Women Lack Basics in Lebanon's Crowded Prisons

Nour said she and her daughter shared a cell at the Baabda women's prison with another 23 people, including two other babies. AFP
Nour said she and her daughter shared a cell at the Baabda women's prison with another 23 people, including two other babies. AFP
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Women Lack Basics in Lebanon's Crowded Prisons

Nour said she and her daughter shared a cell at the Baabda women's prison with another 23 people, including two other babies. AFP
Nour said she and her daughter shared a cell at the Baabda women's prison with another 23 people, including two other babies. AFP

Nour is raising her four-month-old daughter in Lebanon's most overpopulated women's prison, struggling to get formula and nappies for her baby as the country's economy lies in tatters.

"I don't have enough milk to breastfeed, and baby formula isn't readily available," said the 25-year-old, who was detained eight months ago on drug-related accusations.

"Sometimes my daughter doesn't have formula for three days," she added, as green-eyed Amar wriggled on her lap.

Lebanese authorities have long struggled to care for the more than 8,000 people stuck in the country's jails.

But three years of an unprecedented economic crisis mean even basics like medicines are lacking, while cash-strapped families struggle to support their jailed relatives.

Essentials like baby formula have become luxuries for many Lebanese, as the financial collapse -- dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in recent world history -- has pushed most of the population into poverty.

A months-long judges' strike has exacerbated the situation in prisons, contributing to overcrowding.

Nour said she and her daughter shared a cell at the Baabda women's prison with another 23 people, including two other babies.

She said she sometimes kept Amar in the same nappy overnight while waiting for her parents to bring fresh supplies, but said even they can "barely help with one percent of my baby's needs".

In a hushed voice, she said the shower water gave her and her daughter rashes, but that Amar had never been examined by a prison doctor.

"We all make mistakes, but the punishment we get here is double," Nour said.

Inmates at the prison, located outside the capital Beirut, spoke to AFP in the presence of the prison director and declined to provide their surnames.

Around them, in the facility's breakroom, paint peeled off the walls and water dripped from the ceiling.

Rampant inflation and higher fuel prices have also prevented families from visiting their jailed relatives regularly.

Bushra, another inmate, said she had not seen her teenage daughter for nine months because her family could not afford transportation.

She was detained earlier this year on slander allegations and has been in jail ever since.

"I miss my daughter," said the tattooed 28-year-old, as her eyes welled up with tears.

"So many mothers here cannot even see their children," she added.

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in September that Lebanon's economic crisis had "multiplied the suffering of inmates".

His ministry has appealed for more international support for the prison system, citing overcrowding, poor maintenance and shortages of food and medications.

Inmate Tatiana, 32, expressed helplessness at her and her family's situation. She said her mother had slipped into poverty and was living on just $1 a day.

Prisoners "need basics: shampoo, deodorant, clothes," said Tatiana, who has been waiting for a court hearing for nearly three years.

"But our parents cannot afford them for themselves, how can they buy those things for us?" she added, dark circles lining her eyes.

Tatiana is among the nearly 80 percent of Lebanon's prison population languishing in pre-trial detention, according to interior ministry figures. Prison occupancy stands at 323 percent nationwide.

The country's already slow judiciary has been paralyzed since August, when judges started an open-ended strike to demand better wages.

Inmates told AFP they slept on dirty mattresses strewn on the floor in a one-toilet cell shared between more than 20 people.

Baabda women's prison director Nancy Ibrahim said more than 105 detainees were crammed into the jail's five cells, compared to around 80 before the economic collapse.

Non-governmental organizations help with everything from food to "medications, vaccinations for the children" and maintenance, she told AFP from her office at the facility.

Rana Younes, 25, a social worker at Dar Al Amal, said her organization helps women prisoners get the basics including sanitary pads, and also provides legal assistance and even funding for cancer treatments.

She said prisoners sometimes missed court hearings because authorities failed to secure fuel or transportation for them.

Dar Al Amal has spent thousands of dollars on repairs for worn-out pipes and trucked-in water supplies at the Baabda prison, said organization director Hoda Kara.

"Parents can no longer help, the state is absent, so we try to fill the gap," she said.



From Jeddah to New York: Why Do Sudan's Truces Fail?

Members of the Quintet and Quad after their first joint meeting on Sudan. (African Union)
Members of the Quintet and Quad after their first joint meeting on Sudan. (African Union)
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From Jeddah to New York: Why Do Sudan's Truces Fail?

