Child vaccine catch-up drive on course to hit target, says UN

A three-year effort to immunise children who missed routine vaccinations due to the Covid-19 crisis is on course to reach the 21 million target, the United Nations has said.


Issued on: 24/04/2026 - RFI

A man administers the cholera vaccine to a child at a temporary cholera treatment centre set up to deal with the latest deadly cholera outbreak, at the Heroes National Stadium in Lusaka, Zambia, 17 January 2024. REUTERS - NAMUKOLO SIYUMBWA

The UN's World Health Organization and children's agency Unicef, along with the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, had ​launched "The ‌Big Catch-Up" during the World Immunisation Week in ⁠2023 as a response to the 2020 pandemic, which disrupted vaccination campaigns.

The initiative, focused on children aged 1 to 5 years and spanning 36 countries in Africa and Asia, ‌ended in March this year.

About 12.3 million children who were ⁠previously "zero-dose" and had never received a vaccine were immunised against diseases such as diphtheria and polio, the agencies said. Before the drive, around 15 million ​children had not received a measles shot.

While final data is still being compiled, the global initiative is "on track to meet its target of catching up 21 million ‌children" who are either unvaccinated or under-immunised, the agencies said in a joint statement Friday.

Besides reaching those children, the agencies said the drive had also improved immunisation programmes, making them better equipped to identify older children who were not on the system, having missed earlier doses.

Anti-vaccine content

The push comes at a time when some ​traditional backers such as the US are scaling back aid even as millions of infants still miss routine immunisation every year, leaving ​them vulnerable to preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria and polio.

Ephrem Lemango, ​Chief of Immunisation at Unicef, said recent sharp ​funding cuts to global health have "seriously affected delivery of immunisation services" and could "likely reverse hard earned ​progress".

The statement said chronic gaps in routine immunisation were "plain to see", with measles outbreaks rising in every region. Around 11 million cases were registered in 2024.

Last year, US Health Secretary and long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cut financial support for Gavi, a group that helps buy vaccines for the world's poorest countries.

He claimed the group ignores ⁠safety issues with the immunisations it provides.

Gavi chief executive Sania Nishtar said: "We are up against a social media engine which has an incentive to promote disinformation, and I think that needs to be strategically tackled.

"The social media algorithms promote hate, disinformation and lies. Put a good piece of information out there and you will have no traction," she said.

(with newswires)

Indonesian peacekeeper dies of wounds suffered in Lebanon last month, UNIFIL says

Copyright AP Photo

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 24/04/2026 - EURONEWS

His death brings the number of peacekeepers killed since the start of the most recent war between Israel and Hezbollah on 2 March to six.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said on Friday that an Indonesian blue helmet died in hospital of wounds suffered in an attack on his base on 29 March.

"UNIFIL deplores the passing today of Corporal Rico Pramudia, who was critically injured following a projectile explosion in his base in Adchit Al Qusayr on the night of 29 March," the force said in a statement.

His death brings the number of peacekeepers killed since the start of the most recent war between Israel and Hezbollah on 2 March to six.

UNIFIL said at the time of the 29 March attack that one Indonesian soldier was killed and another wounded

A preliminary investigation by the UN found that the soldier was killed by an Israeli tank shell.

The following day, two more Indonesian blue helmets were killed by an improvised explosive device.

The same UN investigation found that Hezbollah was likely responsible.

Indonesia has already urged the UN to launch a thorough investigation into both incidents.

Two French soldiers serving in UNIFIL were killed in an ambush on 18 April, which French authorities and the UN have blamed on Hezbollah. The group denies any involvement.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has carried out peacekeeping duties between Israel and Lebanon since 1978 but has found itself caught in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. UNIFIL comprises nearly 8,200 troops from 47 countries.

A ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been in effect since 17 April, which the US said on Thursday night had been extended by three weeks.

Macron urges Israel to withdraw from Lebanon as Salam calls for €500m in aid

French President Emmanuel Macron held talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Paris late on Tuesday, with both leaders using the meeting to push for stability in southern Lebanon and to rally support for a country reeling from weeks of war.


Issued on: 22/04/2026 - RFI

France's President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on 21 April 2026. AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN

Speaking after their meeting, Salam said Lebanon would need €500 million over the next six months to address the humanitarian fallout from the conflict, as a fragile 10-day ceasefire with Israel continues to hold.

