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Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa told AFP on Thursday he had sought assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorising the South American country.In an exclusive interview with AFP in Paris, the iron-fisted 37-year-old who won re-election last month said Israel and the UAE had agreed to provide intelligence “to help” fight cocaine traffickers.Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battled for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation’s ports.During presidential campaigning, Noboa suggested US special forces should be deployed to Ecuador to tackle the violence, and floated legal reforms to allow US bases to reopen.Over the past week, he travelled to Italy, Spain, Britain and France — some of the European countries experiencing rocketing cocaine consumption — to develop further security alliances, as well as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.He said he spoke to Israeli and Emirati leaders about “cooperation on security at ports and borders… since the violence is there, in the areas or on the routes to the ports.”But Noboa admitted “there is not much interest so far” from foreign powers in establishing military bases in the Andean country.In March, he announced a security alliance with Erik Prince, founder of the controversial American security company Blackwater, whose employees killed and wounded dozens of civilians in Iraq.Asked about the pact, Noboa said Prince was merely acting in a “consultancy” capacity.- ‘Vote of confidence’ -After a close-run race in the first round of Ecuador’s election Noboa easily defeated left-wing lawyer Luisa Gonzalez in April’s run-off.While Gonzalez had pitched herself as a political everywoman who would improve the lot of poor Ecuadorans, Noboa — heir to a banana export empire — staked his political fortunes on his war on the cartels.In March, he announced a preemptive amnesty for security forces fighting gangs in the violence-wracked port of Guayaquil, despite allegations of gross rights abuses by the military particularly.His tough talk appeared to pay off, with the incumbent taking an 11-point lead over his rival.Gonzalez rejected the results as fraudulent, without providing proof of her claim.Noboa said his win was a “vote of confidence” in his policies.He faces a tough task to unite a country grappling with its dramatic decline in fortunes. Rampant bloodshed has spooked investors and tourists alike, fueling economic malaise and swelling the ranks of Ecuador’s poor to 28 percent of the population.  “More than anything, we need to attract foreign investment,” Noboa said.But in order to access bond markets, the government needs to lower his country’s risk factor.Noboa assured that Ecuador’s economic fundamentals were “not bad,” citing low inflation and record bank deposits, among other indicators.”Our focus is job creation,” he said.

The United States said Thursday that a new foundation will soon announce plans for aid to Gaza, sidelining the United Nations as Israel’s two-month blockade brings severe shortages to the war-battered territory.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the foundation was non-governmental and would make an announcement “shortly,” without offering further details.”We welcome moves to quickly get urgent food aid into Gaza… in a way that the food aid actually gets to those to whom it’s intended,” Bruce told reporters.”It cannot fall into the hands of terrorists such as Hamas.”Israel has imposed a blockade for two months on Gaza, leading UN agencies and other humanitarian groups to warn of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel to medicine to the territory of 2.4 million Palestinians.Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding and has vowed to ramp up pressure further on Hamas. The Israeli military has already leveled most of the territory’s buildings following militants’ unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Israel has long criticized involvement of the United Nations, seeing it as biased, and has banned work of the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.Asked about the lack of a role for the United Nations, whose efforts have been impeded by Israel, Bruce said: “Endless press releases and Hamas appeasement have not delivered food, medicine or shelter to those who need it.”US President Donald Trump has teased a major announcement before he heads on a tour next week of Gulf Arab monarchies.Little is known for certain about the foundation, but a listing in Switzerland showed the establishment in February of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported that the foundation was looking to hire “mercenaries” to work in the distribution of aid.Amnesty International’s Swiss chapter voiced alarm, saying in a statement: “A foundation contributing to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory would be in violation of international law and fail to meet its responsibility to respect human rights.”Israeli officials in recent days have spoken of a broader assault in Gaza, whose population has been almost entirely displaced by the military offensive.Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the territory will be “entirely destroyed.”European governments, UN experts and China have voiced alarm over the Israeli plans. The Trump administration has held back on criticism and blamed Hamas for the situation.Trump since taking office has stopped the vast majority of US international assistance.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels have emerged bruised but defiant from a blistering US bombing campaign, cementing their role as one of the Middle East’s most powerful non-state actors after a truce with Washington.US President Donald Trump said the rebels had “capitulated” after the intense, seven-week campaign that came in response to Huthi threats to renew attacks on Red Sea shipping over Israel’s blockade on Gaza.Rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi slammed Trump’s remarks on Thursday, calling on supporters to celebrate “America’s great failure” during Friday demonstrations and labelling their campaign on the key shipping route a “total success”.The rebels are the biggest winners of this truce, analysts told AFP, with an official confirming they will keep targeting Israeli ships in the key maritime waterway.The Huthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they act in solidarity with Palestinians.They paused their attacks during a recent two-month Gaza ceasefire, but in March threatened to resume targeting international shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza.The move triggered a response from the US army, which hammered the rebels with near-daily air strikes starting March 15 to keep them from threatening shipping in the key waterways.”It is at best a very unstable agreement. The Huthis’ ambitions in the Red Sea against Israel and in the region in general will not wind down,” said Thomas Juneau, a Middle East specialist at the University of Ottawa.”This allows President Trump to claim victory, but ultimately, it is a very limited” win, he said.- ‘Doubly resistant’ -The Yemeni rebels have framed the ceasefire as a victory, regularly announcing throughout the escalation that they shot down MQ-9 drones and at least three F-18 aircrafts.These losses highlight “billions spent by the US,” said Mohammed Albasha, of the US-based Basha Report Risk Advisory, noting that “none of their senior commanders were harmed”.The recent agreement failed to curb the Huthis’ ambitions.”On the ground, anti‑Huthi forces lacked the capacity to conduct ground operations without Emirati and Saudi backing,” Albasha said.”Both Gulf states publicly opposed a ground offensive given their ongoing understandings with the Huthis,” he added.The group operating out of hard-to-access mountain strongholds has withstood a decade of war against a well-armed, Saudi-led coalition.”The nature of Huthi rule and how they operate makes them doubly resistant to air strikes,” said Michael Shurkin of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank.”The Huthis as an organisation are dispersed and rely on tribal networks. They are classic guerrilla fighters and proficient at asymmetrical warfare,” he added.- Iran links -The Huthis have become Iran’s strongest ally after the Palestinian Hamas group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah were decimated in wars with Israel.”Their importance has increased,” said Juneau, adding that they had become “more indispensable in Iran’s eyes”.Clara Broekaert, a researcher at the Soufan Center, said “the current pause presents a strategic opportunity for the Huthis to rearm and reposition”.But the rebels have retained a certain autonomy from their Iranian backer.A senior member of the Revolutionary Guards is part of one of the Huthis’ essential decision-making bodies, according to Juneau.Tehran provides them with “missile and drone technologies, military and intelligence support” but the rebels are “not puppets acting at Iran’s whim”, he said.”Dependency works both ways” between Iran and the rebels, he said, adding that “this gives the Huthis significant bargaining power”.Camille Lons, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the group allows Tehran to “maintain pressure points, retain regional assets and networks in Yemen”.- Weapons -Relatively unknown a decade ago, the Huthis have remained largely under the radar of Western intelligence services. Their attacks, often with home-assembled drones and missiles, are simple but effective, dramatically reducing Red Sea shipping volumes as cargo companies have avoided the route.It is difficult to asses the extent of their arsenal or how badly the latest US campaign has affected their military capacities.”The assumption is that the knowhow for the sophisticated weapons come from Iran,” said Jeremy Binnie of British private intelligence firm Janes.”Some local manufacturing is taking place to reduce the burden on the smuggling networks, although the extent that is happening isn’t particularly clear,” he said.The Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group said the group was “attempting to use hydrogen fuel cells to power their” drones. If the experiment is succesful, they would be the first non-state actor to do so.”This is no longer a small group manufacturing underdeveloped weapons,” Lons said, underlining the increased “complexity of what the Huthis are capable of producing by themselves”.

