Local, Int'l Concerns Mount after Beirut Clashes Amid Calls For Restraint

A Lebanese soldier accompanies civilians fleeing the crossfire in Beirut, Thursday, October 14. MOHAMED AZAKIR / REUTERS
A Lebanese soldier accompanies civilians fleeing the crossfire in Beirut, Thursday, October 14. MOHAMED AZAKIR / REUTERS
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Local, Int'l Concerns Mount after Beirut Clashes Amid Calls For Restraint

A Lebanese soldier accompanies civilians fleeing the crossfire in Beirut, Thursday, October 14. MOHAMED AZAKIR / REUTERS
A Lebanese soldier accompanies civilians fleeing the crossfire in Beirut, Thursday, October 14. MOHAMED AZAKIR / REUTERS

The International community expressed concern over Thursday’s security developments in Lebanon, urging all parties to exercise restraint.

The French foreign ministry said it was “deeply concerned” about the unrest in Beirut, calling for immediate “de-escalation”.

The ministry said the Lebanese judiciary must be able to work on their probe into the Beirut port explosion “in an independent and impartial manner”, noting that Lebanese authorities must “fully support” the investigation.

At least six people were killed and several others wounded in armed clashes that broke out in Beirut Thursday during a protest against the lead judge, Tarek Bitar, investigating last year’s massive blast in the city's port.

The protest outside the Justice Palace was called for by the Hezbollah group and its allies from the Amal movement, who are demanding a replacement for Bitar.

Joanna Wronecka, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, expressed her concern about the violence in Beirut in a Twitter post, saying that it was crucial to show restraint and ensure the safety of citizens.

Spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Ahmed Hafez, stated that Egypt was following with great concern the developments in Lebanon, calling on all Lebanese parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from violence in order “to avoid the evils of sedition and to uphold the supreme national interest of Lebanon and its people.”

He also stressed that the government and state institutions should assume their responsibilities in managing the country, resolving crises and restoring stability.

Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr urged the Lebanese sects to exercise restraint and stop internal fighting.

“The brothers in the Amal Movement, Hezbollah and the Lebanese sects should end differences and internal fighting, because this weakens the national rank and strengthens tutelage.”

Local officials and party leaders have also called on the government to put an end to the “dangerous insecurity.”

In a statement, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdullatif Derian urged the Lebanese army and all security forces to control the situation and stop the clashes.

“The country is going through a dangerous stage that requires a national position uniting all Lebanese without exception, in order to save Lebanon, eliminate strife… and confront imminent dangers,” Derian remarked.

The Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) said that Thursday’s clashes were “unfortunate and very dangerous.”

Emphasizing “the right to peaceful demonstration within the framework of freedom of expression,” the party stressed that armed manifestations and shooting were “totally and completely rejected.”

For his part, Jaafari Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan blamed Bitar and the US embassy in Beirut for the eruption of clashes.

“Every bloodshed, sedition, threat to civil peace and security chaos that has occurred today on the defenseless protesters, is because of the American embassy and Judge Tarek Bitar, who must be dismissed, arrested and questioned severely…” he stated.



UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)

More than 1.3 million people who fled the fighting in Sudan have headed home, the United Nations said Friday, pleading for greater international aid to help returnees rebuild shattered lives.

Over a million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their homes in recent months, UN agencies said.

A further 320,000 refugees have crossed back into Sudan this year, mainly from neighboring Egypt and South Sudan.

While fighting has subsided in the "pockets of relative safety" that people are beginning to return to, the situation remains highly precarious, the UN said.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed tens of thousands.

The RSF lost control of the capital, Khartoum, in March and the regular army now controls Sudan's center, north and east.

In a joint statement, the UN's IOM migration agency, UNHCR refugee agency and UNDP development agency called for an urgent increase in financial support to pay for the recovery as people begin to return, with humanitarian operations "massively underfunded".

Sudan has 10 million IDPs, including 7.7 million forced from their homes by the current conflict, they said.

More than four million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

- 'Living nightmare' -

Sudan is "the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered", the IOM's regional director Othman Belbeisi, speaking from Port Sudan, told a media briefing in Geneva.

He said 71 percent of returns had been to Al-Jazira state, with eight percent to Khartoum.

Other returnees were mostly heading for Sennar state.

Both Al-Jazira and Sennar are located southeast of the capital.

"We expect 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year but this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services," Belbeisi said.

With the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region, Kordofan in the south has become the war's main battleground in recent weeks.

He said the "vicious, horrifying civil war continues to take lives with impunity", imploring the warring factions to put down their guns.

"The war has unleashed hell for millions and millions of ordinary people," he said.

"Sudan is a living nightmare. The violence needs to stop."

- 'Massive' UXO contamination -

After visiting Khartoum and the Egyptian border, Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, said people were coming back to destroyed public infrastructure, making rebuilding their lives extremely challenging.

Those returning from Egypt were typically coming back "empty handed", he said, speaking from Nairobi.

Luca Renda, UNDP's resident representative in Sudan, warned of further cholera outbreaks in Khartoum if broken services were not restored.

"What we need is for the international community to support us," he said.

Renda said around 1,700 wells needed rehabilitating, while at least six Khartoum hospitals and at least 35 schools needed urgent repairs.

He also sounded the alarm on the "massive" amount of unexploded ordnance littering the city and the need for decontamination.

He said anti-personnel mines had also been found in at least five locations in Khartoum.

"It will take years to fully decontaminate the city," he said, speaking from Port Sudan.