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Arab League Urges Lebanon to Implement Necessary Reforms

Kubis meets Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo. (Twitter)
Kubis meets Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo. (Twitter)
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Arab League Urges Lebanon to Implement Necessary Reforms

Kubis meets Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo. (Twitter)
Kubis meets Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo. (Twitter)

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit reiterated on Tuesday the league’s support to and solidarity with Lebanon during its current crisis.

During a meeting in Cairo with the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis, Aboul Gheit said it is important for the new Lebanese government to meet the demands of the people and to fullfil its promises, especially by introducing necessary economic reforms to regain the world’s trust and attract investments.

A statement by the league said Aboul Gheit and Kubis discussed the latest developments in Lebanon following the formation of the new government and the challenges that lay ahead.

For his part, Kubis briefed Aboul Gheit about the financial and economic situation in Lebanon and required measures to overcome the crisis.

In Cairo, the UN official also held talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

“Shoukry stressed Egypt’s keenness to protect the stability and safety of Lebanon, by working on the achievement of national interests and on meeting the demands of the Lebanese people,” the ministry’s spokesperson Ahmed Hafez said.

The foreign minister said Lebanon should be spared from being involved in regional conflicts and escalations.

Kubis praised Egyptian efforts to help preserve stability in Lebanon and the region, expressing his keenness on continuing cooperation and consultation with Cairo in this regard.

Diab's government won parliament's confidence last week and it quickly requested the International Monetary Fund's advice on tackling its economic crisis.

Lebanon has the world's third-highest debt-to-GDP ratio and has been sliding towards default in recent months, with tight capital controls and a currency devaluation already hitting purchasing power.

Last week, Kubis said that any solution to the economic, financial and banking sector crisis must start with complete transparency of what is the solvency of Lebanon and its Central bank, communicated with the full clarity, honesty and accountability to the public.

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Arab World

UN: Sudan Faces the World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis as Second Anniversary of War Nears

A Sudanese citizen and a resident of the Shambat neighbourhood of Khartoum, Abdulilah Mohamed, looks at items inside his destroyed and looted home, following his return to his family home after fleeing from civil war as the Sudanese army retakes ground, in the Sharg Elnil area in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 16, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A Sudanese citizen and a resident of the Shambat neighbourhood of Khartoum, Abdulilah Mohamed, looks at items inside his destroyed and looted home, following his return to his family home after fleeing from civil war as the Sudanese army retakes ground, in the Sharg Elnil area in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 16, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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UN: Sudan Faces the World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis as Second Anniversary of War Nears

A Sudanese citizen and a resident of the Shambat neighbourhood of Khartoum, Abdulilah Mohamed, looks at items inside his destroyed and looted home, following his return to his family home after fleeing from civil war as the Sudanese army retakes ground, in the Sharg Elnil area in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 16, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A Sudanese citizen and a resident of the Shambat neighbourhood of Khartoum, Abdulilah Mohamed, looks at items inside his destroyed and looted home, following his return to his family home after fleeing from civil war as the Sudanese army retakes ground, in the Sharg Elnil area in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 16, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

A nearly two-year-old war has engulfed Sudan in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and led the African country to become the only nation experiencing famine, a senior UN official said Thursday.
Nearly 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — face extreme hunger, while people are dying in famine-hit areas in western Darfur, said Shaun Hughes, the World Food Program’s emergency coordinator for Sudan and the region.
Sudan plunged into conflict on April 15, 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including the vast western Darfur region, The Associated Press said.
Since then, at least 20,000 people have been tallied as being killed, though the number is likely far higher.
“By any metric, this is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis,” Hughes told UN reporters, pointing to over 8 million people displaced within Sudan and 4 million who have fled across borders to seven countries that also face hunger and need humanitarian aid.
Famine was initially confirmed last August in Zamzam camp in North Darfur, where about 500,000 people sought refuge, but Hughes said it has since spread to 10 other areas in Darfur and Kordofan. He said 17 other areas are at risk of famine in coming months.
“The scale of what is unfolding in Sudan threatens to dwarf anything we have seen in decades,” Hughes said.
He warned in a video press conference from Nairobi that “tens of thousands more people will die in Sudan during a third year of war unless WFP and other humanitarian agencies have the access and the resources to reach those in need.”
Late last month, the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, a major symbolic victory in the war. But the rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group still controls most of Darfur and some other areas.
Hughes said what’s happening in Zamzam camp, which is caught in the conflict, is “horrific” — as is the situation in North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher, which has been besieged by the RSF since May 2024. It is the only capital in Darfur that the RSF does not hold.
Hughes said WFP receives daily reports from its humanitarian partners and contacts on the ground in North Darfur “that excess mortality is occurring as a result of the famine.”
While WFP has not been able to reach Zamzam with a convoy since October, he said the agency has been able to help some 400,000 people there, in El Fasher and other camps, by transferring cash digitally into people’s bank accounts so they can buy food and other items. However, this is only possible where markets exist.
Hughes said WFP’s assistance to Sudanese people in need has tripled since mid-2024 and that the agency is now reaching over 3 million per month, mainly through a surge in the use of digital cash transfers.
WFP said it wants to help 7 million people in Sudan in the next six months but needs $650 million.
Hughes was asked whether Trump administration funding cuts were responsible for any of that needed amount. He replied: “All allocations that the US government has made to Sudan remain effective, for which we are grateful.”
WFP said it needs an additional $150 million to help people who have fled to Chad, South Sudan, Central African Republic and elsewhere.
“Without funding we either cut the number of people receiving assistance, or cut the amount of assistance we provide people,” Hughes said. “That’s already happening.”