Paramilitary drone strikes targeting Sudan’s wartime capital have sought to shatter the regular army’s sense of security and open a dangerous new chapter in the war, experts say.Since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group has been at war with the army, which has lately recaptured some territory and dislodged the paramilitaries from the capital Khartoum.The latter appeared to have the upper hand before Sunday, when drone strikes began blasting key infrastructure in Port Sudan, seat of the army-backed government on the Red Sea coast.With daily strikes on the city since then, the RSF has sought to demonstrate its strength, discredit the army, disrupt its supply lines and project an air of legitimacy, experts believe.According to Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair, “this is intended to undermine the army’s ability to provide safety and security in areas they control”, allowing the RSF to expand the war “without physically being there”.For two years, the paramilitaries relied mainly on lightning ground offensives, overwhelming army defences in brutal campaigns of conquest.But after losing nearly all of Khartoum in March, the RSF has increasingly turned to long-range air power.Using weapons the army says were supplied by the United Arab Emirates, it has hit strategic sites hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from their holdout positions on the capital’s outskirts.Michael Jones, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, says the RSF’s pivot is a matter of both “strategic adaptation” and “if not desperation, then necessity”.- Strategic setback -“The loss of Khartoum was both a strategic and symbolic setback,” he told AFP.In response, the RSF needed to broadcast a “message that the war isn’t over”, according to Sudanese analyst Hamid Khalafallah.The conflict between Sudan’s de facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has split Africa’s third-largest country in two.The army holds the centre, north and east, while the RSF controls nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.”It’s unlikely that the RSF can retake Khartoum or reach Port Sudan by land, but drones enable them to create a sense of fear and destabilise cities” formerly considered safe, Khalafallah told AFP.With drones and light munitions, it can “reach areas it hasn’t previously infiltrated successfully”, Jones said.According to a retired Sudanese general, the RSF has been known to use two types of drone — makeshift lightweight models with 120mm mortar rounds that explode on impact, and long-range drones capable of delivering guided missiles, including the Chinese-manufactured CH95.On Thursday, rights group Amnesty International published a report that said “Chinese GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers” used by the RSF in Khartoum and Darfur were provided by the UAE.- Sparing fighters -The Sudanese government severed diplomatic ties with the Gulf state on Tuesday, accusing it of supplying the advanced weapons systems the RSF has used to attack Port Sudan.Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied arming the RSF, despite reports from UN experts, US politicians and international organisations.According to Mohaned Elnour, nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, the RSF’s “main objective is to divert the army’s attention” and position itself as a potential government, which it has said it will form.”It’s much easier for them to attack quickly and withdraw, rather than defend territory,” Elnour said.Crossing Sudan’s vast landmass — some 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) from RSF bases in Darfur to Port Sudan — requires long-range drones such as the Chinese-made Wing Loong II, deployed by the UAE, or the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 used by the army, according to Amnesty.Both sides in Sudan are in a race to “destroy each other’s drone capacity”, Khair said.Two years into the devastating war, the RSF has another incentive to rely on drones, she said.”It allows them to spare their troops” after reports that RSF recruitment has dipped since the war began.”Initial recruitment was high based on the opportunity to loot, and there’s very little left to loot now,” she said.Both sides have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians, but the RSF is specifically accused of rampant looting, ethnic cleansing and systematic sexual violence.

First responders in Gaza said Thursday that their operations were at a near standstill, more than two months into a full Israeli blockade that has left food and fuel in severe shortage.Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it plans to expand military operations to force Hamas to free hostages held there since the Iran-backed group’s unprecedented October 2023 attack.”Seventy-five percent of our vehicles have stopped operating due to a lack of diesel fuel,” the civil defence agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.He added that its teams, who play a critical role as first responders in the Gaza Strip, were also facing a “severe shortage of electricity generators and oxygen devices”.For weeks, UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations have warned of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water in the coastal territory that is home to 2.4 million Palestinians.”It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip,” Pierre Krahenbuhl, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters in Geneva Thursday.The situation in Gaza is on a “razor’s edge” and “the next few days are absolutely decisive”, he added.The UN’s agency for children, UNICEF, warned that Gaza’s children face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” after UN-supported kitchens shut down due to lack of food supplies.Over 20 independent experts mandated by the UN’s Human Rights Council demanded action on Wednesday to avert the “annihilation” of Palestinians in Gaza.Senior civil defence official Mohammad Mughayyir told AFP that Israeli bombardment across Gaza on Thursday killed 21 people, including nine in a strike that targeted the Abu Rayyan family home in the northern city of Beit Lahia.On Thursday, Palestinians waited in line to donate blood at a field hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist reported.”In these difficult circumstances, we have come to support the injured and sick, amid severe food shortages and a lack of proteins, by donating blood”, Moamen al-Eid, a Palestinian waiting in the line, told AFP.- ‘No food or drink’ -Hind Joba, the hospital’s laboratory head, said that “there is no food or drink, the crossings are closed, and there is no access to nutritious or protein-rich food”.”Still, people responded to the call, fulfilling their humanitarian duty by donating blood” despite the toll on their own bodies, she added.”But this blood is vital, and they know that every drop helps save the life of an injured person.”Israel resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18 after talks to prolong a ceasefire stalled.On Monday, the country’s security cabinet approved a new roadmap for military operations in Gaza, aiming for the “conquest” of the territory while displacing its people en masse, drawing international condemnation.An Israeli security official stated that a “window” remained for negotiations on the release of hostages until the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf, scheduled from May 13 to 16.Hamas, which is demanding a “comprehensive and complete agreement” to end the war, on Wednesday denounced what it called Israel’s attempt to impose a “partial” deal. The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.Of the 251 people abducted in Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza, in 2014.The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 attack has killed at least 52,760 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry, which is considered reliable by the UN.bur-phy-lba-acc/dv