Monthly regional updates
Update
Regional Overview: Middle East | August 2023
Overview of recent significant events in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
Bahrain: Demonstration wave across the country in support of prisoners
On 7 August, hundreds of political prisoners in Jaw prison initiated a hunger strike, the largest in Bahrain’s history,1 in protest of harsh prison conditions. The hunger strike triggered demonstrations across the Shiite-majority country in support of the political prisoners, leading to the number of demonstrations nearly tripling in August compared to the month prior. This marks the highest number of demonstration events in Bahrain since April 2021, when hundreds of demonstrations were held to demand the release of political prisoners amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Rejecting limited concessions offered by the government, prisoners have vowed to continue their hunger strike. Moreover, 400 additional political prisoners joined the strike action by the end of August.2 Since the anti-government demonstrations in 2011, Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy has harshly cracked down on political dissidents, opposition parties, and civil society. About one-third of all Bahraini prisoners are believed to be imprisoned for their political, religious, or other beliefs or identity.3
Iraq: Intensification of PKK-Turkey fighting over contested hills
Fighting between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish forces around Gire Cudi hill in Dohuk increased by 67% in August compared to the previous month after Turkey began landing airborne troops in the area at the end of July. The contested Gire Cudi hill overlooks a strategic road connecting Turkish forces in the Bamerni Air Base with a Turkish base in Diraluk town. Nevertheless, the overall level of political violence involving Turkish forces in northern Iraq decreased by 43% in August compared to the month prior, coinciding with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s first official visit to the country to discuss the Iraqi government’s potential designation of the PKK as a “terrorist” organization.4 Turkish forces and Kurdish militants are engaged in a long-standing conflict over ethnic rights in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq and Syria.
Lebanon: Violence breaks out in Lebanon’s largest refugee camp
Violence broke out between Fatah and members of the Shabab al-Muslim and Jund al-Sham Islamist groups in Ayn al-Hilwe, the largest refugee camp for Palestinians in Lebanon. The armed clashes were triggered by the killing of a top Fatah commander on 30 July and lasted for five days. At least 12 people were reported dead in the clashes, while dozens were injured and about 20,000 people displaced.5 While violence at the camp occurs sporadically and is triggered by rivalries between different Palestinian factions,6 the recent episode of violence marked the deadliest incident since 2017.
Syria: Anti-regime demonstrations escalate in al-Suwayda province
A wave of protests, riots, and strikes took place in government-held al-Suwayda province in southern Syria, denouncing the government’s decision to cut fuel subsidies. In the second half of August, ACLED records over 130 demonstrations across al-Suwayda. While the province has experienced regular demonstrations against worsening economic conditions in the past, the current demonstrations have highlighted the deep and growing frictions between the Syrian regime and residents of al-Suwayda province, with demonstrators shutting down the offices of the ruling Baath party in several towns. Since the start of the Syrian conflict, al-Suwayda maintained a relatively neutral position vis-a-vis the conflict, as it is home to a religious minority called the Druze, many of whom have refused compulsory conscription into the Syrian armed forces.7 However, as the protests entered their second week, demands for political change became the main focus of the demonstrations as a growing number of demonstrators called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down and for the establishment of a transitional government. Demonstrations spread to neighboring Dara province, as well as Idleb, Aleppo, and Dayr al-Zawr provinces.
Yemen: Mass killings of African migrants on the border with Saudi Arabia
An investigation by Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed that hundreds of Ethiopian migrants were killed at the hands of Saudi forces near the Yemen border from March 2022 to June 2023.8 Abuses against migrants attempting to cross the border from Yemen into Saudi Arabia have been reported since the beginning of the war in Yemen, but spiked after the outbreak of the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region that sparked an influx of migrants into the Arabian Peninsula. ACLED records over 100 distinct incidents of violence perpetrated by the Saudi military against migrants between September 2021 and August 2023, mostly involving close-range and artillery fire. The deadliest incident was recorded in January 2022, when a Saudi airstrike targeted a migrant detention center in al-Sahn, Saada governorate, killing an estimated 66 and injuring hundreds, mostly Ethiopian migrants. Houthi authorities have also been linked to several abuses against migrants, including extorting ‘exit’ fees and holding them in illegal detention centers.9 In 2020, Houthi authorities allegedly killed over 200 migrants near the border in Saada governorate, over suspicion of spreading COVID-19.10 According to the International Organization for Migration, a reported 77,000 migrants reached Yemen from East Africa in the first half of 2023.11 Around 750,000 Ethiopians live and work in Saudi Arabia,12 often taking the dangerous ‘Yemeni Route’ to seek economic opportunities or escape human rights violations in the Horn of Africa.
Footnotes
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Al Jazeera, ‘What’s behind the fighting in Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp?, 31 July 2023
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Agence France-Presse, ‘Syria’s Druze reject Assad’s call to serve,’ 21 November 2018
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HRW, ‘Saudi Arabia: Mass Killings of Migrants at Yemen Border,’ 21 August 2023
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HRW, ‘Saudi Arabia: Mass Killings of Migrants at Yemen Border,’ 21 August 2023
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IOM, ‘Soaring Number of Migrants in Distress in Yemen Demands Greater Relief Efforts,’ 5 July 2023
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