Members of the Quintet and Quad after their first joint meeting on Sudan. (African Union)
Members of the Quintet and Quad after their first joint meeting on Sudan. (African Union)

Sudanese doctor "S" needed a truce to get out of a health center where she and her colleagues were trapped in the first days of the war. She took a long route from Nile Street, crossing the Fiteihab and Halfaya bridges, until she reached her family in Kober.

She said she found bullet holes in the walls of her bedroom. Her siblings were waiting for her so they could leave together. The family fled and remains displaced today.

A brief halt in fighting in May 2023 allowed S to escape, but it did not last long enough for her family to remain in their home. Since that brief truce, initiatives and agreements have followed, while the hardest question has remained: How can mediators bring the two sides to agree to a cessation of fighting that is implemented and sustained?

The question returned to the fore on Sept. 23, when the Quad and Quintet met together for the first time in New York, under the co-chairmanship of the African Union and the United States. Participants called for a humanitarian truce and an end to hostilities.

They agreed to coordinate efforts to protect civilians and prepare to monitor and verify the implementation of any agreement. But the meeting's statement announced no agreement with the army or the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and set no date for talks between them.

A worker repairs a damaged building in Khartoum on September 20, 2026 (Photo by Ebrahim HAMID / AFP)

The sticking point lies in the terms of the truce itself. According to Reuters, the army-led government accepted most of a US proposal for a 90-day truce but rejected a provision that would limit the RSF's withdrawal to specified areas.

It demanded that the RSF withdraw from all cities it had seized. Sudan's Foreign Ministry said this week that it rejected any negotiating process it believed would legitimize a reality imposed by the RSF through force. The RSF, meanwhile, welcomed the truce proposal, but the fighting continued.

Even when the two sides signed an agreement, it did not guarantee its implementation. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the army and the RSF signed a declaration committing them to protecting civilians on May 11, 2023. On May 20, they signed an agreement on a short ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements.

But the ceasefire did not hold. In June, the army suspended its participation in the talks, accusing the RSF of violating the agreement.

Other efforts faced different obstacles. In December 2023, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional organization involved in peace efforts in the Horn of Africa, announced that army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, had agreed to meet face to face under its auspices. IGAD renewed the invitation in January, but the meeting never took place.

In Manama, Bahrain, a document titled "Principles and Foundations for a Comprehensive Solution to the Sudanese Crisis" was initialed on Jan. 20, 2024, in the names of Shams al-Din Kabbashi for the army and Abdel Rahim Dagalo for the RSF, according to the published text. But the initialing was not followed by a final agreement or a sustained negotiating process. Dagalo accused Kabbashi of backing away from the document, while Kabbashi did not comment on the reasons for the process coming to a halt.

In August 2024, the absence of one of the warring sides prevented direct ceasefire talks in Switzerland, shifting the focus to facilitating the delivery of aid and protecting civilians.

Rosalind Marsden, a researcher at Chatham House, wrote in an analysis published by the institute on Sept. 18, 2024, that the main reason the August 2024 ceasefire talks in Switzerland failed was that both the army and the RSF continued to seek a military victory. Their continued hopes of making military gains were a major reason for the negotiations' failure to make progress, despite limited progress in delivering aid to Darfur.

In September 2025, the Quad proposed a roadmap beginning with a three-month humanitarian truce, during which aid would reach areas across Sudan, followed by a permanent ceasefire and a political transition.

But the Quad's roadmap remained a proposal by the mediators and did not become an agreement between the warring parties. The dispute over withdrawal in the latest US proposal shows that the two sides have yet to agree on the terms under which a new truce could be tested.

Researcher Ahmed Soliman says the multiplicity of mediation groups and weak coordination among them make it necessary to link ceasefire efforts to a Sudanese political process led by civilian forces.

Hubert Kinkoh, a researcher at Chatham House, argued in an analysis published by the institute on Feb. 13, 2026, that the multiplicity of mediation tracks on Sudan, along with the absence of clear leadership and effective coordination among them, had allowed the army and the RSF to resist making serious concessions.

The New York meeting may help address the fragmentation of mediation efforts. Its real value, however, will become clear if it can bring the warring parties to a clear agreement and establish a mechanism to monitor compliance and address violations.

A brief truce allowed S to reach her family, but the family was then forced to leave their home. The truce that displaced people and refugees are waiting for today would allow aid to reach them and mark the beginning of a lasting end to the fighting, making a safe return to their homes and communities possible.


