Turkey hosted talks between Libya's eastern and western administrations last week with the goal of reunifying them, a senior Turkish official familiar with the talks told AFP Wednesday.

Ankara is one of the rare countries that maintains ties with both sides in Libya, which has been divided between rival leaderships since 2014 following the 2011 downfall of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

"Discussions have so far focused primarily on military unification, while political unity is expected to be addressed at a later stage," the official said.

The talks, which took place in the capital Ankara, were attended by military officials from Libya's eastern and western administrations as well as diplomats, the source said, adding that Turkey was acting as a mediator between the two sides.

Beset by instability since the overthrow of Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising, Libya is divided between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Turkey strongly backed the Tripoli-based government during years of conflict in Libya, but ties with eastern authorities have warmed significantly in recent years.

On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the time had come to reunify the eastern and western administrations, hinting that an announcement could come soon.

"We have now reached a stage where the conditions are ripe to permanently secure the reunification of the east and the west," Fidan said after hosting a meeting of top European diplomats and regional powers in Istanbul.

"One of the most important pillars of national unification is how the military units currently controlled separately by both sides will be brought together under a single umbrella," he added.

US 'backing'

The Turkish official who spoke to AFP on Wednesday said that no agreement had yet been reached, but the parties had agreed to continue the talks.

"Turkey is the priority to host the talks but they could also take place in Libya," he said.

"Given that Ankara now enjoys close ties with both Libya's eastern and western administrations, it is undoubtedly in a stronger position than any other external actor to negotiate a compromise on military and political reunification," Hamish Kinnear, an analyst at UK-based consulting group Verisk Maplecroft, told AFP.

Turkish mediation comes as Washington and the United Nations are also pushing for the reunification of the oil-rich country.

Asked whether Turkish and US plans conflicted, a foreign observer told AFP that Ankara and Washington's positions "are, in fact, aligned".

"If there is any significant friction, it is primarily with the Europeans, who are deeply divided on this issue, notably France and Italy, as well as Russia, which would see its influence diminish," the observer commented.

Kinnear agreed that Turkey's push for what he described as an "elite bargain" to reunify Libya "likely has the tacit backing of Washington".

Competition for power

Under the proposed US plan for Libya's reunification, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who heads the Tripoli-based government, would remain prime minister, while Saddam Haftar, the eastern commander's son, would become head of the Presidential Council.

Kinnear suggested that the Turkish initiative might be "enough to secure a temporary reunification of Libya's governments", but warned that, in the longer term, destabilising competition for greater power and influence "is likely".

He said it was unlikely that these key figures would relinquish their direct influence over militias loyal to them and remain satisfied with their formal positions alone.

Last week, Libya's eastern-based parliament approved a maritime demarcation deal with Turkey, years after rejecting it when it was first signed.

The agreement has drawn anger from the European Union, Greece, Israel and Egypt, who denounced it as an infringement of their sovereign rights and a violation of international law.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at the criticism, saying it had "no legitimate basis", speaking after a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Analysts say Libya's approval gives Turkey stronger political backing for offshore surveys and negotiations over exploration.

Libya’s eastern government has barred entry to nationals from Iran and Afghanistan at all entry points. This decision follows similar restrictions on nationals from four African countries.

Multiple civilian vendors were among the dozens reportedly killed in an attack on a market earlier this week in a poverty-stricken Darfur city in southwestern Sudan, where they had gathered to sell goods to paramilitary fighters, witnesses said Wednesday.

More than 100 people were killed and 113 others were wounded on Monday in a Sudanese military drone strike on a busy market in Nyala, the capital of the South Darfur province, said Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence. The group said many of those killed and wounded were women and children.

A cigarette vendor told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday that hundreds of Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, fighters had gathered at the market that evening. He said that he moved his stall between gatherings of the paramilitary fighters to sell cigarettes and that a drone struck around 8 p.m., killing dozens of fighters and women selling food. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Mohamed Didan, the official spokesperson for the Special Operations Forces fighting with the army, wrote on Facebook that more than “150 militia recruits” were killed at the Dumaya camp, west of Nyala, in what he described as a “precise and targeted airstrike.”

The latest attack came as part of the ongoing war between the army and the RSF, which broke out in April 2023, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to aid organizations. The war has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced around 13 million people.

Another witness told the AP that the explosion was massive and killed many fighters. He estimated that around 14 civilians, including women and children, were also killed, most of them women selling tea and food.

The witness, who also spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of reprisals, said that civilians in Nyala often gather wherever fighters congregate to sell food and tea to earn a living amid widespread unemployment and few sources of income.

Final casualty figures from Monday’s attack in Nyala are unconfirmed amid limited information from the city.

Sudan Doctors Network, another group that tracks violence, gave a lower death toll and said that the attack was from shelling. It said in a statement Wednesday that at least 21 people were killed and more than 40 others were wounded. The toll includes civilians.

“The release of this statement was delayed due to difficulties in verifying the information, given the challenges of accessing field documentation sources within Nyala amid ongoing active military operations and security constraints that hinder efforts to monitor and verify the conditions of victims and the injured,” the group said. “The identities of all victims and the circumstances surrounding their presence at the site remain under verification, particularly in the absence of detailed and confirmed casualty lists.”

