World
In Khartoum, exhumation of makeshift graves reawakens families’ grief
Khartoum, Sudan – Iman Abdel-Azim had to bury her brother in the courtyard of her home in Khartoum North when he died as fighting between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces raged around them.
Her brother died of cholera in September last year, unable to access medical care.
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Her neighbours had to help her bury him because it was impossible to access cemeteries during the fighting. She was not the only resident of the capital region’s three cities – Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman – who had to do this.
After Khartoum State announced at the beginning of December a major effort to exhume the remains of people buried in this makeshift manner and move them to cemeteries, Abdel-Azim feels her grief has been renewed as she relives the pain of losing a loved one.
Organised campaign
State and local committees were formed to implement the exhumations. They are made up of representatives from forensic medicine, Civil Defence, the Sudanese Red Crescent, and neighbourhood management and services committees.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, executive director of Khartoum North, told Al Jazeera that the campaign aims to alleviate the psychological burden on families and improve the health and humanitarian situation in the capital region.
According to Abdel Rahman, the campaign is being overseen by the High Committee for Collecting the Remains of Those Who Died During the Battle of Dignity.
The process will unfold in stages, the first of which is identifying makeshift burial sites.
After that, families are notified and allowed to nominate a representative to be involved in every step, from exhumation to burial.
Forensic medicine specialists will supervise the exhumations and reburials in cemeteries with full documentation of the remains.
The process of transferring these remains began as early as when the Sudanese army took control of Khartoum State, Hisham Zain al-Abidin, director of the Forensic Medicine Authority in Khartoum State, explained to Al Jazeera.
He affirmed that by the first quarter of 2026, Khartoum and its seven districts would be free of any makeshift graves.
However, he added, the field teams responsible for the exhumations and reburials are facing a number of challenges, including a shortage of body bags, “which could affect the work being carried out as required”.
Sabotage
According to Zain al-Abidin, the Rapid Support Forces sabotaged the DNA units used to preserve samples from several buried bodies, which has made it difficult to identify many victims.
He said teams are numbering and documenting the burials of unidentified bodies, then burying them in graves specifically for unidentified individuals.
He called on stakeholders, organisations and citizens for help in preparing the graves and stressed that the work ahead is extensive and requires concerted efforts between the government and citizens.
For her part, Shireen Al-Tayeb Nour Al-Daem, vice president of the Steering and Services Committee in the Shambat neighbourhood of North Khartoum, told Al Jazeera that the committee had surveyed graves in homes, mosques and public squares in several neighbourhoods as a preliminary step before the arrival of medical teams and the commencement of exhumations and transfers of bodies.
Nour Al-Daem said the committee informs victims’ families to attend and follow up on the official procedures with the legal and medical teams until the transfers and burials are completed.
The committee is working on identifying and surveying the locations of makeshift graves, collecting data and communicating with families, Nour Al-Daem said, urging citizens to report the locations of makeshift graves so field teams can access them.
When teams arrive to undertake the exhumations and reburials, the committee will also undertake the logistics and support for those teams. This includes coordinating between the field teams and the families of the deceased to ensure the presence of the family or a representative.
If no relatives of the deceased are present, she added, the High Committee has instructed that the exhumation be halted.
She indicated that the country needs further efforts to complete reconstruction and rebuilding and what the committees are doing “paves the way for a safe environment for the return of citizens” despite the difficulty of people experiencing a second farewell to their loved ones.
The streets of Khartoum are also filled with bodies that have not yet been buried, some of which have decomposed, representing a challenge to identify them and dangers to public health.
Shops and schools shut in northern Israel as residents protested a 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon that took effect on April 16, saying “nothing was achieved”. Israeli officials say operations may continue, with forces still deployed inside southern Lebanon.
Published On 19 Apr 2026
World
Pope Leo says remarks about world being ‘ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ were not aimed at Trump: report
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Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that remarks he made this week in which he said the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” were not directed at President Donald Trump, a report said.
The pope, speaking onboard a flight to Angola during his 10-day tour of Africa, said reporting about his comments “has not been accurate in all its aspects” and his speech “was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting,” according to Reuters.
The news outlet cited the pope as saying his comments were not aimed at Trump.
“As it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate the president, which is not in my interest at all,” the pope reportedly said.
