Lebanon declares state of emergency as military enforces lockdown

A customer pushes her trolley next to near empty shelves after people hoarded food as authorities are discussing the latest measures to implement to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Beirut, Lebanon, January 11, 2021. (Reuters)
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Updated 11 January 2021
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Lebanon declares state of emergency as military enforces lockdown

  • PM: Pandemic out of control due to people’s stubbornness
  • Baalbek governor: Italian scenario only a matter of time

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities declared a state of health emergency and imposed a curfew on Monday, to confront the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The curfew will run day and night between Jan. 14 and 25, subject to extension, and will be enforced by the Lebanese Armed Forces.  There will be exceptions granted to some professions and businesses, as part of the full lockdown declared in Lebanon since Jan. 7.

This decision was taken after hospitals lost their capacity to treat patients with the disease, with ambulances transporting patients moving from site to site in search of empty beds in emergency departments.

One Red Cross paramedic posted on his Facebook account a text which went viral, which said that his “cellphone has been ringing since 5 in the morning with people infected with the virus and their families asking for help.”

The paramedic called on “all those who are still violating the preventive and precautionary measures, to head to hospitals and watch the tragedy that they are causing.”

He said: “We bypassed the stage of non-availability of beds to the stage of inability to go to hospitals. Doctors are examining patients in their cars in front of emergency departments.”

The paramedic said that what is happening in front of hospitals is “similar to what happened after the explosion at the Beirut port on Aug. 4. However, with the pandemic, we are living everyday a new Aug. 4 tragedy.

“Medical staff are exhausted and orthopedic surgeons, obstetricians, and even retired doctors may have to engage in treating coronavirus patients, and we may reach a phase where we might need to choose who would be accepted to intensive care rooms,” he added. “So, please do not go out of your houses.”

Dr. Firass Abiad, director of Rafic Hariri University Hospital (RHUH), estimated at 30,000 the number of patients who contracted the virus between Jan. 3 and 10, with 120 deaths.

During the Supreme Defense Council meeting, the country’s caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, said: “We have reached the stage of extreme danger.

“Some people in Lebanon think that COVID-19 is a lie. We are facing a horrific health situation,” he continued. “The disease has spiraled out of control because of people’s stubbornness and their insubordination to the precautionary and preventive measures.

“Our duty is to protect people from themselves. Either we control the situation with a full and strict lockdown, or we might be heading towards a Lebanese model worse than the Italian one.”

The decisions of the council included closing down banks and governmental institutions for 10 days, subject to renewal, whilst the airports remain open for now.

Eng. Fadi El-Hassan, manager of Rafik Hariri International Airport (RHIA), said that the percentage of infection cases among arrivals was no higher than three per 1,000 from the total infection cases in Lebanon.

The council’s decision caused some disquiet, with Minister of Health Hamad Hassan not attending a meeting of the ministerial committee concerned with fighting the disease in protest at the government’s failure to implement a full lockdown over the Christmas and New Year period.

He called on the committee to “endorse the decisions of the scientific committee at the Ministry of Health, due to its accurate approach of the situation, in order to reach safety.”

The country’s medical establishment is unanimous in believing the increase in infections is due to socializing during the New Year celebrations.

The American University of Beirut Crisis Observatory criticized the state’s  “failure in managing the COVID-19 crisis,” calling it “part of a pattern deeply rooted in the weak management of crises in Lebanon.”

Bachir Khodr, governor of Baalbek El-Hermel, which is witnessing a sharp increase in the number of infection cases, told Arab News: “I did my best and took the most extreme measures. However, there are people who were cooperative, and others who ridiculed me.”

The governor added: “We cannot dedicate a policeman for each citizen, and we cannot storm into houses to ensure that they are not having family gatherings. The Italian scenario would be a matter of time if people do not cooperate.

“I believe that people should be alarmed and be aware of the seriousness of the situation, by watching the television and seeing the hospitals full of patients, and noting that each citizen knows at least one person who either contracted the virus or died from it,” he added.