The Lebanese authorities have put the death toll from six weeks of fighting at 2,450, with at least 7,650 wounded, since early March.

The meeting at the Élysée Palace focused on maintaining the ceasefire and reaffirming France’s backing for Lebanon’s territorial integrity, while also looking ahead to renewed negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv.

Macron struck a firm but balanced tone, urging Israel to “renounce its territorial ambitions” in Lebanon while insisting that Hezbollah must stop firing into Israeli territory and be disarmed “by the Lebanese themselves”.

He also called for a broader agreement that would guarantee “the security of both countries” and lay the groundwork for a possible normalisation of relations.

For his part, Salam said Lebanon was seeking the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from its territory, alongside the return of prisoners and displaced civilians, as part of the talks set to resume in Washington later this week.

Israel’s ‘buffer zone’

Even as Macron hardened his public language, French officials have continued to strike a more measured tone. The Élysée has described the Israeli military’s “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon as “temporary”, stopping short of calling for its immediate removal.

Israeli forces have pushed deep into the region, drawing what officials describe as a defensive “yellow line” aimed at shielding northern Israeli communities from cross-border fire.

French officials have suggested that, for now, stabilisation takes precedence over territorial adjustments. The buffer zone, they argue, is intended as a short-term security measure rather than a permanent redrawing of borders.

“The issue today is not to shift these lines,” an Élysée official said, stressing instead the need to prevent a resumption of hostilities.

The expectation in Paris is that the question of territory will be resolved through negotiations – with Lebanon’s “territorial integrity” ultimately restored as part of a lasting peace agreement.

France has also pushed back against suggestions it should remain on the sidelines. Despite reported Israeli reluctance to involve Paris directly, Macron’s advisers insist France is uniquely placed to support Lebanon in implementing the disarmament of Hezbollah and reinforcing state authority in the south.

Map of the Israeli occupation zone in Lebanon © reuters

UNIFIL attack underscores tensions

Tuesday’s meeting came in the shadow of a deadly ambush on UN peacekeepers last week, where a French soldier serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was killed over the weekend, with three others wounded.

Macron blamed Hezbollah for the attack but stressed that France itself had not been specifically singled out. “They didn’t target them because they were French,” he said earlier this week. “They targeted them because they were on a mission to stand alongside the civilian population.”

The incident has sharpened concerns about the risks facing peacekeepers even as the ceasefire holds. France has said it is ready to maintain its commitment on the ground in Lebanon even after the UNIFIL mission is due to end at the close of the year.

The UN Security Council has condemned the attack in the strongest terms and reaffirmed its full support for the mission. Hezbollah, which opposes the Lebanon–Israel talks, has denied involvement.

UNIFIL Chief of Staff Major General Paul Sanzey saluting the coffin of late French UNIFIL peacekeeper Sergeant-Chef Florian Montorio during a tribute ceremony on the tarmac of Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport prior to the repatriation of his remains to France, 19 April 2026 AFP - HANDOUT

Beruit open to peace

Alongside France’s diplomatic push, Lebanon’s leadership has signalled a willingness to pursue a negotiated end to the conflict, despite strong domestic opposition.

President Joseph Aoun has said the talks with Israel aim to halt hostilities, end the occupation of southern regions, and enable the Lebanese army to deploy fully along the internationally recognised border.

“I have chosen negotiations,” Aoun said, expressing hope that diplomacy could “save Lebanon” from further devastation.

His stance has exposed deep internal divisions, with Hezbollah sharply criticising the talks, warning that direct negotiations risk undermining national consensus, although it has indicated support for maintaining the ceasefire.

(with newswires)

Shadow of failed 1983 agreement haunts new Israeli-Lebanon talks

EXPLAINER

As Lebanon prepares to resume direct discussions with Israel, the ghost of the May 17 Agreement of 1983 – a deal that was signed but never implemented – is haunting the new round of negotiations. President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam are facing a smear campaign from Hezbollah, which has already rejected any compromise and issued thinly veiled threats against the country's leadership.