Trump's State Dinner for Xi to Feature Sea Bass and a Long List of Tech Titans

24 September 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House for a state dinner in Washington, DC. Photo: Joey Sussman/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
24 September 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House for a state dinner in Washington, DC. Photo: Joey Sussman/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Trump's State Dinner for Xi to Feature Sea Bass and a Long List of Tech Titans

24 September 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House for a state dinner in Washington, DC. Photo: Joey Sussman/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
24 September 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House for a state dinner in Washington, DC. Photo: Joey Sussman/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

A tech-heavy guest list, the fashion choices of those on it, who sits where, their body language throughout the night and what’s on the menu: these are the softer — often and glitzier — details of diplomacy.

Thursday's state dinner for China’s leader Xi Jinping featured a cavalcade of billionaires, Washington powerbrokers, business leaders and the type of festivities that excite President Donald Trump, who has a reputation for reveling in hosting parties, said The Associated Press.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman signed autographs as he arrived at the White House. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang chose a tuxedo over his trademark black leather jacket. Bernard Arnault, the CEO of French luxury goods company LVMH, walked through black security fencing to get to the White House.

Trump, clad in a tuxedo, and first lady Melania Trump, in a tuxedo-style outfit with a large necktie bow, greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, out in front of the White House.

Xi, in a black suit, and Peng, in a red gown, emerged from their limousine onto a red carpet at the North Portico, where they shook hands with the Trumps.

“Everyone wants to be there,” Trump said during this week's UN General Assembly session. “It's the hottest ticket in town.”

Xi and Trump face tensions over Taiwan, trade and artificial intelligence during business hours — even as an ongoing, First Amendment fight over press access at the White House has unfolded. But Trump publicly chose to focus on showing Xi his White House updates on Thursday afternoon, before attention quickly turned to the flashy details of the swanky meal honoring Xi and his wife in the White House East Room.

Asked on Monday night who'd be in attendance, the president responded, “sort of everybody,” adding, “I would say you have the entire tech world, the entire banking world and a lot more.”

The dinner was expected to showcase “the positive vibes surrounding the visit” and indicate that “the president is very focused on signaling warmth and a close personal connection with Xi,” said Edgard Kagan, senior adviser and chair in China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The first lady’s menu is being served on the red china service from Ronald Reagan’s presidency. It features a first course of yellow squash velouté with wild mushrooms, fresh herbs, crispy pancetta and drizzled scallion oil.

After that, guests will get sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, roasted garden eggplant and a sauce verte. Dessert is vanilla crémeux with sour cherry confit and walnut frangipane, as well as ice cream with honey from the White House.

Trump has already sought to one-up Xi after Beijing

The dinner comes after the president took the unusual step of personally greeting Xi and his wife on Wednesday as they arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. Normally, presidents wait for their state visit guests to arrive at the White House itself before offering a formal welcome.

During Thursday's arrival ceremony, Trump and Xi reviewed troops as trumpets blared, with the US president saying, “From the time of my first election in 2016, President Xi and I have forged a friendship.”

Thursday's dinner will include an abundance of technology industry titans, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI President and co-founder Greg Brockman, and Dell Technologies chairman and CEO Michael Dell.

During his own visit to Beijing in May, Xi hosted Trump for a state dinner that unfolded beneath grand chandeliers in the Great Hall of the People. That event included many tech luminaries who are likely to be at the White House this time, such as Tim Cook, formerly Apple's CEO, and Musk.

Trump has since begun referring to the White House ballroom he’s building as the “Great Hall of the United States,” to rival the place where he dined in China.

“This is a very large hall,” Trump recently said of the Great Hall of the People before adding, “But we’re gonna top it.”

Trump used to decry the pomp he now revels in

In 2015, as then-President Barack Obama was preparing to host Xi for a state visit, Trump — in the midst of his first presidential run — criticized all the hubbub.

“Just take them to McDonald’s and go back to the negotiating table,” Trump said then, during a rally in South Carolina. He later conceded on Fox News Channel that Xi might at least be worthy of getting “probably a double-size Big Mac.”

Xi visited Trump for the first time in 2017. But the White House said the Chinese wanted the meeting to take place at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, which is viewed as a more relaxed setting that might defuse some of the high expectations of a formal summit in Washington.

A dearth of pageantry didn't mean a lack of extraordinary moments, however, underscoring just how important it is for China's leader to dine with Trump.

Later recounting the incident to Fox News Channel, Trump said he sprung a surprise on Xi just after dinner, noting that the US was striking Syria as the pair was having “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen, and President Xi was enjoying it.”

