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Syria’s Kurds Repatriate 20 Russian Orphans of ISIS Families

Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)
Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)
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Syria’s Kurds Repatriate 20 Russian Orphans of ISIS Families

Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)
Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)

Syria’s Kurds on Saturday handed over 20 orphaned children born to parents linked to the ISIS group to a Russian delegation for repatriation.

Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria hold thousands of foreigners with alleged ties to the extremist group in their custody, after spearheading a US-backed battle against ISIS that seized the last patch of their territory in early 2019.

Alleged foreign fighters are held in jails, while women and children with ties to the group live in camps for the displaced in northeast Syria.

“Twenty Russian children who were in the Roj camp were handed over,” the Kurdish authorities said in a statement.

“They are aged three to 16 years old, and all are orphans in good health.”

It said the latest repatriations brought to 205 people those sent home to Russia so far.

In April, 34 orphans returned to Russia from the Kurdish-held region.

Syria’s Kurds have repeatedly urged the international community to repatriate foreign nationals held in crowded camps.

But their calls have largely fallen on deaf ears with only limited numbers, mostly children, allowed to return home until now.

The latest repatriations come after the International Committee of the Red Cross this week sounded the alarm over the Kurdish authorities holding “hundreds of children” in adult prisons.

Kurdish foreign affairs official Abdelkarim Omar on Friday urged international help to set up rehabilitation centers for minors in the region, which so far only has one such re-education facility and another under preparation.

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French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
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French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)

France's foreign minister said on Sunday that ties with Algeria were back to normal after he held 2 1/2 hours of talks with Algeria's president following months of bickering that have hurt Paris' economic and security interests in its former colony.

Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when Macron angered Algeria by recognizing a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.

A poor relationship has major security, economic and social repercussions: trade is extensive and some 10% of France's 68 million population has links to Algeria, according to French officials.

"We are reactivating as of today all the mechanisms of cooperation in all sectors. We are going back to normal and to repeat the words of President (Abdelmadjid) Tebboune: 'the curtain is lifted'," Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement at the presidential palace in Algiers after 2 1/2 hours of talks.

His visit comes after a call between President Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Tebboune on March 31, during which the two agreed to a broad roadmap to calm tensions.

French officials say Algiers had put obstacles to administrative authorizations and new financing for French firms operating in the country.

Nowhere was that felt more than in wheat imports. Traders say the diplomatic rift led Algerian grains agency OAIC to tacitly exclude French wheat and firms in its import tenders since October. OAIC has said it treats all suppliers fairly, applying technical requirements.

Barrot said he had specifically brought up the difficulties regarding economic exchanges, notably in the agrobusiness, automobile and maritime transport sectors.

"President Tebboune reassured me of his will to give them new impetus," Barrot said.

Beyond business, the relationship has also soured to the point where security cooperation stopped. The detention by Algiers in November of 80-year-old Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal also worsened the relationship.

He has since been sentenced to five years in prison. Barrot said he hoped a gesture of "humanity" could be made by Algiers given his age and health.

With Macron's government under pressure to toughen immigration policies, the spat has fed into domestic politics in both countries.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has called for a 1968 pact between the two countries that makes it easier for Algerians to settle in France to be reviewed, after Algiers refused to take back some of its citizens who were ordered to leave France under the "OQTF" (obligation to leave French territory) deportation regime.

Barrot said Retailleau would soon go to Algiers and that the two sides would resume cooperation on judicial issues.

The relationship between the two countries is scarred by the trauma of the 1954-1962 war in which the North African country, which had a large settler population and was treated as an integral part of France under colonial rule, won independence.