Region

DUBAI — The date palm, which was recognised by UNESCO on Wednesday, has for centuries played an important role in the establishment and growth of civilisations in the hot and dry regions of the Arab world.

Now date palm-related knowledge, traditions and practices have been inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The tree, whose roots penetrate deep into the soil, allowing it to grow in arid climates, has not only been a source of food but also of economic gain.

"Date palms gather in oases of different densities within desert areas indicating the presence of water levels suitable for irrigation," according to a nomination put forward by 14 countries — Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

"As a result, this aided mankind in settling down despite harsh conditions," said the document. 

Until this day, platters of dates adorn tables in homes and businesses across the Arab world, where the symbol of the date palm tree has historically presented prosperity.

The offering of the sweet fruit, coupled with a cup of coffee, is a sign of good old-fashioned Arab hospitality. 

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, the date palm is probably the most ancient cultivated tree. 

It was grown as early as 4,000 BC and used for the construction of the moon god temple near Ur in southern Iraq — the ancient region of Mesopotamia.

"The population of the submitting states has been associated with the date palm tree for centuries as it aided them in the construction of civilisation," they said in the nomination. 

"Historical research and various antiquities excavations have resulted in the plant's significant cultural and economic status in numerous regions such as Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and the Arab Gulf."

The ancient crop also faces some modern challenges. Gulf countries have fought hard to eradicate the red palm weevil, which originally came from Asia and was first detected in the region in the 1980s.

The beetle, which is barely a few centimetres long, produces larvae that feed off palm trunks, killing the trees.

“In Gulf countries and the Middle East, $8 million is lost each year through removal of severely infested trees alone,” according to the FAO. 

All parts of the date palm were and are still used in some parts of the region for shelter or to produce a range of products, including handicrafts, mats, rope and furniture.

To celebrate and promote their date palm heritage and palm products, some of the submitting countries hold annual date festivals, most notably the annual Liwa Date Festival in the UAE and the Dates Festival in Al Qassim in Saudi Arabia. 

Both Gulf countries are among the top date exporters, according to the Geneva-based International Trade Centre.

MOGADISHU — Four civilians and a soldier were killed when heavily-armed Somali extremists attacked an army base north of the capital, military sources and witnesses said on Thursday.

Witnesses said dozens of Al Shabaab members, arriving aboard four pickup trucks, took part in the attack late Wednesday on Hilweyne base 25 kilometres north of Mogadishu, while a soldier said there had been hundreds of assailants.

The terrorists, whose organisation is affiliated to Al Qaeda, took over the camp for a while before pulling out.

“After [a] tactical retreat by the armed forces, the military is back to the camp now and the situation is under control,” said Mohamed Salad, a Somali military commander in the nearby town of Balcad.

“We have lost one soldier in the fighting, but the terrorists also killed four other civilians including two women who were running small businesses near the camp.”

Hussein Luqman, a witness, said: “There was heavy exchange of gunfire which continued for more than 30 minutes.”

“Al  Shabab fighters... stormed the base after attacking from several directions using technicals,” Luqman said, referring to pickup trucks.

“Two women who used to sell food and other items to the soldiers in the camp were among the dead.”

Several other witnesses told AFP that they saw fire at the base after the attackers set some of the soldiers’ belongings and two trucks ablaze.

Al Shabaab claimed the attack, saying they had killed four soldiers before overrunning the base.

The group was driven out of Mogadishu by government forces backed by 20,000 African Union peacekeepers in 2011.

But they still control large areas of the countryside, using it as a springboard for carrying attacks on government and civilian targets.

On Tuesday, three civilians and two members of the security forces were killed in an Al Shabaab attack on a Mogadishu hotel. All five assailants died, according to the police.

KHARTOUM — A verdict in the corruption trial of Sudan’s deposed president Omar Al Bashir is expected to be delivered on Saturday, months after his ouster in April in the face of unprecedented mass protests.

Bashir has been on trial in a Khartoum court since August on charges of illegally acquiring and using foreign funds.

The ex-president, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for 30 years, was toppled by the army on April 11 after months of demonstrations triggered by an acute economic crisis.

The verdict is the first faced by the veteran leader, and if found guilty, the offences could land him behind bars for more than a decade.

Bashir has appeared at several hearings in the trial, following the proceedings from inside a metal cage wearing the traditional Sudanese white jalabiya and turban.

At the start of the trial, Judge Sadeq Abdelrahman said authorities had seized 6.9 million euros as well as $351,770 and 5.7 million Sudanese pounds ($128,000) from Bashir’s home.

Bashir’s lawyer Mohamed Al Hassan told reporters the ex-president’s defence does not see the trial as a legal case, but as “a political case”.

Sudan is one of the countries worst affected by corruption in the world, coming in at 172 out of 180 in watchdog group Transparency International’s global ranking.

New charges 

According to Adam Rashid, deputy secretary general of the Darfur Bar Association, a group of Sudanese lawyers, the ex-president should be tried for his crimes, “small or large”.

