In photos: Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr around the globe

The end of Ramadan — a month of abstention from food and drink during daylight hours — is announced after a widely anticipated sighting of the new moon, in keeping with the lunar calendar. Thus begins the holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

World leaders, including President Biden, have wished Muslims a happy Eid, or “Eid Mubarak.”

“Eid al-Fitr marks the completion of a holy month dedicated to devotion, charity, and reflection — a time when we also remember Muslim communities around the world that are enduring conflict, poverty, hunger, and disease, and those that are displaced from their homes,” Biden said in a statement. “As we celebrate our blessings this Eid, let us also recommit ourselves to the timeless work of building peace and standing up for the rights and dignity of all people.”

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In London, Muslims withstood the rain to pray outdoors in parks. In the Qatari capital, Doha, thousands filled soccer stadiums that were used to host the 2022 World Cup, forming orderly rows to pray.

But the celebrations in parts of the Muslim world took place in difficult circumstances.

In Sudan, clashes between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces briefly abated Friday to mark the holiday during a fragile 72-hour cease-fire.

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At least 400 people have been killed in the East African nation, according to the United Nations. Many are stranded at home with dwindling supplies of food and medicine and intermittent electricity and water. Residents reported hearing gunfire and shelling in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as morning Eid prayers began.

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has called for a three-day cease-fire to mark the holiday and allow trapped civilians to flee.

Elsewhere, Muslims in Syria and Turkey are still recovering from a devastating earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in February. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday performed morning Eid prayers at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, a 6th century Byzantine church that he reconverted into a mosque in 2020.

Farther afield in Pakistan, thousands remain homeless after extreme floods hit the South Asian nation last year. As people in the predominantly Muslim nation of nearly 233 million celebrate Eid, they continue to grapple with the impacts of climate change on livelihoods, spiraling inflation and an unstable government.

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In Jerusalem’s Old City, recent tensions between Israelis and Palestinians appeared to have abated after recent clashes when Ramadan coincided with the Jewish festival of Passover in the Holy Land.

In Yemen, scores were killed in a stampede in the capital, Sanaa, this week, as they gathered to collect charity donations ahead of the Islamic holiday.

The conflict there has dragged on since 2014 and is deemed the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis by the United Nations. Some 24 million people in Yemen — 80 percent of the population — are in need of aid and protection.

Peace negotiations between the Saudis and Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been ongoing since a U.N.-mediated cease-fire last April, but hopes for a resolution of the conflict rose considerably after China brokered a deal recently that aims to restore diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran. The Saudi-Iranian rapprochement has boosted hopes of peace in the Middle East this Eid, but the situation remains complex.