Issued on: 23/04/2026 -
FRANCE24
By: Marc DAOU  

This file photo shows Chief Lebanese negotiator, Antoine Fattal, right, chief Israeli negotiator, David Kimche, left, and US Special Envoy Morris Draper, smiling as they shake hands in Khalde, Lebanon, on May 17, 1983. © Bill Foley, AP

Since the announcement of a new round of direct talks between Lebanon and Israel scheduled for Thursday, following a first meeting in Washington in early April, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have been the targets of a smear campaign orchestrated by Hezbollah supporters.

The head of state, who is banking on the talks to secure an Israeli army withdrawal from southern Lebanon and a final demarcation of the shared border, was even the target of an implicit death threat issued by officials from the Shia party.

The threat was taken seriously in Beirut given the pro-Iranian movement’s track record, with several of its members convicted by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) over the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri.

Senior Hezbollah official Nawaf Moussaoui warned in an interview with the party's Al-Manar television channel on Saturday that if the Lebanese president "wants to take decisions unilaterally, he is no more important than Anwar al-Sadat" – a reference to the Egyptian president who was assassinated in 1981, three years after signing a peace deal with Israel at Camp David.

Moussaoui added that any negotiation or agreement between Israel and Lebanon would be "rejected, unrecognised and thrown in the bin, like the May 17, 1983 agreement".

A deal that never took effect

That security agreement – never implemented – was officially signed by Israel and Lebanon under US auspices at Khaldeh, near Beirut, during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990). Lebanon, then led by President Amine Gemayel (1982-1988), was at the time simultaneously occupied by both the Israeli and Syrian armies.

Ambassador Antoine Fattal headed the Lebanese delegation, while the Israeli team was led by diplomat David Kimche, with both sides facing US President Ronald Reagan's envoy Morris Draper, Under-Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

The deal resulted from 35 Israeli-Lebanese meetings in late December 1982 and held alternately in Lebanon and Israel. Comprising a dozen articles, it was meant to be a first step towards lasting peace between the two countries.

Its preamble proclaimed "the termination of the state of war" between the two neighbours, who under article 2 committed to "settle their disputes by peaceful means".

Chief Israeli negotiator David Kimche, right, gestures as he speaks with Antoine Fattal, Lebanon's chief negotiator in Khalde, Lebanon, on March 1, 1983. © Eddie Tamerian, AP


The text provided for the creation of a security zone in southern Lebanon, a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a commitment by each side not to allow its territory to be used as a base for "hostile or terrorist activity" against the other.

It even suggested future negotiations on "agreements on the movement of goods, products and persons and their implementation on a non-discriminatory basis".

Although ratified by the Lebanese parliament, the agreement was never promulgated by President Gemayel. In March 1984, it was abrogated by the council of ministers under pressure from Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and his Lebanese allies at the time – Druze warlord Walid Joumblatt and Nabih Berri, head of the Shia Amal militia and Lebanon's parliament speaker since 1992 – all of whom were hostile to any agreement with Israel.

Assad, with no small irony, told Gemayel that the abrogation was "a victory for the peoples of Syria and Lebanon and of the entire Arab nation" and that his country would "remain at Lebanon's side in its struggle for independence and sovereignty" – even as his army remained an occupying force in the country.

In a recent interview with the daily newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour, the former Lebanese president said Israel had not genuinely wanted to implement the May 17 agreement either, accusing it of having added "at the last minute, clauses to the previously negotiated text", including one requiring a simultaneous Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon – effectively giving Damascus veto power.

"It was a way of giving Damascus a veto," he said. "Especially since we had no control over the decision on the withdrawal of the Syrian army."

An Iranian veto?

Asked about this Lebanese-Israeli precedent in relation to the current situation, Sami Nader, director of the Institute of Political Science at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, pointed to a regional context entirely different from that of 1983.

“At the time, only Anwar al-Sadat’s Egypt had signed a peace agreement with Israel,” he explained, noting that the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan later joined the Abraham Accords under US President Donald Trump, while Jordan had signed a peace treaty in 1994. “Today, even Syria, which was once the main obstacle to the May 17 agreement, is ready to sign with the Israelis.”

Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Charaa said on Friday at a diplomatic forum in Turkey that he was open to direct negotiations with Israel over the occupied Golan Heights if a security deal guaranteed Israeli withdrawal from recently occupied Syrian territories.

"In 1983, Hezbollah, which had just been founded, did not yet have a say in Lebanon. Today it is the main obstacle to such negotiations, as is its Iranian patron, which opposes regional normalisation efforts with Israel," Nader said.

