training, he understood the industry and the role that plays in modern culture. for more than 2 years, the founder of the label off white had been suffering from an aggressive form of cancer. despite his illness, he kept active. earlier this month, he travelled, took a tours capital for his 1st museum exhibit in the middle east titled figures of speech . he leaves the legacy that influence fashion and managed to inspire the world of art and culture. virgil ablow was 41. ah, let's get around up now. the top stories on our south us because president has criticized border closures following the discovery of a new strain of the virus. he called the completely unjustified siller. i'm opposed to also says there's been a rise in covered 1900 cases since on the crone was identified. we are deeply

disappointed by the decision of several countries to prohibit travel from a number of southern african countries including our own following the identification of the army corn variant. this is a clear and completely unjustified departure from the commitment that many of these countries made at the meeting of the g 20 countries in rome last month. okay, so as of now been found in more than 10 countries and a number have added travel restrictions. all foreigners are now bought from entering israel for 2 weeks. top us infectious disease official entity felty has been meeting american president joe biden. you told him, it will take about 2 weeks to get a clearer picture about the microns various the you and says, the global tourism sector is losing another 2 trillion dollars this year. calling

the pandemic recovery the fragile and slow more than $100.00 countries are completely or partially close to foreign visitors. votes have been counted in on due us off the sundays presidential election. people have been choosing a successor to one, orlando. hernandez left his candle tomorrow. castro is hoping to ask the governing right wing and national party france says it won't be held hostage by the you case, domestic politics on migration. european lead is attended an emergency summit. the but the british were not invited to meeting was called up to 27. people died while trying to cross the english channel. a magnitude 7.5 earthquake has strong the western coast of the road. it's damaged buildings in the amazon us region, at least 10 people have been in those the headlines right now. talk to as 0. ah

algae 0. great with oh no. following the military take over, install done on october 25th. that by gentle up. the fact that grant and the halls arrest or prime minister up the lamb took it, took nearly amount of negotiations to reach a political agreement. the deal was signed on november 21st at the presidential palace between alba, han and han duke. but there is another significant figure in the company's political dynamics. general mohammed hummed on douglas, commonly called amity, his general albert hans, deputy into sovereignty counsel. but he is also the lead off. what's perhaps the army strongest division, the rapid support forces?

i am from said that in cartoon, although general douglas appears to plenty of war behind the scenes, many in sudan and across the region posted at him the most powerful figure and the council. but what does his polar counsel? and as you also made yes, between the army and political parties, will he like to become the company's next press? the deputy chairman of the 70 counselor threw done. i'm at home don doug lew, thoughts to al jazeera general mohammed come down, douglas, thank you for talking. talk as an aim with her with her with her vis. said the machine. you are welcome and we are pleased to have you here. oh general. what was happening behind the scenes on october 25th. how did the military takeover happen? and how did you make the decision for the power crap hitting it over here or what's happened on october 25th? was the ultimate outcome of

a long process. since that changes started in sudan during such process, many discussions were made and many initiatives proposed by various parties, the prime minister himself proposed to initiatives. during our meetings in the transitional partners council or the sovereignty council, with the cabinet of ministers. we made maximum efforts, but we couldn't reach a break through. at that point, we were left with 3 options. the best of which was the move we had take. such a move was completely agreeable to the prime minister. we did not make such a move on our own. the prime minister was in agreement with us as to the decision we had adopted. however, for him, the decision should have been endorsed by the freedom and change coalition. as i said, we were left with 3 scenarios, freedom and change coalition, endorsing the dissolution of the government, which was next to impossible. and the 2nd scenario was the move we had taken. and

the 3rd was the collapse of our country. we adopted the best option available. we've made the right decision from our perspective at that time and we prevented the collapse. so general, you have been very open about your views on political parties in the transitional government and several times you have demanded the prime minister of the lamb duke to dissolve the government. doesn't it seem that it was already set up an please? can you specify your own role in this military takeover? banana. philip darlena, a loveseat. we had several meetings with all the political parties. we extended all advice possible from the beginning till the end. we did not spare any efforts.