Agricultural and industrial export sectors, meanwhile, exerted pressure in an attempt to be exempted from full closure, while the threat of lockdown without exceptions caused panic among many people, who rushed to supermarkets, butchers and bakeries, leading to brief shortages of various goods.

A number of doctors expressed their fear that rushing to supermarkets in this way would further spread the disease.

The head of the Syndicate of Food Importers in Lebanon, Hani Bohsali, said: “Rushing to supermarkets is not right and would increase the spread of the virus. Foodstuffs are available in the importers’ stores with quantities enough for at least 2 months.”

He called on people to buy their needs for only one week at a time.


Doctor at Brown University deported to Lebanon despite US judge’s order

Dr. Rasha Alawieh. (Supplied)
Updated 17 March 2025
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Doctor at Brown University deported to Lebanon despite US judge’s order

  • Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen, has an H-1B visa authorizing her to work at Brown University, yet she was detained on Thursday after returning from travel to Lebanon
  • Her expulsion is set to be the focus of a hearing on Monday before a federal judge in Boston, who demanded information on whether his order had been “willfully” disobeyed

BOSTON: A Rhode Island doctor who is an assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported to Lebanon even though a judge had issued an order blocking the US visa holder’s immediate removal from the country, according to court papers.
The expulsion of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is set to be the focus of a hearing on Monday before a federal judge in Boston, who on Sunday demanded information on whether US Customs and Border Protection had “willfully” disobeyed his order.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said he had received a “detailed and specific” timeline of the events from an attorney working on Alawieh’s behalf that raised “serious allegations” about whether his order was violated.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Rasha Alawieh was removed after arriving at Boston airport

• Judge questions if Customs and Border Protection disobeyed his order

• Court hearing set for Monday

The agency has not said why she was removed. But her expulsion came as Republican US President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to sharply restrict border crossing and ramp up immigration arrests.
A CBP spokesperson, Hilton Beckham, in a statement said migrants bear the burden of establishing admissibility and that the agency’s officers “adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats.”
Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen who lives in Providence, was detained on Thursday after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston after traveling to Lebanon to see relatives, according to a lawsuit filed by her cousin, Yara Chehab.
She had held a visa to be in the United States since 2018, when she first came to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University before then completing a fellowship at the University of Washington and then moving to the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she completed in June.
While in Lebanon, the US consulate issued Alawieh an H-1B visa authorizing her entry into the United States to work at Brown University, the lawsuit said. Such visas are reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations.
Despite that visa, CBP detained her at the airport for reasons her family members have still not been provided, according to the lawsuit, which argued her rights were being violated.
In response to the lawsuit, Sorokin on Friday evening issued orders barring Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice to the court and requiring her to be brought to a court hearing on Monday.
Yet according to the cousin’s attorneys, after that order was issued, Alawieh was flown to Paris, where she was then set to board a flight for Lebanon that had been scheduled for Sunday.
Sorokin on Sunday directed the government to provide a legal and factual response by Monday morning ahead of the previously scheduled hearing and to preserve all emails, text messages and other documents concerning Alawieh’s arrival and removal.
Concerns have also been raised in other cases about whether the Trump administration is complying with court rulings blocking parts of its agenda.
The Trump administration on Sunday said it has deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador under seldom-used wartime powers, despite a federal judge’s order temporarily barring such deportations.

 

 


Sudanese police accuse RSF paramilitaries after 11 bodies found at bottom of a well in Khartoum

Updated 17 March 2025
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Sudanese police accuse RSF paramilitaries after 11 bodies found at bottom of a well in Khartoum

  • The bodies of 11 people were recovered Saturday from the deep well in the Fayhaa neighborhood of the city
  • Police say the victims were killed by paramilitary by the paramilitary RSF when itwas controlling the area

CAIRO: Sudanese authorities said Sunday many bodies have been found at the bottom of a well in the capital, Khartoum, a few days after the military cleared the area from a notorious paramilitary group.
The bodies of 11 people, including women and children, were recovered Saturday from the deep well in the Fayhaa neighborhood of the city, according to police.
Col. Abdul-Rahanan Mohamed Hassan, head of the civil defense’s field team in Khartoum, said a search of the the area was mounted after residents reported that they found a dead body in the well.
“We found inside this well different characters (bodies), males and females, adults and children,” Hassan said, adding that authorities were still searching the well.