Direct talks between Lebanon and Israel would deprive Tehran of leverage, he added, because Iran wants Lebanon – through Hezbollah – to remain a strategic card.
A 'yellow line' that 'instils doubt'

Nader also noted a "fundamental difference" between the Israeli invasion of 1982 and the current one, "due to the famous yellow line drawn by the Netanyahu government, isolating part of the territory, devastated and emptied of its population".

Israeli authorities say they have drawn a "yellow line" deep inside southern Lebanon, claiming it is intended to protect northern Israeli communities from Hezbollah fire.

In Lebanon, the buffer zone – stretching hundreds of square kilometres from the Mediterranean coast to the Lebanese-Syrian border – is widely seen as a new unilateral border drawn by Israel.

In Gaza, a similar “yellow line” established after the October ceasefire cuts the territory from north to south between a Hamas-controlled zone and another effectively controlled by the Israeli army.

This yellow line "instils doubt about Israeli intentions", Nader insisted. "Because it is reminiscent of a scenario already seen in the Syrian Golan – a scenario of annexation – and no observer can rule out that possibility with the far-right government currently leading Israel."

"Even more than President Gemayel in 1983, President Aoun seems to believe that the only way for Lebanon to rule out such a scenario is to negotiate, that is, to seek peace, and therefore in a sense the disarmament of Hezbollah, in exchange for the conquered territory," he concluded.

"Because the other option, the military one advocated by the Shia party, allows the Israelis to justify their occupation of southern Lebanon."

This article was translated from the original in French by Anaëlle Jonah.

Guadeloupe hit by drought alert as water supplies deteriorate

Half of the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe has been placed under a drought alert, with restrictions on water use, because of a decline in groundwater levels.


Issued on: 21/04/2026 - RFI

The city of Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe, half of which is under a drought alert because of a drop in groundwater levels. © Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters

The prefecture of Guadeloupe has placed Grande-Terre, the eastern half of the territory, and the island of Désirade under a drought alert, with water use restrictions to allow for the continued supply of drinking water.

In an order issued on Friday, the prefecture described an "observed deterioration over several weeks of groundwater levels in Grande-Terre", along with "chronic problems linked to the malfunctioning of the drinking water distribution network".

This puts about half of Guadeloupe under strict water use restrictions, applicable to individuals, businesses and farmers, with particular prohibitions against filling or emptying personal swimming pools, washing cars at home, cleaning driveways or terraces with water and watering large lawns and flowerbeds.

Guadeloupe to fell 'exotic' coconut trees to stem coastal erosion

An exception allows people to water vegetable gardens in the evenings, between 8pm and midnight.

The rest of the department, except for the island of Marie-Galante, is on a "vigilance", a status that means no restrictions are in place, but people are urged to use water responsibly.

The prefecture has warned that the situation could persist, because "replenishing the water tables is a slow process that requires several weeks of effective rainfall".

The dry season in the Caribbean runs through April and May, and the Caribbean Climate Outlook has predicted below-normal rainfall from April to June.

The outlook also warns that unusually warm waters in the North Atlantic could trigger severe weather activity across parts of the Caribbean at the start of the rainy season, including flooding, flash floods and cascading events.0

(with newswires)

EU and UN say Gaza's $71bn recovery must be 'Palestinian-led'

A European Union and United Nations report estimates it will cost more than $71 billion over the next decade to rebuild Gaza, after more than two years of war which have "pushed back human development by 77 years".


Issued on: 21/04/2026 - RFI

People inspect the site of an Israeli strike at Al-Shati camp, Gaza City, 15 April 2026. 

© Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters

In their final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA), the United Nations and the European Union said on Monday the war "has led to unprecedented loss of life and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis" – and that recovery and reconstruction will cost $71.4 billion (€60.6 billion).

Gaza is under a fragile ceasefire agreed last October. Almost all 1.9 million people in the territory have been displaced, often multiple times.

"Given the immense scale of need, recovery efforts must run in parallel with humanitarian action, ensuring an effective and well-sequenced transition from emergency relief toward reconstruction at scale — one that encompasses both the Gaza Strip and West Bank," the EU and UN said.


Everything to be rebuilt

The RDNA, developed in coordination with the World Bank, determined that $26.3bn would be required in the first 18 months to restore essential services, rebuild critical infrastructure and support economic recovery.