regretfully, it was the fault. some sudanese are putting the blame on us. on the contrary, we are not to blame. we believe we had taken the right move. during the past 30 years, the country was under the grip of a single part to redeem what we so is that our country was taken by another great. i said that in public we were left again to a single grip roller. and the move we had taken has put an end to this. that change was great. it was, it started by all the sudanese people, especially the youth who are present more than 60 percent of our population. regretfully such change was hijacked by a single party who was part of the deal we had signed with other parties to such party gripped all the powers and its hand, side lines, all other parties. it was even worse than the former single party redeem. according

to the deal was signed, the prime minister has helped. he had a media totally roll and the parties were to respond. despite the advice we are for the full major parties manipulated old powers, the prime minister and other small parties were in agreement with us. even before signing the deal, we wished to reach an arrangement on the governors of provinces. the pushed us to sign the deal earlier without finalizing this issue. after the signing the back down and the issue of governors are still pending for more than a year. are we blamed simply because we are the ones in the uniform. so then is the country of all the sudanese, not only ours. so did you decide to come back a militaristic, over based on that the prime minister was not able to control his own government rated with him. she was,

she was and it is not the issue of prime minister losing control according to the deal. the freedom of change coalition was brought on board. so his hands are tied. he cannot make a decision of his own accord. without the freedom and change coalition, endorsing such a decision, the prime minister had no leeway. and that was the problem. freedom and change coalition. what again, as to all the agreements made from liberating exchange rate to lifting the subsidy . the prime minister should be vocal on this issue. he should admit which side was supporting him over the past 2 years. it was us, you repeat them, said that you are committed to the goals of the revolution. yet your forces are accused off participating in the killings of the protesters in front of the minute headquarters in 2019 have the beam held accountable for what

they have done. so would you, this is a good question. all i can say is there is a pro committee active on this issue working on the investigations till date. the findings are not established yet. i cannot comment on the proceedings of an independent committee, and we hope that results are out soon. consider the fact that you are so powerful in this country. do you believe that the committee could be fully independent, living? it is an independent committee, totally independent. so general, your forces have also been accused of arresting politicians, detain an activist, and also or pressing protesters on the streets over the past month. have your forces been involved in any killings of their civilians through the protests

that took place last month. and the i listen, there is an organized campaign targeting that, that support forces. it aims, ad demonizing, these forces. we cannot establish those behind this malicious campaign. but according to the law that i would support forces to support the regular authorities . they have no power to arrest or use force again, as for testers, the rapid support forces are deployed at various parts within the capital. they also have several camps within and around that capital city. so general, that just weeks before the military take over, some tribes in is to down. they have blocked the ways and barricaded the roads to cotton. so it's through done, port sudan were completely cut off from the capital. why didn't you interfere? why didn't you stop them in doing so?

because many said that you deliberately let them to do in order to paved away for the military take over human luna, dia this is part of the malicious campaign 1st, the issue of the east of so dan is not new since the signing of the dual bag limit for peace, the east was in total rejection of the agreements. second, we have worked hard on this issue. held several meetings more than 50 meetings with the concerned parties. i personally managed to bring them closer to ideal. i even tried with a special committee led by general some so didn't, but she assisted by other ministers and advisors to engage with them in dialogue. such dial it should be added to the public for them to lay out their demands with the aim of reaching an agreement. it was followed by a meeting with a supreme council for peace, but we reached a deadlock. after that,

the province was cut off. it was an unprecedented move, which was initiated by the freedom and change coalition. not the people of the east . they blocked the roads, the railway lines and the food was sealed off for 4 months. even when the oil facilities were brought to a whole. we did our best to reach an amicable solution through dialogue. we cannot be part of this problem. so general, tell us about what happened in the days that led up to november 21st. the day that the agreement has been signed between the prime minister after the hum to general alper hand. so what are you involved in the negotiations when you consider shooting since october 25th, we have covered a long distance along the road. many initiatives were proposed by various parties within sudan and without but with

a trade that we are committed to the cause and the goals of that of lucian. we do not wish to see it straying, of course, as they said, we should not read the country from a single party at all and bring a similar one. doctor abdullah ham dukes role is to ensure that of lucian would remain on course. many claim that i'm doing the review of the office from the beginning, but this is not true. we had hoped to have him as the 15th member of the sovereignty council. but we saw it was necessity to have him do as a prime minister to avoid any sanctions from the international community. the general albert han and his team exerted huge efforts, especially of the last 3 days before the recent agreement was made. were part and parcel of this agreement, of course, and this agreement will ensure. so dan is back on the right course. again. general, you negotiated an agreement with

