the revolution that ended the reign of dictator Omar Al-Bashir in 2019.
The movement now counts thousands of volunteers.
The ERRs “save lives and maintain human dignity in a place of misery and despair,” the Rafto Foundation said.
“Their innovative mutual aid efforts through citizen participation contribute to developing a civil society and is essential to building a better future,” it added.
With communications cut frequently and few journalists on the ground, the volunteers also play a key role in documenting attacks on civilians.
Regarded with suspicion by the two rival camps, some volunteers have been killed, raped, beaten or had their aid pillaged, according to witness accounts to AFP.
The Rafto Foundation, citing media reports, said more than 100 volunteers had been killed since the beginning of the conflict.
It urged the two sides to agree to “a ceasefire and an end to the fighting in Sudan and for protection of civilian lives for Sudan.”
“We call on the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces to respect international humanitarian law and protect humanitarian relief workers,” it added.
First awarded in 1987 and named after Norwegian historian and human rights activist Thorolf Rafto, the prize comes with $20,000.
It has previously been given to four people — Aung San Suu Kyi, Jose Ramos-Horta, Kim Dae-Jung and Shirin Ebadi — who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, also awarded in Norway.
The winner of that prize will be announced on October 10 in Oslo.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel’s army said Wednesday it had opened a temporary new route to allow people to flee Gaza City, a day after launching a major ground assault aimed at crushing Hamas.

The Israeli military unleashed a massive bombardment of Gaza City before dawn on Tuesday and pushed its troops deeper into the Gaza Strip’s largest urban hub.

It came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing “genocide” in the Palestinian territory, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it was opening “a temporary transportation route via Salah Al-Din Street.”

Its Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee said the corridor would remain open for just 48 hours from midday (0900 GMT) on Thursday.

Until now, the army had urged residents to leave Gaza City via the coastal road toward what it calls a “humanitarian zone” further south, including parts of Al-Mawasi.

Salah Al-Din Street runs down the middle of the Gaza Strip from north to south.

‘We pulled the children out in pieces’

The United Nations estimated at the end of August that around one million people lived in Gaza City and its surroundings.

AFP journalists have observed a fresh exodus in recent days, and the Israeli army said Wednesday that “more than 350,000” had so far fled south.

Many Palestinians interviewed by AFP in Gaza insist there is no safe place in the territory and say they would rather die in their homes than be displaced yet again.

On Tuesday, people spoke of relentless bombing in Gaza City, much of which is already in ruins after nearly two years of Israeli strikes.

Only huge piles of rubble remained of a residential block in the north of the city hit by Israel’s bombardment.

“Why kill children sleeping safely like that, turning them into body parts?” said Abu Abd Zaquout. “We pulled the children out in pieces.”

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had launched a major ground operation in Gaza City to oust Hamas from one of its last strongholds in the war-ravaged territory.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 64,964 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

The Israeli military estimates there are 2,000 to 3,000 Hamas militants in central Gaza City, and that about 40 percent of residents have fled.

UN investigators say Israel committing genocide

Hamas said the assault was “systematic ethnic cleansing targeting our people in Gaza.”

Gaza’s civil defense, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said at least 44 people had been killed by Israeli fire on Tuesday.

Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defense or the Israeli military.

On Tuesday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak for the world body, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur,” commission chief Navi Pillay said.

Israel said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report” and called for the “immediate abolition” of the COI.

On Wednesday, Qatar became the latest country to urge Israel to stop its assault on Gaza City, calling it “an extension of its genocidal war against the Palestinian people.”

France issued a similar call late Tuesday, saying the “destructive campaign... no longer has any military logic” and appealing for a resumption of ceasefire talks.

Israel carried out strikes against Hamas leaders in Doha on September 9, killing five of the Palestinian militant group’s members and a Qatari security officer.

On Tuesday during a visit to Doha, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to ask the Gulf country to stay on as a mediator in the Gaza talks.