Macron Envoy Heads to Lebanon in Bid to End Crisis

Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) is a former French foreign minister who was appointed special envoy by Macron this month
Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) is a former French foreign minister who was appointed special envoy by Macron this month
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Macron Envoy Heads to Lebanon in Bid to End Crisis

Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) is a former French foreign minister who was appointed special envoy by Macron this month
Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) is a former French foreign minister who was appointed special envoy by Macron this month

France's President Emmanuel Macron's new special envoy for Lebanon heads to Beirut in the coming week as France seeks a new push to end a political crisis that has left the country without a president for over half a year, a diplomatic source said Sunday.

Former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, appointed by Macron to the role earlier this month, is to fly to Beirut on Wednesday, the source told AFP, asking not to be named.

Another source close to the issue also said Le Drian would leave on Wednesday but it was not clear how long he would stay in Beirut or who he would meet.

His visit comes after Lebanese lawmakers last week failed for a 12th time to elect a new president, an impasse that is causing increasing exasperation in Paris as the country faces an economic and financial crisis.

Former president Michel Aoun's term expired last October with no successor lined up. The bitter divisions between Hezbollah and its opponents now risk miring Lebanon in a protracted power vacuum at the worst possible time.



IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
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IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)

Over 55,000 internally displaced Sudanese have returned to areas across the southeastern state of Sennar, more than a month after the army recaptured the state capital, the UN migration agency said Saturday.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its field teams "monitored the return of an estimated 55,466 displaced persons to locations across Sennar state" between December 18 and January 10.

Across the entire country, however, the United Nations says 21 months of war have created the world's worst internal displacement crisis, uprooting more than 12 million people, AFP reported.

Famine has been declared in parts of the country, but the risk is spreading for millions more people, including to areas north of Sennar, a UN-backed assessment said last month.

In November, the Sudanese army, battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, said it had regained control of Sinja, the Sennar state capital and a key link between army-controlled areas of central and eastern Sudan.

The RSF had controlled Sinja since late June when its attack on Sennar state forced nearly 726,000 people -- many displaced from other states -- to flee, according to the United Nations.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands.

On Thursday, the United States Treasury Department sanctioned army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

The move came just over a week after Washington also sanctioned RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, accusing his group of committing genocide.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Daglo had been designated for "gross violations of human rights" in Sudan's western Darfur region, "namely the mass rape of civilians by RSF soldiers under his control."