a prime minister after le hum to was on the house at rest. why should sudanese people accept it? if it looks to be a forced agreement benevolence, redated with a lower and let them with to see if from the moment the correction move was taken. ham duke was kept in his own residence, not a house arrest. he kept his own guards. on the day we were supposed to meet him, the wives of ministers who had been arrested, stormed the area. that's why his duke was moved to the protocols palace for his own safety. after that, he returned to his residence in the following days. one moment, but with cautious movements. he was being visited by delegates and other politicians. we were in contact with him too. i personally visited him together with general albert hon. even official delegations were able to meet him if he were put to a house arrest, he wouldn't have been able to receive these delegates or make calls with foreign

officials, like the united states secretary of state. we had his safety and mine, i made that volatile situation where any act of violence was not ruled out. the general, we see your footprints everywhere. and this country as a mediator between on groups between the tribes political parties, even the border disputes. and you have the powerful, rapid supple with forces which many states that it has never lost a battle. you're coming from a very humble background. so can you tell us, how did you build such a powerful empire renew really? so a little harder as to the 1st part of the question. we thank god for guiding our steps to the right move. secondly, i thank all parties involved, especially that i appealed to them old. i thank them for accepting my mediation

role. that could, it does not go to me alone. i am assisted by some others. we once fought again at each other, but we later came to realize that we should join hands to build our country. that's why we agreed we should reach a compromise. we can build our country by actions, not by hopes. in addition to the job agreement for peace, we managed to reach the south sudan. during the talks with our groups, we managed to bring all views together. president silva occurred an opposition leader rack, much as to the rapid support forces. as you know, old battles involve victory and defeat. i cannot see us as victorious. we fought against our fellow sudanese. i'm all parties are losers. we hope will learn from the past and turn such losses into positive efforts towards building our country. we should all abandoned racial, tribal and provincial divisions. general,

do you believe that you have ever killed innocent people or do you feel any regret for the killings that you had to do? an arctic no cooler. all the batches we forth were against armed rebels. i know those rebels of my fellow sudanese. no side is victorious. last is suffolk by old. no doubt, i feel deep regret, especially when you look at the number of the fallen, the widows and orphans. we could have all avoided these bitter consequences. we shouldn't have engage in fighting and the 1st place, every drop of blood would be spared, and we shall join hands to build our country. however, i can say i fought against arm dribbles, not i'm on innocent civilians. so general, you have participated in the war in yemen. send troops to fight on the side of

saudi last question. why did you accept to do that? and are you, are you still in man? if so, why that are mother at another dollar? it was not my personal decision, it was a states, it was made on of the coalition to restore legitimacy in yemen. it was also made of the former redeem. and after toppling the regime, we were supposed to honor all the past agreements, domestic and international. these forces were not dispatched under my orders. they were sent under international agreements made with the state, considering the fact that you're one of the most powerful men in this country. i'm sure if you didn't find sending the tubes to yemen, moral, you wouldn't do that. so right there would be a dilemma of mine is still god, i do not see myself as a mighty influential man. i am a simple man,

a sudanese citizen, and the 1st place. it is true. i am the vice president of the sovereignty council. but i am a simple sudanese man. secondly, that decision was made on the original agreement involving all the arab countries. not so dana low. almost all the other countries were part of it. above all, our forces are not fighting inside the m and now they are inside the sodium borders . fighting in defense, the 2 holly masks general some say that your, your troops salary is not being paid by the state. so how do you pay the salaries done and where do you make that money from the on the day? this is also part of the malicious campaign. aiming at demonizing, the rapid support forces. how can i afford to pay those soldiers? these forces are part of the armed forces. those soldiers, like any other rigor,

force, are paid by the finance ministry. and you can verify this with the finance minister or his under secretary. so do confirm that your troops are not being financed by your own resources. they need more to cross at a very you could say i have my own sources of income. i have my own trade business . i have for my pit degree of merchants. i like any other businessmen can lend a helping hand to the armed forces of the police as a token of appreciation that up it's a port forces are regular forces with their own duties, restrictions, rights and obligations. not my personal militias. i cannot afford it, but some people said that you didn't only build a military empire, but also a business empire by using the powerful rep is supple forces into countries. so

would you agree with that? good, i'm the river, have this is not true. we have a long history in trade. i personally started my own business in 1990. we were among the 1st to discover gold in sudan. we used metal detectors and ventured out in the desert, searching for the gold. in double armour, for example, we like any other sudanese citizen, applied with the mining minister for a license. we paid the relevant fees and satisfied all the formalities. after that, we set up a plan which was running for a while. that's why people have moved heaven an air claiming we sees tons of gold, and then we handed over the plan to the government with the 11 kilograms of gold in our position at that time. in addition, there are thousands of foreign plants operating in the area, producing hundreds of cables of gold every month. general. your forces also have