For him, this trial for corruption is “a very small case compared with the crimes committed by Bashir”, he said, adding, “the victims of his crimes in Darfur, they don’t care about this case”.

The trial does not concern the weighty charges against Bashir levied by The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) over the past decade.

Bashir is wanted by the ICC for his alleged role in the Darfur war that broke out in 2003 as ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Bashir’s then Arab-dominated government, accusing it of marginalising the region economically and politically.

Khartoum applied what rights groups say was a scorched earth policy against ethnic groups suspected of supporting the rebels — raping, killing, looting and burning villages.

The ICC has accused Bashir of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict that left around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

After Bashir was toppled, ICC prosecutors asked that he stand trial for the killings in Darfur. But Khartoum has not yet authorised his extradition.

The army generals who initially seized power after the president’s fall refused to hand 75-year-old Bashir over to the ICC, based in The Hague.

Although Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute, the founding document of the ICC, it has a legal obligation to arrest heads of state whose alleged crimes fall under the court’s mandate.

The umbrella protest movement Forces of Freedom and Change, have already indicated they have no objection to extradition.

Meanwhile, on November 12, Sudanese authorities filed charges against Bashir and some of his aides for “plotting” the 1989 coup that brought him to power.

In May, the attorney general said Bashir had been charged with the deaths of those killed during the anti-regime demonstrations that led to his ouster, without specifying when he would face trial.

BAGHDAD — With border guards, clean-up crews and hospitals, Iraqi protesters have created a mini-state in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, offering the kinds of services they say their government has failed to provide.

“We’ve done more in two months than the state has done in 16 years,” said Haydar Chaker, a construction worker from Babylon province, south of the capital.

Everyone has their role, from cooking bread to painting murals, with a division of labour and scheduled shifts.

Chaker came to Baghdad with his friends after the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage to the Shiite holy city Karbala, his pilgrim’s tent and cooking equipment equally useful at a protest encampment.

Installed in the iconic square whose name means “liberation”, he provides three meals a day to hundreds of protesters, cooking with donated foods.

In the morning he coordinates with the surrounding tents, dividing sacks of rice, sugar, flour and other ingredients then assigning meals, drinks and sandwiches for volunteers to prepare.

The self-reliant encampment is the heart of a protest movement that seeks the radical overhaul of Iraq’s political system, and despite frequent power cuts, it never stops beating.

War, a habit 

At the entrances to the square, dozens of guards like Abou Al Hassan man makeshift barricades, where men and women search incoming visitors.

“We Iraqis rub shoulders with the military from a young age, so we pick up a thing or two,” said Hassan, dressed in camouflage fatigues.

“We don’t need special training to detect saboteurs and keep them out... or to be able to defend our state,” he added, alertly scanning the perimeter.

But on Friday, their “state” came under attack, when gunmen Iraqi authorities have failed to identify stormed a parking building occupied by protesters.

After the massacre that left 24 dead, protesters installed new checkpoints and closed an 18-storey building overlooking the square.

Infiltrated by intelligence agents and at the mercy of gunmen able to cross police and military roadblocks at will, protesters insist their mini-state remains committed to non-violence.

But in a country where the influence and arsenals of pro-Iran armed groups continue to increase, the protest enclave has forged an alliance with another of Iraq’s states within a state.

Unarmed “blue helmets” from Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigades) have intervened to protect protesters.

‘My weapon? A brush’ 

When protests started in October, Ahmed Al Harithi “abandoned his job” as an obstetrician gynaecologist to protest and later to care for the injured.

He learned to coordinate with the paramedics and tuk-tuk drivers who ferried the wounded.

Soon, the doctors’ and pharmacists’ syndicates were organising a “mini-health ministry” in Tahrir, he said.

They coordinated with logistics cells to stock medication that was donated or bought at a discount from sympathetic pharmacies.

To light their clinics at night, protesters jerry-rigged connections to the municipal high-tension wires. During daily power cuts, they rely on purchased generators.

In front of the field clinics, as tuk-tuks zoom between clusters of protesters, dozens of volunteers sweep the pavement. Tahrir has never been so clean, protesters say, in contrast to its previous neglect by municipal workers.

Houda Amer has not been to class in weeks. Instead, the teacher spends her days painting the curbs and railings in the square.

“My weapon is my paintbrush,” she said with a smile.

“Our revolution doesn’t want to destroy everything,” she said. “We are all here to build our nation.”

TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria — In Algeria's disaffected Kabylie region, the brick has become the symbol of the anti-vote campaign ahead of unpopular presidential elections set for Thursday.

Protesters have even bricked up the entrances to local government offices to prevent the distribution of election material in Tizi-Ouzou, a key city in the region home to much of the north African country's Berber minority.

Walls where election posters would ordinarily appear are instead daubed with calls for a general strike.

"The strike is a show of force against the election — we want zero voting here," said Amar Benchikoune, 38, outside his shuttered store. Since Sunday, pharmacies are the only shops to open in the city.

