Region

BEIRUT — Roula Mrad wanted to give her children a head start in life with a private education, but Lebanon's economic crisis is forcing her to move them to the substandard state system.

"My children have always been educated privately," said Mrad, who works at the finance ministry.

But "now we can no longer afford that privilege."

She is just one of thousands of newly impoverished parents in the Mediterranean country pulling their children out of private classrooms because they can no longer pay the fees.

More than 90,000 Lebanese students have already been moved since the crisis broke out in 2019, says the education ministry, which is bracing itself for many more when schools start re-opening from September 27.

Since 2019, Lebanon's financial meltdown, one on the planet's worst since the 1850s, has decimated the country's middle class.

Entire families have seen their savings all but vanish and salaries dwindle to barely a tenth of their previous dollar values.

The UN says poverty now affects more than three quarters of the population.

Unable to keep up with ever-rising private school fees, last year Mrad moved her eldest son to a state facility to finish his last year of high school.

The move slashed 18-year-old Rawad’s fees from around $3,000 a year to just $170 — and suddenly the books were free.

This year his 14-year-old brother Rayan will follow suit. But the family will try desperately to keep their youngest daughter in the private system a little longer.

‘The new poor’ 

Sami Makhlouf, a 55-year-old plumber, says he used to spend the equivalent of $13,000 a year on private education for his four children.

But as his earnings plummeted last year, he was forced to uproot the whole family from a Beirut suburb back to his home village in Lebanon’s east.

He says life is cheaper in the village of Qaa, where he has planted a vegetable garden and enrolled his children at a government school.

“This crisis has decimated the middle class,” Makhlouf said.

“We’ve become the new poor.”

The coronavirus pandemic has compounded the problem.

More than a million children in Lebanon have been out of school since COVID-19 arrived in Lebanon in February 2020, according to aid group Save the Children.

Now the country is set to return to nationwide in-classroom learning, after months of battling to implement distance learning despite petrol shortages and never-ending power cuts.

The education ministry says it is doing its best to adapt.

With international assistance, it has provided solar panels to 122 schools and hopes to equip 80 more soon, caretaker Education Minister Tarek Majzoub said last week.

Hilda Khoury, who heads the ministry’s counselling and guidance department, said the influx of new students from the private sector was a “huge challenge”.

But, she adds, it is also an “opportunity” for the public school system, which already accommodates more than 383,0000 students, to prove it is fit for task.

‘Even education is collapsing’ 

Meanwhile, private schools are hiking fees, cutting costs or even closing.

Better-off pupils are emigrating with their families, while those with poorer parents are moving to cheaper private institutions or state schools.

The country’s network of Catholic schools, which used to educate 185,000 pupils, last year lost 9,000 of them and was forced to close 14 of its 321 facilities.

“If the private sector is not supported, it will be the end of quality education in Lebanon,” warned the network’s former secretary general Boutros Azar.

Lebanon once provided the fourth-best maths and science education in the world, according to a 2016 World Economic Forum report. The country has long been known for its well-educated, multilingual citizens.

“But that could all soon change,” said Rodolphe Abboud, head of the private school teachers’ union.

He said a few thousand of the union’s 43,000 members had already joined the country’s brain drain.

Lama Tawil, a representative of parent committees at private schools nationwide, said parents earning in Lebanese pounds could barely keep up with old tuition costs, let alone afford the 30 per cent fee hike announced by some private schools.

Many have already emigrated to Europe, the United Arab Emirates or Cyprus, she said.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” she added.

“Even education, the cornerstone of our society, is collapsing.”

JUBA — Heavy flooding has affected about 380,000 people in South Sudan, with overflowing rivers submerging homes and displacing families in the impoverished country, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said on Tuesday.

Nearly three-quarters of those affected are in two states — Unity and Jonglei — OCHA said in a briefing note, warning of “more heavy rains and flooding expected in the coming months”.

“Access is a major challenge, with the majority of flood-affected areas inaccessible by road,” the agency said, with aid workers struggling to deliver supplies to displaced populations.

Michael Gai, who fled with his family to Jonglei’s capital Bor, said many people were unable to move to safer areas.

“The flooding is coming from all directions — east south, north and west,” he told AFP.

“Many people have left some of the flooded areas but there are some people who have been behind because of vulnerability, they cannot move out of the place,” he said. Elderly residents were in a particularly precarious condition, he added.

Rising waters triggered by early seasonal rainfall have deluged farmland, killing livestock and destroying flimsy thatched huts, a year after record floods affected some 700,000 people.

Around 100,000 of those displaced in last year’s disaster have still not returned home, while the relentless rainfall has left some agricultural land submerged for well over a year, OCHA said.

Skyrocketing costs 

The devastation has also caused prices to skyrocket, with the damage to roads having sharply slowed down agricultural production and obstructed transport, said Bol Deng, a resident of Bor.

“The local production is very low... [transport] is kind of blocked so nothing is coming to the local markets,” he told AFP.

“So as a result things have become very expensive,” he added.

OCHA warned of limited supplies and a funding shortfall, saying more cash was “needed to scale up the response to reach communities affected by the combination of shocks”.