been accused by the right groups and the worst white is in there for off killings, ratings and burning the wheels. so what makes them qualify to be a part of the security make up instead of a 100 or 4 lower to the warnings are for an attacks on the villages was in 2003. while the rapids support forces were formed in 2013. this is living proof that we are targeted with a malicious propaganda. on the contrary, we were part of the solution in the fall, as we help the displaced return home. when our forces are deployed across the fall to maintain security, i advise you to pay a field trip and see for yourself. you will see all the regular forces fulfilling the duties. there's the forces, the police and the rapid support forces. go to the food and see for yourselves who

is guarding the people and who is protecting their seasonal harvest. so general, why are your forces part of the army yet? they have their own uniforms. the on cars, the on a basis. even the on commander in chief, but the head of the army says that you are one unit. so how's death? all the arms in the world have their own uniform. according to the law, we are part of the regular army. we are reporting to the chief commander of the armed forces. it is true, we answer to the chief command of the forces, adding to that, each branch of the armed forces have their own unique uniform, special forces, then century, the naval and air forces. and this is a more me and all armies worldwide. but in reality, people say that your forces do not get the orders from the head of the army,

but from you, because i'm hanging. this is not true. i am the commander of that up. it's support forces i receive all those from the chief commander of arm forces and intern id lay these order to that up and support forces and all is documented through official correspondence. general are ready to integrate your forces into the army as part of the security sector reform. and if so, how will that happen? and most importantly, when she will flood, there will be a form is an ongoing process and we are part of the army. but these rumors are circulated by people with agendas. the latest political agreement spoke about with one unified national army. and the reform will entail all the branches, the army, and the rapid support forces, the police and security forces. we are marching ahead with reforms. in addition

that up it's support forces are not a unique phenomenon in sudan. many other countries have similar forces. so general, the prime minister was very mush clear when i had an interview with him regarding the security sector reform. if they insist on your forces to be fully integrated into the army based on a certain time line, would you agree with that or would you go against the decision of the prime minister? and the government reason with whom i knew will, will flood me. the prime minister is not concerned with the form to the security potters. he is responsible for certain duties under the transitional periods. we are now concerned with the measure for tasks, the economy, which means the livelihood of our people, security,

peace and elections. we are all running the state a fair and consultative manner, not top to bottom orders. in addition, speaking about security arrangements comes before the regular forces. this is the priority general. there are reports of hundreds of people being killed and injured. several village being burnt in west are 4. so what happened there, and what are your forces also involved in such act? oh, how are you near the kids mother? to begin with, the figure hundreds is not true. lives were lost on both sides, military men and civilians. at the end of the day, they are all human beings. however, a maximum of 14 or 15 persons were killed on both sides. this happened because some did not honor the written undertakings of non aggression. the rap it's about 40 or

linchpin 2 security guards in the country and the country men are they are not part of any conflict talking if some are accusing that up is support forces of any violations lead them, prove it already going to run for president at the end of the transitional period in the elections of 2023 and her minute. how many and also a bit at our top priority now is to take our country to say soul to see a true transition to democracy. not empty slogans. and to lead our people to free and transparent elections, we do not have any personal interests. we wish to brave the route to safety. especially we are surrounded by many trouble countries from libya to appear. our key concern is to cruise to safety donald mama, tom don douglas,

thank you for calling. thank you very much. ah, in columbia, transforming urban waste into building block to use is to for a same for the waste left of the war. we can finish the house insurance as you look in america in just can use any single pole. critical forms and living buildings. anything you do on land, on the ground, doesn't make sense to do that apply on a building. and we might have not just decorative, but can we make it biologically productive. earth rise? describe as cutting edge solution for sustainable cities on al jazeera the stage is set and it's time for a different approach. one that is going to challenge the way you thing. we're ditching the sound bites and we're digging into the issues from international politics to the global pandemic and everything in between. join me as i take on the

lars. dismantle the misconceptions and debate the contradictions. upfront with me mark lamont hill on out 0. ah. these restrictions are completely unjustified. syllabic as president urges governments to scrap travel bounds offs the new coven 19 various raises alarms around the world. ah, hello, i'm molly inside. this is out there are life and death also coming up. a high voice, a 10 out is reported in honduras in an election that could see it's fast. female presidents, preliminary results are in we'll get an.