Trump said he told Xi that US forces had “just fired 59 missiles” and that China's president “was eating his cake. And he was silent.”


Long-Suffering Yemeni Families Flee Renewed Fighting

 A displaced woman sits outside her tent at a makeshift camp for people displaced by clashes between Iran-aligned Houthi fighters and Yemeni government forces, in Taiz province, Yemen September 21, 2026. (Reuters)
A displaced woman sits outside her tent at a makeshift camp for people displaced by clashes between Iran-aligned Houthi fighters and Yemeni government forces, in Taiz province, Yemen September 21, 2026. (Reuters)
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Long-Suffering Yemeni Families Flee Renewed Fighting

 A displaced woman sits outside her tent at a makeshift camp for people displaced by clashes between Iran-aligned Houthi fighters and Yemeni government forces, in Taiz province, Yemen September 21, 2026. (Reuters)
A displaced woman sits outside her tent at a makeshift camp for people displaced by clashes between Iran-aligned Houthi fighters and Yemeni government forces, in Taiz province, Yemen September 21, 2026. (Reuters)

As fighting escalates once again in Yemen's long-running war, thousands of families have been forced from their homes, many of them for a second or third time.

In the Al-Farsi camp in Aden, Arwa told AFP how she, her husband and their four children left Mokha on Yemen's western coast as it was seized by Iran-backed Houthi fighters.

They shared a single motorcycle to travel 200 kilometers, first to Al-Arah in the Lahj governorate and then on to Aden, temporary seat of Yemen's government.

"We couldn't find any means of transport... We stayed out in the cold and didn't have clothes to keep us warm," Arwa told AFP at the camp, where sat on the ground by a tent.

The camp currently hosts 128 families living under canvas along dirt paths where barefoot children run.

Their tents are sparsely equipped -- some bedding, cooking pots, and a few clothes and belongings that the families managed to bring with them when they ran.

It is not the first time Arwa has been forced to flee her home.

Nine years ago she left Maqbanah in Taiz governorate to head to Mokha, also because of the war.

"I hope I can find a house to live in with my children. We're exhausted by the heat, the dust and the humiliation," she said. "I hope the situation improves and we can return to our home and our families."

Armin Yedgarian, a representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the camp was "in dire need of more support", adding that its 8,800 inhabitants included many elderly people and women with children.

International organizations, including the World Food Program, distribute meals to the displaced.

Arwa received a portion of rice to feed her children. But she regrets that her seven-year-old daughter, her only school-aged child, has not been attending class since the family was forced to head to Aden.

- No schooling -

At Aden's Al-Firdaws camp, which currently shelters about 110 families who arrived over the past two weeks, the acting representative of UNICEF's office in Yemen, Obiya Atchieng, told AFP that families' needs were not limited to food and basic supplies.

"Most of the children were enrolled in schools," he says. "Our team carried out a field visit to assess the possibility of providing education services."

Last week, UNICEF said 57,000 children had been displaced inside Yemen in just two weeks and 243 schools had been closed or suspended, affecting more than 137,000 students.

Even before the latest escalation, 3.2 million school-age children were not enrolled.

After years of relative calm, Yemen's civil war flared back to life in July against the backdrop of the broader conflict in the Middle East.

In the past 10 days, a surprise Houthi offensive enabled the group to expand its areas of control as far as the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait linking the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, and by extension, the Suez Canal.

- 'Hearts beating' -

As a result of a 2022 ceasefire, those under the age of four have not previously experienced conflict of this intensity.

"The sounds of explosions were new to the children, and now any loud noise unsettles them, even if it's a motorcycle," said one 39-year-old father of two who remained in Mokha despite the Houthi takeover.

"I try to reassure them and convince them there is no danger. But even when they're in my arms, I can feel their hearts beating rapidly against my chest."

The man said he had been displaced from the city of Hodeidah eight years ago, and had no desire for it to happen again.

Noha, a housewife and mother of two children aged eight and 10, said she broke down in tears when she heard they were fleeing from Al-Khokha in western Yemen -- which the Houthis captured less than two weeks ago -- to her husband's family home in Aden.

"Because I cried, the children cried. We left in a bus with our neighbors and I haven't been able to make the children feel safe."

"Today I learned that my neighbor, a mother of six children who was in her final month of pregnancy, was also displaced and died in Aden two days after we arrived because of postpartum hemorrhage," she said.

"The newborn baby girl is in the incubator, and the other children and her husband are in a terrible, miserable state."