Police say the victims were killed by the Rapid Support Forces before being thrown into the well when the paramilitary force was controlling the area. The military retook the area earlier this month as part of its sweeping advances in Khartoum and its sister city of Omdurman.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
Afraa Al-Hajj Omar, a resident of the nearby Hajj Youssef neighborhood, said that the RSF killed many people in the area and their bodies were left for days in the streets. She said many bodies were thrown in the well. “They robbed us, beat us, and tortured us,” she said.
Sudan was plunged into chaos in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open warfare across the country.
At least 20,000 people have been killed, though the number is likely far higher. The war has driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine.
The fighting, which wrecked Khartoum and other urban areas has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.
The war has intensified in recent months, with the military making steady advances against the RSF in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.


Syria’s new rulers seek aid boost at EU conference

Updated 17 March 2025
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Syria’s new rulers seek aid boost at EU conference

  • Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani is expected to take part in the event, along with dozens of European and Arab ministers and representatives of international organizations

BRUSSELS: The interim government in Damascus will take part on Monday in an annual international conference to gather aid pledges for Syria, facing dire humanitarian problems and an uncertain political transition after the fall of Bashar Assad.
The conference has been hosted by the European Union in Brussels since 2017 — but took place without the government of Assad, who was shunned for his brutal actions in a civil war that began in 2011.
After Assad’s overthrow in December, EU officials hope to use the conference as a fresh start, despite concerns about deadly violence this month that pitted the new, Islamist rulers against Assad loyalists.
“This is a time of dire needs and challenges for Syria, as tragically evidenced by the recent wave of violence in coastal areas,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
But she said it was also “a time of hope,” citing an agreement struck on March 10 to integrate the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which control much of Syria’s northeast, into new state institutions.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the group that toppled Assad, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations. But EU officials want to engage with the new rulers as long as they stick to pledges to make the transition inclusive and peaceful.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani is expected to take part in the event, along with dozens of European and Arab ministers and representatives of international organizations.
EU officials say the conference is particularly important as the United States under President Donald Trump is making huge cutbacks to humanitarian and development aid programs.
Last year’s conference yielded pledges of 7.5 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in grants and loans, with the EU pledging 2.12 billion for 2024 and 2025.
About 16.5 million people in Syria require humanitarian assistance, with 12.9 million people needing food aid, according to the EU.
The destruction from the war has been compounded by an economic crisis that has sent the Syrian pound tumbling and pushed almost the entire population below the poverty line. ($1 = 0.9192 euros)

 


Families of Syrians who disappeared during its civil war say the search must go on

Updated 17 March 2025
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Families of Syrians who disappeared during its civil war say the search must go on

  • A United Nations-backed commission on Friday urged the interim government led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa to preserve evidence and anything they can document from prisons in the ongoing search for the disappeared

DARAA, Syria: Family members of Syrians who disappeared in the country’s 14-year civil war gathered in the city of Daraa on Sunday to urge the newly installed interim government to not give up on efforts to find them.
The United Nations in 2021 estimated that over 130,000 Syrians were taken away and disappeared during the war, many of them detained by former President Bashar Assad’s network of intelligence agencies as well as by opposition fighters and the extremist Daesh group. Advocacy group The Syrian Campaign says some 112,000 are still missing.
When rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham overthrew Assad in December, they stormed prisons and released detainees from the ousted government’s dungeons. Families of the missing quickly rushed to the prisons seeking their loved ones. While there were some reunions, rescue services also discovered mass graves around the country and used whatever remains they could retrieve to identify the dead.

Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)

On Sunday, the 14th anniversary of the countrywide uprisings that spiraled into civil war, Wafa Mustafa held a placard of her father, Ali, who was detained by the Assad government’s security forces in 2013. She fled a week later to Germany, fearing she would also be detained, and hasn’t heard from him since.
Like many other Syrians who fled the conflict or went into exile for their activism, she often held protests and rallied in European cities. Now, she has returned twice since Assad’s ouster, trying to figure out her father’s whereabouts.
“I’m trying, feeling both hope and despair, to find any answer on the fate of my father,” she said. “I searched inside the prisons, the morgues, the hospitals, and through the bodies of the martyrs, but I still couldn’t find anything.”
A United Nations-backed commission on Friday urged the interim government led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa to preserve evidence and anything they can document from prisons in the ongoing search for the disappeared. The commission also urged the new government to pursue perpetrators.
Some foreign nationals are missing in Syria as well, notably American journalist Austin Tice, whose mother visited Syria in January and met with Al-Sharaa. Tice has not been heard from other than a video released weeks after his disappearance in 2012 that showed him blindfolded and held by armed men.
Syria’s civil war began after Assad crushed largely peaceful protests in 2011, one of the popular uprisings against Arab rulers known as the Arab Spring. Half a million people were killed during the conflict, and more than 5 million left the country as refugees.
 

 


Houthi leader calls for ‘million-strong’ rally after deadly US strikes

Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, during a televised speech on the group's Al-Masirah TV channel (Screengrab
Updated 17 March 2025
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Houthi leader calls for ‘million-strong’ rally after deadly US strikes

  • Abdulmalik Al-Houthi defiant in the face of US threat to continue strikes until the Houthis end their attacks on shipping
  • Houthis say Hodeidah was targeted in latest US strikes, claim second attack on US ships in 24 hours
  • claim second attack on US ships in 24 hours

SANAA: The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday called for a “million-strong” march of defiance after deadly US strikes hit the capital, Sanaa, and other areas.
“I call on our dear people to go out tomorrow on the anniversary of the Battle of Badr in a million-strong march in Sanaa and the rest of the governorates,” Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said in a televised address, referring to a celebrated military victory by the Prophet Muhammad.

In the speech aired Sunday night, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, warned: “We will confront escalation with escalation.”

“We will respond to the American enemy in its raids, in its attacks, with missile strikes, by targeting its aircraft carrier, its warships, its ships,the secretive Houthi leader said. “However, we also still have escalation options. If it continues its aggression, we will move to additional escalation options.”
He did not elaborate.

Hours after Al-Houthi's speech, the Yemeni militia claimed responsibility on Monday for a second attack on an American aircraft carrier group in 24 hours, calling it retaliation for US strikes.

A spokesperson for the group said “for the second time in 24 hours” Houthi fighters launched missiles and drones at the USS Harry S. Truman and several of its warships in the northern Red Sea.

The announcement came a few hours after the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV early on Monday reported that the US launched two strikes targeting Hodeidah, a port city in western Yemen controlled by the Houthis.

Hodeidah has served as a launching pad for Houthi attacks on commercial vessels passing through Bab Al-Mandab Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

The US military has yet to make any statement regarding the reported strikes on Hodeidah.

On Sunday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight US strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.

The overnight airstrikes were one of the most extensive attacks against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

US President Donald Trump has vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that Tehran would be held “fully accountable” for their actions.

“We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday. He said these are not the one-off retaliation strikes the Biden administration carried out after Houthi attacks.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.

Rubio said that over the past 18 months the Houthis had attacked the US Navy “directly” 174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145 times using “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.”

The attacks sparked the most serious combat the US Navy had seen since World War II.

Call for restraint

Amid the bellicose statements from both sides, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities,” while warning of the “grave risks” to the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.

On Sunday, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied his country was involved in the Houthis’ attacks, saying it “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies” of the militant groups it is allied with across the region, according to state-run TV.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the US to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran’s foreign policy.
The US and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the rebels. The US Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said was bound for the Houthis.
The United States, Israel and Britain previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but the new operation was conducted solely by the US It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.
The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, is in the Red Sea and was part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region.

(With AFP and AP)