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Syria to Receive Russian, Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines in April

Children wearing masks inside the classroom in one of Syria’s schools. (File photo: Reuters)
Children wearing masks inside the classroom in one of Syria’s schools. (File photo: Reuters)
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Syria to Receive Russian, Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines in April

Children wearing masks inside the classroom in one of Syria’s schools. (File photo: Reuters)
Children wearing masks inside the classroom in one of Syria’s schools. (File photo: Reuters)

The Chinese and Russian coronavirus vaccines are expected to arrive in Syria in April, announced the head of the Syrian Doctors Syndicate, Kamal Assad Amer.

Amer stated that the government has devised a plan to start administering the vaccine next April, and additional quantities will be ordered later if needed, based on the plan of the Health Ministry.

The plan aims to bring two million doses with a priority to the front liners, such as medical teams and doctors.

Over the past few months, authorities confirmed that 100 doctors had died after contracting the COVID-19 infection, while about 30 others died of various diseases or suspected coronavirus cases.

Most of the doctors who died were between 50 and 60 years old, with the majority of them in Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs, according to a previous statement issued by the Doctors Syndicate.

The statement also indicated that many medical staffers contracted the coronavirus and were treated inside the country, without specifying the exact number.

A week ago, the government approved a mechanism devised by the Health Ministry to import coronavirus vaccines.

Syria is one of the 92 countries that will receive the vaccines as part of an economic aid initiative launched by COVAX.

COVAX is a global initiative launched by the World Health Organization and the Vaccine Alliance to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, targeting up to 20 percent of the world population in all member countries.

The program concluded agreements to access two billion doses of several vaccine candidates, provided that the first doses will start arriving in mid-February.

Earlier, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad expressed Damascus's hope to obtain the Russian vaccine for free when starting negotiations with Moscow to buy the vaccine.

The Syrian people have more confidence in Russian vaccines than Pfizer and other vaccines, he announced, adding: “We are confident that the Russian people are generous enough to take these aspects into consideration, especially amid the exceptional economic and social circumstances that Syria is going through.”

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Arab World

For First Time in Two Months, 323 Trucks Enter Gaza in One Day

A convoy carrying wounded Palestinians from Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, after it was reopened by Israel on Sunday for a limited number of people, rides through Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, April 12, 2026. (Reuters)
A convoy carrying wounded Palestinians from Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, after it was reopened by Israel on Sunday for a limited number of people, rides through Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, April 12, 2026. (Reuters)
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For First Time in Two Months, 323 Trucks Enter Gaza in One Day

A convoy carrying wounded Palestinians from Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, after it was reopened by Israel on Sunday for a limited number of people, rides through Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, April 12, 2026. (Reuters)
A convoy carrying wounded Palestinians from Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, after it was reopened by Israel on Sunday for a limited number of people, rides through Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, April 12, 2026. (Reuters)

For the first time in two months, the Gaza Strip has seen a sharp increase in trucks carrying aid and commercial goods, alongside a rise in travelers crossing through the Rafah land crossing in both directions.

A total of 323 trucks entered Gaza on Monday, including 220 commercial shipments for the private sector and 103 aid trucks from international organizations.

Of these, 234 trucks came through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the far south, and 89 through the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, which reopened on Sunday after 44 days.

Workers in Gaza’s civil and charitable sectors expect the Kissufim crossing, between northern Khan Younis and southern Deir al-Balah, to open on Sunday to further increase the flow of trucks.

A source in Gaza’s economy ministry said most of the incoming shipments were commercial goods, including food supplies carried on more than 270 trucks, along with shelter materials, relief items, consumer goods, household supplies, fuel, and telecommunications equipment.

“For the first time in about two months, this number of trucks has been allowed in,” the source told Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that fewer trucks had entered since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.

The ceasefire deal stipulates the entry of 600 trucks per day, but Hamas and UN bodies have accused Israel of allowing only limited numbers.

The source said most trucks entering since the ceasefire have carried commercial goods, while aid shipments from Arab, Islamic, and international donors, including UN agencies, have been more limited.

Gaza officials have been told that more trucks and goods could be allowed in to help ease prices.

Israel on Tuesday allowed 126 Palestinians, including 41 patients and 85 companions, to travel after coordination by the World Health Organization. About 18 foreign passport holders also left through the crossing in coordination with their countries.

Israel partially reopened the Rafah crossing under the ceasefire at the start of February, shut it again when the war with Iran began later that month, and reopened it on March 19.

Since the ceasefire, the number of people allowed to pass through Rafah has remained limited, occasionally reaching 100, with expectations that it could rise to 150 a day.

A Palestinian source in Gaza said the recent easing in truck entries and movement through Rafah followed an agreement reached by Gaza’s representative at the Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, with Israel to push compliance with the ceasefire terms.

For now, only patients are allowed to travel through Rafah, but other categories, including students and stranded civilians, could be permitted within about two weeks.

Palestinian factions, led by Hamas, have called on Mladenov and mediators to press Israel to fully implement the first phase of the ceasefire before moving to the second. Contacts and meetings on the issue are ongoing in Cairo.

