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Canada Working to Repatriate More than 2,000 Citizens from Middle East

A Canadian flag is pictured on Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit, Nunavut February 23, 2012. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File
A Canadian flag is pictured on Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit, Nunavut February 23, 2012. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File
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Canada Working to Repatriate More than 2,000 Citizens from Middle East

A Canadian flag is pictured on Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit, Nunavut February 23, 2012. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File
A Canadian flag is pictured on Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit, Nunavut February 23, 2012. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File

The Canadian government is working to repatriate citizens who are stranded in the Middle East by organizing seats on commercial flights, contracting charter flights and offering ground transportation options to neighboring countries, Canada's foreign affairs minister said on Wednesday.

More than 2,000 Canadians have requested assistance from the Canadian government to leave the region since the US and Israel attacked Iran, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said, with around half of those inquiries coming from Canadians in the United Arab ‌Emirates, 237 from ‌Qatar, 164 from Lebanon, 93 from Israel and 74 from ‌Iran.

Anand ⁠said she had ⁠directed her office to enter into contracts to charter flights out of the United Arab Emirates in the coming days, contingent on approval from the UAE government to use its airspace.

The government secured 75 seats on a flight leaving Beirut on Wednesday, and will be offering more seats in the coming days for people wishing to leave Lebanon, Anand said. Two hundred Canadians with plane tickets were being bussed from Qatar ⁠to Saudi Arabia, she said, and the government is "engaging" ground transportation ‌for other Canadians who want to leave ‌Qatar.

Officials are providing information to Canadians in Israel about a bus service to Egypt operated ‌by the Israeli government where passengers can be taken to open airports in ‌that country, she said.

Commercial air traffic remained largely absent across much of the region on Wednesday, with major Gulf hubs - including Dubai, the world's busiest airport for international passengers - largely shut for a fifth straight day, in the biggest travel disruption since the COVID pandemic.

Repatriation flights chartered ‌by other countries, including Britain and France, were due to leave on Wednesday, while the United Arab Emirates opened safe ⁠air corridors to ⁠allow some citizens to return home. Under normal circumstances, thousands of commercial flights would depart the region each day.

"I want to speak directly now to Canadians in the Middle East and the Gulf region. Your government is with you. We are working hard for you, and we are arranging options for you to leave the region," Anand said at a news conference.

Canada cannot arrange ground transportation out of Iran because it does not have a diplomatic presence there, but it has sent officials to border crossings to meet Canadians who cross the border and assist them with visas and onward travel, Anand said.

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World

Norway Aid Group: Sudan, DR Congo Top World's Most Neglected Crises

Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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Norway Aid Group: Sudan, DR Congo Top World's Most Neglected Crises

Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia top the list of the world's most neglected displacement crises, the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group said on Thursday.

Sudan, which since 2023 has been ravaged by a bloody conflict between two rival generals competing for power, has more than nine million internally displaced people, the prominent aid organization said in a statement.

A further four million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries and nearly 19.5 million people there are also suffering from hunger, the NRC said.

"It is incomprehensible that a displacement crisis of similar proportions to the crises in Syria and Ukraine at their peak can continue to worsen almost unnoticed," NRC chief Jan Egeland said.

"Countries have become much more inward-looking, more nationalist.

Rearmament is now an absolute priority because we have to ensure our own security in Europe. There is Putin threatening us, and so on," Egeland said in comments to the NRK broadcaster.

"But people then forget that there will be pandemics, migratory movements, and enormous loss of human life if we don't invest in hope on other continents."

"Africa is just across the Mediterranean, where we go on holiday. And if the continent collapses, we will also suffer the consequences."

Relatives mourn during the funeral of a person who died of Ebola in Bunia, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 03 June 2026. EPA/DIEUDONNE DIROLE

The Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola epidemic has added turmoil to the east of the country ravaged by decades of conflict, appears on NRC's list for the 10th year in a row.

In 2025, only 27.4 percent of the funding needed for DR Congo has been secured, leaving more than 21 million people in need, according to the NRC.

"This is a testament to the world's failure to respond to crises that are not regarded as strategically important for rich countries," Egeland said in the NRC statement.

"Millions of people are being abandoned because we have chosen not to act, not because we cannot."

The NGO's list is based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media coverage, and lack of political will within the international community.

Several African countries -- Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Mali and Nigeria -- have featured on NRC's list six or more times, pointing to "a systemic pattern of deliberate neglect", NRC said.

The 10 most neglected crises for 2025 are Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Honduras, Ecuador, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mozambique, spanning three continents and tens of millions of people.

World

Gunmen Kidnap 7 Students from School in Northwestern Nigeria

Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
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Gunmen Kidnap 7 Students from School in Northwestern Nigeria

Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo

Gunmen raided an off-campus residence in northwest Nigeria and kidnapped seven students, police said.

The attack occurred early Wednesday in the Kaura Namoda area of conflict-battered Zamfara state, police spokesman Yazid Abubakar said in a statement. One of the students escaped and was in custody, The Associated Press said.

The police spokesman said it wasn't clear where the students were taken but efforts were underway to rescue the remaining six.

Zamfara has been a hotspot for armed gangs that carry out kidnappings for ransom, with abductions of students increasing in recent years across the country.

A tally by local news outlet Premium Times found that at least 1,900 students have been kidnapped from 20 schools since the 2014 mass abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno state.

World

Iran's Khamenei Says US, Israel Aim to Sow 'Division' after War Defeat

An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
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Iran's Khamenei Says US, Israel Aim to Sow 'Division' after War Defeat

An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)

Iran's supreme leader on Thursday accused the US and Israel of trying to sow "division" among Iranians after suffering a "decisive blow" during the Middle East war.

In a written message, Mojtaba Khamenei said "the malicious enemy" was seeking to "plant the seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust and division" among the public, reported AFP.

"In confronting these ill intentions, everyone must, through steadfastness, insight, preserving unity and cohesion... neutralize their sinister plot," his message said.