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France to Host Lebanon Aid Conference, Macron Says

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the closing session of the 19th Summit of the Francophonie at the Grand Palais in Paris, on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the closing session of the 19th Summit of the Francophonie at the Grand Palais in Paris, on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
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France to Host Lebanon Aid Conference, Macron Says

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the closing session of the 19th Summit of the Francophonie at the Grand Palais in Paris, on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the closing session of the 19th Summit of the Francophonie at the Grand Palais in Paris, on October 5, 2024. (AFP)

France will host an international conference this month to help drum up humanitarian aid for Lebanon and strengthen security in the southern part of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday.

"We will hold in the next few weeks a conference to provide humanitarian aid, support the international community and support the Lebanese armed forces boost security, especially in southern Lebanon," Macron said after a meeting of French speaking countries in Paris.

Israel has begun an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon and sent troops across the border in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Fighting had previously been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, taking place in parallel to Israel's year-old war in Gaza against Palestinian group Hamas.  

Earlier, Macron said shipments of arms used in the conflict in Gaza should be stopped as part of a broader effort to find a political solution.  

France is not a major weapons provider for Israel, shipping military equipment worth 30 million euros ($33 million) last year, according to the defense ministry's annual arms exports report.  

"I think the priority today is to get back to a political solution (and) that arms used to fight in Gaza are halted. France doesn't ship any," Macron told France Inter radio.  

"Our priority now is to avoid escalation. The Lebanese people must not in turn be sacrificed, Lebanon cannot become another Gaza," he added.  

Macron's comments come as his Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is on a four-day trip to the Middle East, wrapping up on Monday in Israel as Paris looks to play a role in reviving diplomatic efforts.

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Arab World

Sudan’s Military Says It Breaks RSF’s Siege of a Key Town

A member of security walks in front of a destroyed building as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
A member of security walks in front of a destroyed building as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Sudan’s Military Says It Breaks RSF’s Siege of a Key Town

A member of security walks in front of a destroyed building as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
A member of security walks in front of a destroyed building as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)

Sudan’s military said Monday it has broken a siege imposed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on a key town in the central Kordofan region during the country's civil war.

In a statement, the military said it had opened a route leading to Dilling town in South Kordofan province, which the RSF for months has attempted to control. Holding the town means control over major supply lines.

“Our forces inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, both personal and equipment,” the statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war with the military for nearly three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere. The war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be many times higher.

The fighting has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. Parts of the country have been pushed into famine.

Dilling has reportedly experienced severe hunger, but the world's leading authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, didn’t declare famine there in its November report because of a lack of data.

After being forced out of Khartoum in 2025, the paramilitary group has focused on Kordofan and the city of el-Fasher, which was the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region until the RSF seized it in October.

Arab World

Syria, Jordan Sign Gas Supply Deal to Bolster Syrian Power Grid

Syrian soldiers raise the Syrian national flag in front of the Syrian Defense Ministry building, which was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes last Wednesday, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP)
Syrian soldiers raise the Syrian national flag in front of the Syrian Defense Ministry building, which was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes last Wednesday, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP)
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Syria, Jordan Sign Gas Supply Deal to Bolster Syrian Power Grid

Syrian soldiers raise the Syrian national flag in front of the Syrian Defense Ministry building, which was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes last Wednesday, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP)
Syrian soldiers raise the Syrian national flag in front of the Syrian Defense Ministry building, which was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes last Wednesday, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP)

Syria and Jordan signed an agreement on Monday to supply natural gas to Syria via Jordanian territory, ​aiming to bolster Syria's fragile electricity grid, officials said.

The deal between the Syrian Petroleum Company and Jordan's National Electric Power Company, which was signed at Syria's Ministry of Energy in Damascus, provides for the delivery of about 4 million ‌cubic metres ‌of gas per ‌day — ⁠roughly ​140 million ‌cubic feet, Reuters reported.

The agreement builds on a broader energy arrangement signed last year to supply gas to Syria through Jordan, which is being financed by Qatar, part of regional efforts to ease Syria's acute power ⁠shortages after years of war and infrastructure damage, Syrian ‌and Jordanian officials have ‍said.

Jordan's energy minister, ‍Saleh al-Kharabsheh was quoted by Syrian state ‍media on Monday as saying deliveries began on January 1, with current volumes ranging between 30 million and 90 million cubic feet ​per day.

The deal would help Syria diversify its energy supply sources, the ⁠country's energy minister Mohamed al-Bashir said.

Supplies are being delivered via the Energos Force regasification vessel, leased from Egypt and docked at Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba until the end of March.

Jordan's National Electric Power Company has started procedures to lease a new floating storage and regasification unit to replace the existing vessel, ‌ensuring a continuous gas supply beyond March, Kharabsheh added.

Arab World

UN Says Over 3 Million Sudanese Displaced by War Return Home

A Sudanese men who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, and was previously internally displaced in Sudan, walks past makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad, while taking refuge in Borota, Chad, May 13, 2023. © Zohra Bensemra, Reuters
A Sudanese men who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, and was previously internally displaced in Sudan, walks past makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad, while taking refuge in Borota, Chad, May 13, 2023. © Zohra Bensemra, Reuters
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UN Says Over 3 Million Sudanese Displaced by War Return Home

A Sudanese men who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, and was previously internally displaced in Sudan, walks past makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad, while taking refuge in Borota, Chad, May 13, 2023. © Zohra Bensemra, Reuters
A Sudanese men who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, and was previously internally displaced in Sudan, walks past makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad, while taking refuge in Borota, Chad, May 13, 2023. © Zohra Bensemra, Reuters

More than three million Sudanese people displaced by nearly three years of war have returned home, the United Nations migration agency said on Monday, even as heavy fighting continues to tear through parts of the country.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been locked in a devastating war pitting the regular army against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and created what the UN describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis. At its peak, the war had displaced around 14 million people both internally and across borders.

In a report released on Monday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said an estimated 3.3 million displaced Sudanese had made their way back home by November of last year, AFP reported.

The rise in returns follows a sweeping offensive launched by the Sudanese army in late 2024 to retake central regions seized earlier in the conflict by the RSF.

The campaign culminated in the recapture of Khartoum in March 2025, prompting many displaced families to try to go back.

According to the IOM, more than three-quarters of those returning came from internal displacement sites, while 17 percent travelled back from abroad.

Khartoum saw the largest number of returns -- around 1.4 million people -- followed by the central state of Al-Jazira, where roughly 1.1 million have gone back.

Earlier this month, the army-backed government announced plans to return to the capital after nearly three years of operating from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan in the country's east.

Reconstruction work in Khartoum has been underway since the army retook the city.

Although Khartoum and several army-held cities in central and eastern Sudan have seen a relative lull in fighting, the RSF has continued to launch occasional drone strikes, particularly targeting infrastructure.

Elsewhere, violence remains intense.

In the country's south, RSF forces have pushed deeper into the Kordofan region after seizing the army's final stronghold in Darfur last October.

Reports of mass killings, rape, abductions and looting emerged after El-Fasher's RSF takeover, and the International Criminal Court launched a formal investigation into "war crimes" by both sides.