Foreign News
Saudi Minister Vows Serious Response to Houthi Attacks on Airports
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has vowed a “serious” response to the deadly attacks on the kingdom’s airports and oil and gas facilities by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement.
“The events of recent weeks are serious.
Our response must be equally serious,” Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman told the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh.On Sunday, a Pakistani man was killed in an attack on a terminal at the capital’s King Khalid International Airport, Saudi authorities said. It came a day after a Houthi missile hit another terminal, killing 13 people and forcing its closure.
The Houthis said they launched the attacks in retaliation for “brutal Saudi aggression” against areas they control in western Yemen.
The Houthi-run health ministry said a child was killed and six other people were injured in a Saudi air strike on a home in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday.
A Saudi-led coalition is providing air support for Yemeni pro-government forces battling the Houthis on Yemen’s Red Sea coast and other areas.
The WPC Energy Congress opened on Sunday at a convention centre about 10km (6 miles) from Riyadh’s airport, which has been attacked four times over the past week.
Last Thursday, three Saudis, including a pilot for the national airline Saudia, were killed in two strikes on an airport facility and an aircraft on the ground.
Another four Saudis, as well as two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian, one Sudanese and one Indian, were killed in Saturday’s missile strike on Terminal 3.
On Sunday, a Pakistani resident was killed when a projectile hit Terminal 4, according to the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).
King Fahd International Airport in the north-eastern city of Dammam was also attacked on Sunday evening, it said, but no casualties were reported.
Later, the Saudi-led coalition said its forces had intercepted a drone in Eastern Province and a missile launched by the Houthis towards the south-western city of Khamis Mushait.
In his inaugural address to the WPC Energy Congress on Monday, Prince Abdul Aziz thanked industry executives and policymakers for attending despite the attacks.
But he also acknowledged that “energy security cannot be taken for granted” and that recent developments had “tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience”.
Prince Abdul Aziz promised that his country would overcome those challenges.
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.
On Sunday evening, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a video statement that its forces had launched missiles and drones at Riyadh and Dammam’s airports, as well as two oil and gas facilities in Eastern Province, in response to 124 Saudi air strikes in Yemen over the previous 24 hours.
Sarea also reiterated a warning to airlines and passengers against using Saudi airports and airspace, except for journeys to and from the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The Houthis’ forces, he vowed, would “continue their escalating operations deep inside Saudi, imposing the equation of ‘a blockade for a blockade’ and ‘an escalation for an escalation’ and targeting Saudi enemy reinforcements until the aggression ceases and the siege on our dear people is lifted”.
Saturday’s attack on Riyadh airport drew widespread international condemnation.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” and warned that attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure were a violation of international law.
President Donald Trump said he would “make a decision” about the US joining Saudi Arabia’s strikes on the Houthis. The US military is reportedly already providing intelligence and targeting support to the Saudi-led coalition.
Iran, which has repeatedly denied allegations that it provides weapons and training to the Houthis, said it was “deeply concerned” by the escalation and called for “dialogue and engagement” to resolve the situation.
Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.
A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom. The Yemeni government claimed it was behind that strike, saying it was trying to prevent an unauthorised Iranian plane from landing.
Last month, the Houthis launched a surprise offensive along Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and ousted pro-government forces from areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea.
They said they posed no threat to international shipping passing through the waterway but that they would continue to target vessels from Saudi Arabia.
However, the seizure of the strait contributed to a surge in global oil prices because Saudi Arabia had been relying on the Red Sea for oil exports after the US and Israel’s war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.
Last week, the Yemeni government announced the start of a new offensive aimed at retaking all territory held by the Houthis.
Pro-government forces said they were quickly able to retake areas around Bab al-Mandab with the help of intense Saudi air strikes, but the Houthis denied losing any territory.
Foreign News
Senate Demands Compulsory Screening of Foreign Arrivals
By Eze Okechukwu, Abuja
The Senate yesterday ordered mandatory health screening for every international passenger arriving Nigeria airports, seaports, land borders as Ebola resurfaces in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a scare case reported in the FCT.