"Physical infrastructure damages are estimated at $35.2bn, with economic and social losses amounting to $22.7bn," a joint statement said.

The assessment found nearly 372,000 housing units have been destroyed or damaged, more than half of hospitals are non-functional and nearly all schools have been destroyed or damaged.

Gaza's economy has contracted by 84 percent, and the “scale and extent of deprivation across living conditions, livelihoods/income, food security, gender equality, and social inclusion have pushed back human development in the Gaza Strip by 77 years".

The EU and UN insist that recovery and reconstruction need to be "Palestinian-led", and incorporate approaches that actively support the transfer of governance to the Palestinian Authority, in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2803.

That resolution, adopted in November, welcomed the creation of US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace to support Gaza's reconstruction.

The UN and EU also insisted that "a set of enabling conditions" were needed for the resolution to be implemented effectively on the ground, including, in particular, "a sustained ceasefire and adequate security".

Other imperatives are "unimpeded humanitarian access and immediate restoration of essential services," and "free movement of people, goods, and reconstruction materials, within and between Gaza and the West Bank".

Without such conditions, they warned, "neither recovery nor reconstruction can succeed".

(with AFP)

France's top female professional footballers hit out at working conditions

Team captains from the top two French women’s football leagues have criticised slow progress in negotiations for better working conditions for professional female footballers.


Issued on: 22/04/2026 - RFI

Captains from the 24 teams in France's top two professional divisions signed an open letter calling on football league and club bosses to ensure better working conditions for female professional football players. AFP - SEBASTIEN DUPUY

By: Paul Myers

In an open letter published in the French sports newspaper L'Equipe, the captains say there is a lack of security for women's teams in the professional game.

They also say that despite the creation of the Women’s Professional Football League (LFFP) in July 2024, football authorities are not acting fast enough to improve the women's professional game.

"Efforts have been made since the creation of the LFFP, we acknowledge that," say the captains in the letter.

"But the essential element is missing: a collective agreement. In 2026, professional female players still do not have one. We play the same sport. We train to the same high standards. We face the same physical demands and the same risks. And yet, we do not enjoy the same protections."

Blame game

The players’ union, the UNFP, and Foot Unis, which represents the clubs, blame each other for the gridlock.

Player representatives say they want a collective agreement to be signed before the start of the 2026/2027 season in September.

They say the swift creation of a collective agreement framework for the new third tier of men's football shows that speed is possible.

"Whilst men’s football moves forward, we are asked to wait," wrote the captains. "This is not a question of priority. It is a question of choice.

"This discrepancy raises questions. It is no longer understandable. It is no longer acceptable," they added. "We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for a fair framework. A collective agreement is not a perk. It is an essential foundation."

The letter also complains about the financing of women's professional teams, citing the fates of Soyaux and Bordeaux – whose professional women's teams were broken up in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

"These situations are no accident," the letter adds. "They reveal a reality we all face: in French professional football, women’s teams are all too often the first to be cut when budgets are tightened. This structural vulnerability has a name: the lack of a collective agreement."

Vincent Ponsot, president of the women’s football committee at Foot Unis, told French news agency AFP that club bosses and league administrators were still thrashing out details on image rights, after cutting a deal on issues such as end-of-career severance pay and payments while players are injured.

Ponsot, who is is also managing director of Arkema Première Ligue pacesetters OL Lyonnes, added: “I’m not surprised the players are getting impatient because this situation is unacceptable."

End of season

The letter comes as the Arkema Première Ligue and Seconde Ligue culminate.

OL Lyonnes, Paris Saint-Germain, Paris FC and Nantes sit in the top four places leading to the play-offs to determine the 2026 champions.

Five teams are involved in a battle to avoid the two places leading to relegation to the Seconde Ligue, where Toulouse have claimed the title to return to the top flight for the first time in 13 years.

Paul-Hervé Douillard, director-general of the LFFP, told AFP: "I hope there's an agreement as soon as possible. It will be an important milestone for the league’s structure. I don't know when it will come but I am sure it will come to fruition."

EU attracts record 64 million immigrants as migration patterns shift

The number of immigrants living in the European Union has reached a new high, reflecting the bloc’s growing appeal as a destination and the increasingly fluid nature of its labour markets.