Doctors Without Borders, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, said Tuesday that 36 bodies arrived at its hospital in Nyala and reported seeing 150 wounded in an emergency room. It said 21 of them were wearing civilian clothing.

“Medical staff worked around the clock treating patients, including women and children. They’re all very shaken. The question everyone is asking is ‘Why are markets being targeted? The places where people need to access food, where a lot of civilians gather,’” said Dale Koninckx, MSF project coordinator in Nyala.

The war has pushed some parts of the country into famine. In RSF-controlled Nyala, the share of children seeking treatment for severe acute malnutrition more than doubled between January and August, from five to 11%, according to the latest figures by the United Nations released earlier this month.

Drone warfare has become the deadliest threat to civilians in Sudan’s conflict and both the military and the RSF are being supplied with drones by a number of countries in the Middle East and beyond, experts previously said.

Mubarak Bekheit, an aid worker in Darfur, told the AP by phone on Wednesday that many people remained missing and some bodies had yet to be recovered from homes in the area after the strike hit a civilian neighborhood.

“I personally know that war has no morality, but the reality we witness every day is that civilians are the ones paying the highest price. They lose their lives, their loved ones, and their homes, while living under the constant fear of further bombardment," he said.

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Cartoon by Amjad Rasmi. (Courtesy of Asharq Al-Awsat)

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Brazil's defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro arrived in Florida by private plane Wednesday after fleeing his country in defiance of a court order to surrender his passport.

Following speculation over his whereabouts, the 45-year-old disembarked the jet at Opa-Locka Executive Airport outside Miami, AFP witnessed, having flown via Argentina and Ecuador.

Bolsonaro, who lost a runoff election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, is under investigation in Brazil for alleged corruption and money laundering and, with his defeat, is set to lose parliamentary immunity.

Only last week, he had seemed likely to become the next president of Brazil after coming out on top in the first round of elections, but Lula made a surprise surge to retain power.

Bolsonaro -- who travelled to the US with his wife and daughters -- had vowed that as president he would free his father Jair, who is under house arrest for coup-plotting after his own electoral loss to Lula in 2022.

A police source told AFP that Flavio Bolsonaro's Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been canceled, but the senator has also held Italian nationality since 2023, according to Italian documents seen by AFP.

The administration of President Donald Trump, an ally of the Bolsonaros, earlier said it would grant him and his family US visas.

The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the Bolsonaro family members were inspected and cleared "with applicable immigration laws and procedures."

The travel ban was issued by powerful Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led the case against Flavio Bolsonaro's father and is a controversial figure hated by the Brazilian right.

Flavio Bolsonaro had vowed to seek the justice's impeachment if he were elected.

A 'shameful' act

Lula, who won the election with 51.8 percent of Sunday's vote, called Flavio Bolsonaro fleeing the country a "shameful" act.

"A person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide," he said in Brasilia during his 81st birthday celebration on Tuesday.

Brazil police issued a statement Wednesday saying that he was not considered a fugitive.

Following his election defeat, Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the result, citing the decision to extend polling hours over transport problems that prevented some citizens from voting. But he insisted he would never flee.

Trump, speaking early Wednesday before Bolsonaro landed, repeated his accusations that the Brazilian election was rigged.

"The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible," the president said, adding that he approved of Bolsonaro's plan to travel to the US.

Argentina's opposition lawmakers on Wednesday demanded to know how Flavio Bolsonaro had managed to travel through the country to the United States.

While Argentinian authorities said he was carrying valid travel documents, officials have requested chief of cabinet Diego Santilli to provide details to parliament, according to opposition lawmaker Agustin Rossi.

Fraud cases

The most high-profile fraud case against Flavio Bolsonaro centers on the unreleased biopic "Dark Horse" starring US actor Jim Caviezel as Flavio's father Jair.

In May, the outlet Intercept Brasil revealed audio recordings in which Flavio Bolsonaro negotiated approximately $24 million to finance the film with banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed over one of Brazil's biggest-ever fraud cases.

Before the leak, Flavio Bolsonaro had denied knowing Vorcaro, or that he had financed the movie.

In July, the Supreme Court ordered a probe into the financing of the film, and whether it involved corruption, money laundering or the illegal movement of currency.

Flavio Bolsonaro acknowledged Vorcaro had funded the film, but insisted it was a private business deal that was "completely legal."

In another probe, police are investigating whether Flavio Bolsonaro laundered money and moved funds out of the country in collaboration with his close friend, the lawyer Willer Tomaz.

Flavio's father Jair Bolsonaro never conceded defeat after losing to Lula and left the country on the eve of his rival's inauguration, only returning to Brazil three months later.

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Peruse local handicrafts and elegant antiques, shop for souvenirs, or just enjoy a freshly squeezed juice and a pleasant stroll at the Old Town Market Street in AlUla. The experience is available all year round. Check experiencealula.com for more details.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have reportedly killed five people and injured several others. The attack included a drone strike in Rafah, according to local sources.

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Take the Letter By Letter challenge and test your ability to remember the spelling of Arabic words. With three difficulty levels, it is taking place at Ithra Center’s library until Nov. 20. Check the Ithra app for more information.