The agency said that it had only received 54 per cent of the $1.7 billion (1.4 billion euros) required to fund programmes in the country.

Four out of five of South Sudan’s 11 million people live in “absolute poverty”, according to the World Bank in 2018, while more than 60 per cent of its population suffers from severe hunger from the combined effects of conflict, drought and floods.

Since achieving independence from Sudan in 2011, the young nation has been in the throes of a chronic economic and political crisis, and is struggling to recover from the aftermath of a five-year civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead.

Although a 2018 ceasefire and power-sharing deal between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar still largely holds, it is being sorely tested, with little progress made in fulfilling the terms of the peace process.

RIYADH — A drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport wounded eight people on Tuesday, said the Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

Following an earlier reported attack, “a second drone attempting to attack Abha International Airport was intercepted and shot down”, the coalition said in a statement carried by the kingdom’s official Al Ekhbariya television channel.

“Eight people were wounded and a civilian aircraft was damaged, according to initial information,” it added.

The coalition said the second attack on the airport “constitutes a war crime” after it intercepted a booby-trapped drone earlier in the day.

In a second statement, the coalition said that those injured included one Saudi national, a Nepalese, three people from India and three from Bangladesh — one of whom was in critical condition.

The coalition also said it launched a military operation targeting a launchpad used in Yemen’s capital Sanaa — under rebel control since 2014 — that was used to carry out the Abha attack.

It added that it “destroyed the terrorist elements responsible for the attack”.

According to Al Ekhbariya, after the coalition intercepted the first attack, shrapnel hit parts of the airport near the runway.

It added that flights had been temporarily halted “to ensure the safety of incoming and departing aircraft, as well as civilians at the airport”.

The rebels have yet to comment on the incident.

Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemen war on behalf of the internationally recognised government in 2015, shortly after the Houthis seized Sanaa.

The Iran-allied insurgents have repeatedly targeted the kingdom in cross-border attacks.

In August, the rebels escalated those operations, using drones and missiles.

Yemen’s grinding conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, resulting in what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

While the UN is pushing for an end to the war, the Houthis have demanded the reopening of Sanaa airport, closed under a Saudi blockade since 2016, before any ceasefire or negotiations.

The incoming UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, will officially assume his duties on September 5.

NICOSIA — Cypriot authorities said on Monday they were monitoring an oil spill from a power plant on Syria's Mediterranean coast, as a Syrian official said Damascus was probing its cause.

A fuel oil leak at the Baniyas power plant was first reported last week, and Syrian state media said the leak was an accident.

Cypriot authorities said the slick was expected to reach the north of the divided island on Tuesday.

The size of the leak ranges from two to four tonnes of fuel, Syria's electricity minister told the pro-government Al Watan newspaper on Monday, adding that a committee had been formed to investigate the cause.

Initial satellite imagery showed an oil sheen 36 kilometres  long but newer imagery shows that the spill is larger than anticipated and is reaching deeper into Mediterranean.

Cyprus said satellite imagery from the European Maritime Safety Agency showed the existence of a "possible oil spill" between the island and Syria.

Modelling and meteorological data showed it is expected to "affect the Cape of Apostolos Andreas [at the northern tip of Cyprus] in the next 24 hours", the fisheries department said in a statement.

Steps had been taken to inform authorities in the north of the island, the department said, adding that "the Republic of Cyprus is ready to respond and provide assistance if requested".

It said the slick appeared to be "oil sheen" rather than crude oil.

“Based on the National Emergency Plan for dealing with marine pollution from petroleum products, the Reaction Team met at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre to assess all data to take action,” it added.

Cyprus, an island in the eastern Mediterranean, has been divided since 1974.

The Republic of Cyprus, whose overwhelming majority are Greek Cypriots and which has been a European Union member since 2004, has effective control over the southern two-thirds of the island.

Only Ankara recognises the breakaway self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Israel's defence minister has met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a rare high-level meeting, but a source close to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett insisted Monday his government had no plans to reboot peace talks.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz met Abbas in Ramallah late Sunday for what were reportedly the first direct talks between an Israeli Cabinet member and the 86-year-old Palestinian leader in several years.

The meeting, which Gantz's office said focused on "security policy, civilian and economic issues", came just hours after Bennett returned from Washington where he met US President Joe Biden.

Biden had said he would urge Bennett to find ways "to advance peace and security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians".

According to a defence ministry statement, Gantz told Abbas that Israel "seeks to take measures that will strengthen the PA's economy".

"They also discussed shaping the security and economic situations in the West Bank and in Gaza," and agreed to "continue communicating further," it added.

A source close to Bennett said the meeting that he had approved focused on "issues between the defence establishment and the Palestinian Authority".

"There is no peace process with the Palestinians nor will there be," under Bennett's leadership, said the source who requested anonymity.

The Gantz-Abbas meeting also included the head of the Israeli military branch responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, Ghasan Alyan, senior PA official Hussein Al Sheikh and Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj.

Gantz's office said he and Abbas had held "a one-on-one meeting" after the broader talks.

Al Sheikh confirmed the meeting on Twitter but the PA was not immediately available to comment on its substance.