Arab World

After Three Years of War, Sudan in Shambles as Donors Gather in Berlin

A Sudanese man pulls a donkey cart filled with water for sale in Port Sudan on April 14, 2026. (AFP)
A Sudanese man pulls a donkey cart filled with water for sale in Port Sudan on April 14, 2026. (AFP)
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After Three Years of War, Sudan in Shambles as Donors Gather in Berlin

A Sudanese man pulls a donkey cart filled with water for sale in Port Sudan on April 14, 2026. (AFP)
A Sudanese man pulls a donkey cart filled with water for sale in Port Sudan on April 14, 2026. (AFP)

The vast majority of Sudanese people have been plunged into poverty, with 11 million uprooted from their homes and nearly twice as many facing hunger as the war between the army and its paramilitary foes enters its fourth year.

On the third anniversary of the start of the grinding conflict on Wednesday, donors will gather in Berlin for an international conference aimed at reviving faltering peace talks and mobilizing aid for one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

"People are exhausted," said Amgad Ahmed, 42, who has lived in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, throughout the conflict.

"Three years of war have worn people down. We have lost work, savings and any sense of stability," he told AFP.

The meeting in Berlin brings together governments, aid agencies and civil society groups, but excludes both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) -- the two sides fighting the conflict.

It follows similar conferences hosted by London and Paris over the past two years that failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough.

The war between Sudan's army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people, sparking what German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called "the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, which is not very often in the public eye".

Nearly 700 civilians have been killed in drone strikes since January, as attacks have escalated on both sides, particularly in the southern Kordofan region and Blue Nile State, according to the United Nations.

A semblance of normality, however, has taken root in the capital Khartoum since the army re-established control there last year.

In parts of the city, reconstruction has begun. Markets have reopened, traffic has returned to streets that were once largely empty, and national secondary school exams were held this week after nearly two years of widespread school closures.

According to the UN, around 1.7 million people have returned to the capital.

But danger still lurks among the soot-stained buildings, with authorities slowly working to clear tens of thousands of unexploded bombs left behind by the fighting.

- 'Heartbreaking' -

Al-Basheer Babker al-Basheer, 41, who visited Khartoum twice this year after three years away, said the city would need years to recover.

"I was happy to come back," he told AFP. "But when I went into the city center, it was heartbreaking."

"The road to the university where I studied is no longer the same. The walls are black," he said. "They are not the same places we used to go to."

Quad-led talks stalled after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan accused the group in November of bias over Abu Dhabi's membership.

German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said the Berlin conference would discuss how to "exert influence on the key actors".

"There are many external actors involved in this war," said Luca Renda, the UN Development Program's representative in Sudan.

"And as long as this continues, unfortunately, the chances of peace are very slim."

Beyond widespread infrastructure destruction, the war has pushed Sudan deeper into hunger and poverty, with humanitarian funding at just 16 percent of what is needed, Renda said.

Famine was declared last year in North Darfur capital el-Fashir and Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, with 20 additional areas at risk, the UN said.

African Union Commission Chairman Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, in Berlin for the meeting, voiced hope for a cessation of hostilities but acknowledged "we are not there yet".

"When the whole world is focusing on Iran and Ukraine and other crises, I think it is very much appreciated that Germany puts this agenda on the table so that we do not lose sight about the suffering of the people of the Sudan."

Arab World

Canada, UK, Australia and Japan Call for ‘Urgent End to Hostilities in Lebanon’

Israeli military armored vehicles operate in Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli military armored vehicles operate in Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Canada, UK, Australia and Japan Call for ‘Urgent End to Hostilities in Lebanon’

Israeli military armored vehicles operate in Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli military armored vehicles operate in Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan and six other countries condemned the killings of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Tuesday while calling "for an urgent end to hostilities" in the country where Israeli attacks have killed over 2,000 people since March.

"Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Switzerland and the United Kingdom remain deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation and displacement crisis in Lebanon," the countries said in a joint statement without directly mentioning US ally Israel or Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The statement ‌comes after ‌the deaths of three Indonesian peacekeepers last month. ‌The ⁠UN has said ⁠preliminary findings from its probe showed one was killed by an Israeli tank projectile and two by an improvised explosive device most likely placed by Hezbollah.

Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on March 2, three days into the US.-Israeli war on Iran.

Israel has since widened a ground invasion into Lebanon's south, ordering hundreds ⁠of thousands of Lebanese to flee villages. The Israeli ‌offensive has killed more than ‌2,000 people and forced 1.2 million from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hezbollah missile ‌fire has mainly targeted towns near Israel's northern border but has ‌also been aimed at major cities. Two Israelis and 13 soldiers have been killed since March 2, Israel says.

"We condemn in the strongest terms actions that have killed UN peacekeepers and significantly increased the risks faced by humanitarian ‌personnel in southern Lebanon," the 10 countries said in the joint statement, which only noted Israel ⁠in the context of ⁠the ceasefire in the US and Israel's war against Iran.

"We welcome the ceasefire agreed between the United States, Israel and Iran. We call for an urgent end to hostilities in Lebanon."

The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with strikes on Israel and Gulf states with US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran have killed thousands and displaced millions. A fragile two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran still has a week to run.

Iran says Israel's war in Lebanon must be included in any agreement to end the wider conflict. Israel has ruled out discussing a ceasefire in Lebanon and demanded that Beirut disarm Hezbollah.