The resolution followed an urgent motion by Senator Francis Fadahunsi, who warned that with Lassa fever already ravaging states, Nigeria cannot afford another outbreak.
“Protecting our entry points is far cheaper than managing Ebola,” Fadahunsi told the chamber.
Lawmakers insisted screening must be total and indiscriminate — no exemptions based on nationality or departure country because infected travellers can transit through safe-listed nations.
Senator Diket Plang raised the stakes further, demanding immediate funding for NCDC and Port Health Services, including release of withheld funds and emergency budget.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the Federal Government has started releasing Ebola response funds but ordered relevant committees to track every kobo.
“Ascertain whether the funds were released and judiciously utilised. Any outstanding debt must be released by the Finance Ministry without delay,” Akpabio directed.
Foreign News
Dozens of Gold Prospectors Kill in Strikes on Egypt-Sudan Border
At least 72 civilians who had been prospecting for gold in a border region of Sudan have been killed in air strikes, a regional rights group said.
Emergency Lawyers, based in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, said jets targeted the so-called artisanal miners at a popular gold mining site on Saturday.
Neither the Egyptian government nor the de facto Sudanese authorities have so far commented.
Cairo has previously faced accusations of deadly strikes on gold prospectors as part of a crackdown on illicit activity along its southern border.
Emergency Lawyers noted the previous alleged attacks and said they represented not only a violation of Sudan’s sovereign territory but demonstrated the government’s lack of control over the region.
“The deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians violates international humanitarian law and the right to life,” it said in a statement on Sunday. “These acts may constitute war crimes.”
It noted that its death toll was provisional and could rise.
The Paris-based Sudan Tribune reported that the death toll could far exceed the number reported by Emergency Lawyers, citing a survivor of Saturday’s attack who said many more people had been injured.
Eyewitnesses said the attack began around 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), with the aircraft firing more than five missiles directly at the miners’ camps, destroying them and excavation pits with people still inside, the newspaper wrote.
The Sudan Tribune reported claims in June that Egyptian forces had used drones and artillery to target artisanal mining sites in the same region, killing several, after sporadic incidents of Egyptian border guards of burning equipment, torching temporary shelters, and firing live ammunition to disperse mine workers.
Days later, Egypt’s border agency announced that it and the military had begun a sweeping security campaign along the border to foil illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining.
At the same time, Sudan’s de facto leader announced an investigation into the alleged strikes, which were said to have killed dozens.
Gold lies at the core of the border tensions.
Sudan’s ongoing civil war has led to a surge in artisanal mining – and often risky practice conducted by civilians with rudimentary tools and without official permission – particularly in remote areas near its borders.
Gold-rich areas lie along porous borders in terrain historically associated with cross-border smuggling routes, with artisanally mined gold potentially feeding into those channels.
Egypt’s border force said in June that it had seized 86 tonnes of gold ore along with amateur prospecting equipment.
Artisanal mining has also reportedly continued in Sudan’s conflict zones and smuggled gold may be a source of income for armed insurgent groups.
This has raised concerns of illicit Sudanese gold undermining the legitimate Egyptian gold market.
Foreign News
German Jets Arrives Italy for Multinational NATO Exercise
Several German fighter jets will take part in the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) annual nuclear defence exercise this week as troops from 17 countries take part in the Steadfast Noon drill.
The German Air Force said three Tornado jets will take part in the exercise hosted by Italy, which starts Tuesday and runs for about a week and a half.
The jets are normally stationed in Büchel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
NATO has not revealed the exercise scenario but said its scale would be comparable to last year’s drill, which involved around 2,000 personnel and more than 70 aircraft.
Last week, NATO’s head of nuclear policy, Nassima Barrows, said the exercise was designed to demonstrate the alliance’s readiness and ability to defend its territory.
No real nuclear weapons will be used, she added.
NATO said the exercise was not linked to current events or directed at any specific country.
Military experts say the drills, held regularly in October, include practising the safe transport of weapons from underground storage facilities to aircraft and mounting them on fighter jets.
Only practice bombs without real nuclear warheads are used during the drills.


