Gaza, Haiti and Sahel developments lead 26 April update

Off Leash Update 26 April

Gaza •The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building a floating pier off the coast of Gaza to facilitate aid deliveries by circumventing delays delivering aid by land routes. It will take a few weeks to finish the pier, which will be able to receive up to two million meals per day. •The additional food aid will be most welcome in northern Gaza, where the UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative is anticipating only its third ever classified famine in Gaza by late May (the first two were in 2011 in parts of Somalia, and in 2017 in South Sudan). •Gazan health officials said they discovered more bodies in a mass grave on the site of a hospital, bringing the total number of bodies unearthed there to 392. Israeli officials rejected suggestions that Israeli troops were responsible for the victims' deaths. •Separately, local media reported that Israel is now willing to accept the release of just 20 hostages - down from 40 - in exchange for a temporary ceasefire deal. The report is unconfirmed, and other citations say 33 is the minimum number of hostages Israel would accept for a deal. •Meanwhile, Pres. Biden and 17 other world leaders are trying a very different approach: asking Hamas nicely to release all remaining hostages. Haiti •Haiti installed a new transitional council, and PM Henry formally resigned in absentia - as he'd promised to do once the council was in place. •The gunshots that rang out in the background as council members took their oaths of office offered a preview of the tough task that lies ahead of them: the council has a deadline of February 2026 to organize elections and inaugurate a new president, but rampant gang violence threatens to derail their work. Sahel •The U.S. is withdrawing the ~75 Army Special Operations troops it has stationed in Chad after Chad's government asked them to leave. •The U.S. and Chad were in the process of renegotiating their security cooperation terms - and U.S. officials still hold out hope that talks will continue on May 6 - but Chad wanted better terms than the U.S. could apparently offer it. •Russia has been making rival security deals with other Sahel countries (including Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso) lately, and may be talking to Chad now, too. Iran •Iran sentenced Toomaj Salehi - a rebellious rapper - to death for "spreading corruption on earth" by making music that celebrated antigovernment protests. Salehi plans to appeal. Yemen •A UK Royal Navy destroyer downed a Houthi ballistic missile targeting a commercial ship in the Red Sea, marking the first time since the Gulf War that a UK ship-launched anti-air missile successfully intercepted an adversary's missile mid-air. South Sudan •According to Bloomberg, a little-known (and poorly acronymed) Emirati company - Hamad Bin Khalifa Department of Projects (HBKDOP) - struck a deal to lend South Sudan 12 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in exchange for future oil production. •The huge size of the deal means HBKDOP could receive essentially all of South Sudan's oil flows as repayments. Other News •Extreme rains caused heavy flooding in east Africa, and at least 200 people have died in the deluge. Tanzania, Kenya, and Burundi were the hardest hit.