Hamas vs Abbas 

Bennett, 49, took office in June as head of an eclectic coalition in which his hawkish party holds only a handful of seats.

He is a long-standing opponent of Palestinian statehood and the former head of a council that lobbies for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law.

But despite Bennett’s personal views, his government has sought to warm ties with the PA after relations had effectively collapsed under former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was in power from 2009 until June this year.

Netanyahu, also a pro-settlement right-winger long reviled by Palestinians, further alienated Abbas through his tight embrace of former US president Donald Trump, who was accused of extreme pro-Israel bias.

Palestinian division 

Bennett’s government has indicated a desire to boost the PA amid concern over a fresh conflict with Hamas Islamists who control Israeli-blockaded Gaza and are rivals of Abbas’ secular Fateh movement.

An 11-day conflict in May between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza marked the worst hostilities in the area since 2014 and unrest has persisted despite an Egypt-brokered ceasefire.

On Monday, an Israeli Border Police soldier shot during border clashes with Gaza nine days ago died of his wounds.

Police said Barel Hadaria Shmueli was critically wounded by a gunshot during the August 21 clash on the sidelines of a demonstration near the border fence separating the Hamas-run enclave and Israel.

Hamas, meanwhile, condemned the Abbas-Gantz meeting, charging that it “deepens Palestinian political division”.

Abbas has tightened his hold over the PA since his election in 2006. He cancelled elections set for May and July that would have been the first Palestinian polls in 15 years.

The veteran leader cited Israel’s refusal to allow voting in occupied East Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as their future capital.

But some Palestinian experts said Abbas balked when it seemed clear Hamas was poised to rout Fateh at the polls.

Abbas’ PA has also come under mounting global criticism over an alleged crackdown on internal opposition following the death in Palestinian custody of a prominent activist.

The United Nations and European Union last week expressed alarm over a spate of arrests targeting leading critics of Abbas and the PA.

NASIRIYAH, Iraq — Six Iraqis sentenced to death, three for “terrorism”, were hanged Monday in a prison in southern Iraq, a medical source told AFP.

The source said the hangings took place in Nasiriyah prison, where death row prisoners are held.

Those not executed for “terrorism” were sentenced over “criminal cases”.

Rights group Amnesty International says it recorded more than 45 executions in Iraq last year, including many of people accused of belonging to the Daesh  group.

A 2005 law carries the death penalty for anyone convicted of “terrorism”, which can include membership of an extremist group even if they are not convicted of any specific acts.

Rights groups have warned that executions were being used for political reasons.

Since Baghdad officially declared victory over Daesh in 2017, Iraqi courts have sentenced hundreds to death for crimes perpetrated by the terrorist who had set up a “caliphate” in territory seized in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Only a small proportion of the sentences have been carried out, as they must be approved by the president.

Barham Saleh, who has held the post since 2018, is known to be personally against capital punishment.

According to an AFP tally, at least 14 people sentenced for “terrorism” have been executed in Iraq since the start of the year, all at the Nasiriyah prison.

Earlier this month, a man who murdered a senior Iraqi official in broad daylight was sentenced to death amid revulsion over the government’s failure to halt a wave of assassinations.

In January, an official from Iraq’s presidency told AFP more than 340 execution orders “for terrorism or criminal acts” were ready to be carried out.

Another presidency official said that all the orders were signed after 2014, most of them under ex-president Fuad Massum and at a time when Daesh occupied a third of the country.

Rights groups accuse Iraq’s justice system of corruption, carrying out rushed trials on circumstantial evidence and failing to allow the accused a proper defence.

UN human rights experts in November urged Baghdad to halt all “mass executions”.

ALGIERS — The UN envoy to Libya Jan Kubis said on Monday that time was pressing for Libyans to finalise a legal framework for elections to be held on time in December.

“The [Libyan] government has taken the necessary dispositions to hold elections but we need a legal framework,” Kubis said at the opening of a meeting in Algeria of Libya’s neighbours.

“The members of parliament are now trying to finalise the electoral law and time is running out,” Kubis said in statements carried in French by the official Algerian news agency APS.

The two-day ministerial meeting is aimed at helping Libyans achieve national reconciliation and draw a roadmap for organising the polls.

But recent talks in Geneva have exposed deep divisions over when to hold elections, what elections to hold, and on what constitutional grounds, threatening to plunge Libya back into crisis.

The North African country was gripped by violence and political turmoil in the aftermath of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted dictator Muammar Qadhafi and in which he was killed.

In recent years, the oil-rich country split between two rival administrations backed by foreign powers and myriad militias.

After eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar’s forces were routed from the country’s west last year, the two camps signed a ceasefire in Geneva in October.

An interim administration was established in March this year to prepare for presidential and parliamentary polls on December 24.

Kubis on Monday said that Libya’s unity government backed by the UN has “allocated the necessary budget for the elections”.

“But it is important that as soon as possible we have a legal framework for the polls,” he said.

Kubis said he told MPs to “assume their responsibilities and not waste time”. He also called on Libya’s neighbours to appoint observers to monitor the polls.