Issued on: 22/04/2026 - RFI

Afghan nationals walk past German policemen to board a bus after they landed at the airport in Hannover-Langenhagen, northwestern Germany, on 1 September 2025. AFP - MICHAEL MATTHEY


New figures published on Wednesday show that 64.2 million foreign-born people were residing across the EU in 2025 – an increase of around 2.1 million compared with the previous year.

The total has risen sharply over the past decade and a half, up from 40 million in 2010, reflecting both sustained migration flows and Europe’s continued economic pull.

The data – compiled by the Centre for Research and Analysis on Migration at RFBerlin using sources including Eurostat and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) – paints a picture of a continent where migration is not only rising but also evolving in shape and distribution.

Germany leads while Spain accelerates

Germany remains by far the EU’s largest host country, with close to 18 million foreign-born residents. Around 72 percent of these are of working age – a factor often highlighted as helping to support the country’s labour force and long-term economic stability.

Researchers say Germany continues to stand out both in absolute terms and relative to its population size. It remains a central destination for migrants arriving in Europe, reflecting its strong economy and employment opportunities.

Elsewhere, Spain has emerged as the fastest-growing hub in recent years. The country added roughly 700,000 foreign-born residents over the past year alone, bringing its total to 9.5 million. This surge points to a broader shift, with southern European economies increasingly attracting newcomers alongside traditional destinations in the north.

Uneven patterns across the bloc

Despite the overall rise, migration trends vary significantly from country to country. Smaller nations such as Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus have some of the highest proportions of immigrants relative to their population size, highlighting how migration can reshape societies at different scales.

Asylum applications also remain concentrated in a handful of countries. Spain, Italy, France and Germany together account for nearly three-quarters of all claims, indicating where administrative systems and reception capacities are most heavily engaged.

Germany again tops the list when it comes to hosting refugees, with a total of 2.7 million, reflecting both recent arrivals and longer-term commitments to protection.

(With newswires)

FedEx faces French genocide lawsuit for transporting Israeli plane parts to Gaza

A French anti-Zionist group has filed a suit against the American logistics giant FedEx, alleging that by transporting parts for Israeli aircraft involved in bombing Gaza, the company was complicit in genocide

Issued on: 22/04/2026 - RFI

A FedEx plan on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle Airport. The American logistics giant is accused in French court of complicity in genocide for allegedly transporting Israeli warplane parts to Gaza. © Etienne Laurent/Pool via AP

The French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP) said it had filed the complaint against FedEx's French subsidiary for "the transport and delivery of essential combat aircraft components from the United States to Israel via France".

Those parts were used "to maintain and repair F-35 combat aircraft used by the Israeli air force" over the Gaza Strip.

Rights groups and NGOs have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a term the Israeli government vehemently rejects.

FedEx has denied the allegation, telling the AFP news agency: "We do not make any international deliveries of weapons or ammunition".

The UJFP said they based their case on a recent report by campaign group Urgence Palestine (Palestine Emergency), which catalogued 117 shipments that it said transited through Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport via FedEx's French subsidiary between April and October last year.

Of those, 22 went straight on to Israel, including three on FedEx planes registered in France, according to the complaint, whose authors claim that FedEx "must have known the contents".

Belgian prosecutors have opened a probe into one of the deliveries, which transited via Liege airport on 20 June 2025.

Israel said it would end all weapons imports from France after France recognised the State of Palestine in September.

(with AFP)

The forgotten Statue of Liberty helping a French town rebuild its identity

The town of Izon, near Bordeaux, is rebuilding the Statue of Liberty that once stood in its main square, 100 years after it was first donated by a local man who emigrated to the United States – and with it, restoring a sense of pride.

Issued on: 19/04/2026 - RFI

By: Sarah Elzas

A postcard of the original Statue of Liberty in Izon, at the location where it will be rebuilt. 

© Jean-Paul Pauline
01:14

The town of Izon sits halfway between Bordeaux and Libourne – a string of family homes along a 4-kilometre stretch of the D242 departmental road, with no real centre.

During the 1980s and '90s, the town’s population doubled to around 6,000, which is where it stands today, as people working in the nearby cities moved in.

But with this rapid growth and the town's new status as a commuter hub, Izon lost some of its local character.

"We are interested in creating more ties within the community, to avoid this becoming a city where you just sleep, leave for work in the morning, come home in the evening and stay at home," explains Sophie Carrère, the newly elected assistant mayor in charge of culture.