Ethnic Berbers, who mostly live in the mountainous Kabylie region, make up 10 million of Algeria's 42 million population but have long been marginalised by a state founded on Arab nationalism.

Online, people determined to thwart the vote have changed their profile pictures to a brick with the inscription "ballot".

"It's our way of showing our total rejection of the vote," said Ouerdia, a 55-year-old retiree.

For Mokrane, 29, "they want to organise the vote on the sly but we won't let them do it."

Bricks and thwarters 

On Sunday, protesters marched on the district administrative office carrying bricks and bags of cement. Anti-riot police held them off for three hours before withdrawing in the face of the jubilant crowd.

"A free and democratic Algeria," protesters chanted as they walled off the entrance, which they painted with "No vote".

"There is no chance of even a sole voter placing a ballot here," said Boudjemaa Lakhdari, a 36-year-old vendor speaking amid the thronging protesters.

While Kabylie has historically had low election turnouts amid widespread opposition to the central government, Thursday's presidential vote is unpopular across the country too.

Mass protests, which forced ageing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign his two-decade tenure in April, have taken place weekly across Algeria to demand sweeping reforms ahead of any vote.

The five approved candidates all either supported Bouteflika or participated in his government, including two as prime ministers.

During the three week long campaign, not one of the candidates visited Tizi-Ouzou or Bejaia, the other major city in Kabylie, where protesters wave Amazigh — or Berber — flags, despite a ban.

"We're here to reaffirm our rejection [of the vote] in a peaceful manner," said Massinissa Houfel, a 29-year-old lawyer. "We don't want to repeat the tragedies of the past.

He was referring to the bloody riots of the 2001 "Black Spring", when Kabylie had been preparing to celebrate the 21st anniversary of its fight to secure recognition of its Berber identity.

That April, the death of a high school student at a police station sparked riots and a crackdown in which more than 120 were killed and thousands wounded.

Houfel said he was "shocked" by the candidacies of Ali Benflis, who was prime minister during the repression of 2001, and Abdelmadjid Tebboune, another premier under Bouteflika.

"There will be no vote, authorities must first release prisoners of conscience," Houfel said.

But in the face of the opposition, authorities remain determined to proceed with the vote, arresting hundreds of protesters, activists and journalists during the campaign, rights groups say.

MOGADISHU — Five people including three civilians were killed when  militants stormed a hotel in Somalia's capital, police said on Wednesday, adding that all five attackers had also died after an hours-long siege.

The attack on Tuesday evening, claimed by the group Al Shabaab, took place at a hotel in Mogadishu popular with politicians, army officers and diplomats.

"Our brave security forces ended the terror attack on SYL Hotel rescuing more than 80 people" including government officials and hotel guests, police said in a statement.

"The number of the dead we have confirmed is five, among them two members of the security forces and three civilians. Nine other civilians and two soldiers were also wounded slightly".

Several witnesses told AFP that the assailants were dressed in police uniform, which allowed them to approach the hotel without arousing suspicion.

They then opened fire and threw grenades, triggering an armed response from security forces guarding checkpoints leading to the nearby presidential palace.

After several hours of siege, police killed the two last attackers holed up inside the hotel, which has suffered three previous deadly attacks, all claimed by Al Shabaab.

Al Shabaab posted a statement online saying it had carried out an operation "which happened as planned", but gave no further details.

The police statement said the attack was carried out "by five people who have been sent by the terrorists to threaten the Somali public and all of them were killed".

Al Shabaab — allied to Al Qaeda — was forced out of the Somali capital in 2011 but still controls parts of the countryside and continues to launch attacks in Mogadishu.

The group often strikes the most prominent hotels and restaurants, and has also staged attacks in neighbouring Kenya.

The SYL Hotel is close to the main entrance of the Villa Somalia government complex, a high-security area that includes the presidential palace, the prime minister's office and ministry buildings.

Unusually for an Al Shabaab attack, the jihadists did not use a car bomb to try and blast through the hotel's exterior wall, said police officer Suleyman Adan.

"It appears that the attackers have changed their tactics. It was easy for them to disguise themselves and enter the building," he added,

Adan said that a large number of hotel guests had been quickly evacuated by police through the hotel's service doors and emergency exits.

Witnesses described scenes of panic and confusion as the attack began.

"I was close to the hotel when the gunfire broke out and we managed to turn our vehicle swiftly," said Abdukadir Ahmed.

"The security forces around the palace checkpoints were firing heavy machine-guns but we don't exactly know who was fighting who."

Another witness, Ali Moalim Nur, told AFP that one of his friends who escaped the hotel had suffered a fracture after jumping off a wall.

In January 2015, five people were killed when a suicide car bomber rammed the gates of the same hotel on the eve of a visit by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In February 2016, twin blasts set off close to the SYL Hotel and the neighbouring Peace Garden killed 14 people.

Then in August of the same year, a suicide car bomb attack on the hotel killed 15 people.