’60 MINUTES’ ACCUSED OF USING LEFT-LEANING CARDINALS TO BAIT TRUMP INTO FEUD WITH VATICAN
Pope Leo XIV answers journalists’ questions during his flight from Yaoundé, Cameroon, to Luanda, Angola, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (Luca Zennaro/Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance later took to X to thank the pope for clearing the record.
“While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict — and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen — the reality is often much more complicated,” Vance wrote. “Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day.
“The President — and the entire administration — work to apply those moral principles in a messy world,” he continued. “He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his.”
The vice president’s comments came days after he told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” that it would be best for the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality.”
“Let the President of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said Tuesday.
Trump last Sunday accused Pope Leo XIV of being “terrible” on foreign policy after the pontiff criticized the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
“He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
POPE LEO SLAMS THOSE WHO ‘MANIPULATE RELIGION’ FOR MILITARY OR POLITICAL GAIN, TRUMP RESPONDS
Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images; Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
During a speech in Cameroon on Thursday, the pope said, “We must make a decisive change of course — a true conversion — that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.
Pope Leo XIV speaks as he meets with the community of Bamenda at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda on the fourth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa April 16, 2026. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Bulgarians headed to the polls Sunday for the eighth time in five years, with anti-corruption candidate and former president Rumen Radev’s bloc tipped to win.
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The European Union’s poorest member has been through a spate of governments since 2021, when large anti-graft rallies brought an end to the conservative government of long-time leader Boyko Borissov.
Eurostat data shows Bulgaria consistently ranks last in the EU by GDP per capita. In 2025, Bulgaria (along with Greece) was at 68% of the EU average.
Radev, who has advocated for renewing ties with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine, was president for nine years in the Balkan nation of 6.5 million people.
He stepped down in January to lead newly formed centre-left grouping Progressive Bulgaria, with opinion polls before Sunday’s vote suggesting the bloc could gain 35% of the vote.
The former air force general has said he wants to rid the country of its “oligarchic governance model”, and backed anti-corruption protests in late 2025 that brought down the latest conservative-backed government.
“I’m voting for change,” Decho Kostadinov, 57, told reporters after casting his ballot at a polling station in the capital, Sofia, adding corrupt politicians “should leave — they should take whatever they’ve stolen and get out of Bulgaria”.
Polls are forecasting a surge in voter participation, with more than 3.3 million Bulgarians expected to cast ballots according to the Bulgarian News Agency.
Voting will close at 1700 GMT, with exit polls expected immediately afterwards. Preliminary results are expected on Monday.
‘Preserve what we have’
Borissov’s pro-European GERB party is likely to come second, according to opinion polls, with around 20%, ahead of the liberal PP-DB.
“I’m voting to preserve what we have. We are a democratic country, we live well,” said Elena, an accountant of about 60, who did not give her full name, after casting her vote in Sofia.
Front-runner Radev has slammed the EU’s green energy policy, which he considers naive “in a world without rules”.
He also opposes any Bulgarian efforts to send arms to help Ukraine fight back Russia’s 2022 invasion, though he has said he would not use his country’s veto to block Brussels’ decisions.
Pushing for renewed ties with Russia, Radev denounced a 10-year defence agreement between Bulgaria and Ukraine signed last month – drawing fresh accusations from opponents of being too soft on Moscow.
The ex-president also stoked outrage online for screening images at his final campaign rally of his meetings with world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“We need to close ranks,” he told around 10,000 cheering supporters at the rally, presenting his party as a non-corrupt “alternative to the perverse cartel of old-style parties”.
Borissov, who headed the country virtually uninterrupted for close to a decade, has dismissed suggestions that Radev brings something “new”.
At a rally of his party earlier this week, he insisted GERB had “fulfilled the dreams of the 1990s” with such achievements as the country joining the eurozone this year.
‘No one to vote for’
Radev is aiming for an absolute majority in the 240-seat parliament.
A lack of trust in politics has affected voter turnout, which slumped to 39% in the last election in 2024.
But with Radev rallying voters, high turnout is expected this time, according to analyst Boryana Dimitrova from the Alpha Research polling institute.
Miglena Boyadjieva, a taxi driver of about 55, said she always votes, but the “problem is that there is no one to vote for”.
“You vote for one person and get others. The system has to change,” she told reporters.
Political parties have called on Bulgarians to show up for the polls, also to curb the impact of vote buying.
In recent weeks, police have seized more than one million euros in raids against vote buying in stepped-up operations.
They have also detained hundreds of people, including local councillors and mayors.
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