Lebanon Calls For Return Of Syria Refugees At Arab Summit Channels Television Lebanon urged world powers to step up efforts for Syrian refugees to return home regardless of a political solution to the conflict in its war-wracked neighbour, as it hosted Sunday an Arab summit It also proposed the creation of an Arab bank to finance reconstruction in Arab countries devastated by conflicts such as Syria and Yemen. President Michel Aoun made the calls at the opening of the fourth annual Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, which was marred by the glaring absence of most Arab heads of state. “Lebanon calls on the international community to make all efforts possible and provide suitable conditions for a safe return of displaced Syrians… without linking that to a political solution,” Aoun said. There are currently 5.6 million Syrian refugees living in the region, including around one million born into displacement, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Lebanon h...

UN Raises Alarm as Cameroon Plans to Evict Nigerian Refugees to Borno The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed grave concerns over plans by Cameroon to evict thousands of Nigerian refugees to Borno. UNHCR said it deplored the reported move that Cameroon was forcing several thousand Nigerians to return to Borno, adding that it has put the lives of the refugees “at risk”. Cameroon is currently home to more than 370,000 refugees, including some 100,000 from Nigeria, according to UNHCR. “We are gravely concerned for the safety and well-being of all these people”, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. The UN refugee agency said on January 16, 267 Nigerian refugees, who had crossed into Cameroon in 2014, were forcibly returned. It regretted that at dusk on January 14, militants attacked and ransacked the border town of Rann, about 10 kilometers from the Cameroon border. UNHCR said that at least 14 people were reportedly killed and an estim...