"It’s a very residential town, with maybe a bit less of a collective mindset."

Now a new project linked to local history is aiming to restore the town's civic pride.

'A crazy idea'

In 1926, a Statue of Liberty was donated to Izon by a local man named Rey Jeanton, who left for the United States in the 1890s and made a fortune in farming and real estate in California.

He returned to Izon to retire and decided to donate a statue to commemorate his success in his adopted country.

The statue stood in a small plaza across from the town church for more than a decade, until it was destroyed during World War II, when the Nazis occupied Izon and the surrounding areas.

After that, it was forgotten.

“Nothing remains where the statue was, just parking spots,” says André Veyssiere, a local councillor.

The idea to rebuild it came during a project in which the town hung posters of old postcards in the locations the photos had been taken.

Virginie Vidorreta, a former town councillor, was involved in choosing the images and putting them up and she noticed the statue.

When she asked the mayor what he knew about it, he proposed rebuilding it.

“I said yes! It was a crazy idea,” she says. “That started the investigation – the quest to find out the details about the statue.”

Paris Statue of Liberty replica 130 years on

Differences from original

Vidoretta spent months digging into Jeanton’s life and legacy – and the statue itself, which it turned out was not a reproduction of the original Statue of Liberty by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.

When she contacted the Grand Palais museum, which holds moulds of France's sculptures and monuments, including a reproduction of the Statue of Liberty – of which there are around 35 across France – she was told it was possible to order one, but that the Izon statue was not the same.

The original Statue of Liberty in Izon. © Jean-Paul Pauline

Looking closer at the few images of the statue that remain from when it stood in the town, Vidoretta found that, indeed, Izon's Lady Liberty had her left hand on her heart, instead of holding the constitution.

There were other differences too: her hands were bigger, her crown was different, and instead of holding a flame aloft, she held a ball that had probably been lit up.

Vidoretta managed to identify the sculptor as someone named Toussaint, but could find no other trace of the statue's origins, no original plans or moulds.

Izon ended up commissioning a foundry in Bordeaux to scan a reproduction there and digitally modify it to match the archival images, in order to create a mould to cast the statue.

A model of the new Statue of Liberty to be cast by the Cyclopes foundry for the town of Izon. © Fonderie des Cyclopes

Search for identity

The story passed down among locals is that the Nazis stationed in Izon tore down the statue one drunken evening and melted it down for munitions.

“I am not sure that it was the Germans who destroyed it,” says Vidorreta. “The French state was also melting down statues. In 1941 they melted down the one in Bordeaux, so why would the one in Izon have escaped the same fate?”

She adds: “There was a lot that went unsaid about the Second World War.”

France opens archives on wartime Vichy regime

Vidorreta has worked to piece together what she can about the statue and about Jeanton, who did not leave behind letters or diaries, hoping to rebuild the town's identity alongside the story, and the statue.

“Perhaps there’s an identity tied to the notion of freedom,” says Carrère. “Maybe Rey Jeanton intended for us to become its bearers, to pass it on to future generations as well.”

Izon has launched a crowdfunding campaign that has raised almost €15,000 of the €100,000 needed to reinstall the statue.

It will be inaugurated on 14 July this year, France's national holiday, 100 years after it was donated by Jeanton.

Portrait of Rey Jeanton © copyright unknown

Amateur historians

Vidorreta also hopes the campaign will bring forward people with information about Jeanton, who she says she has become fascinated with.

“He must have been impressive, to leave at 40 years old, not as a young 20-year-old, to start a new life,” she says.

The process of researching the statue and Jeanton’s life has turned this primary school teacher into something of an amateur historian – and inspired her to turn her pupils into amateur sleuths too.

“I developed a programme with exercises on how to do research, just like we did,” she says. “The students look at how to read a death or birth certificate, how to find newspaper archives.”

For her, Jeanton’s life and his statue are a quest that keeps on giving: “It’s like a story out of a novel.”

For more on Izon and its Statue of Liberty, listen to the Spotlight on France podcast here.

D.E.I.

'A rebel who liked order': Valérie André, France's first female general

Fifty years ago this month, the French army got its first female general: Valérie André, a surgeon, parachutist and helicopter pilot who blazed a trail for women in the highest ranks of the military.


Issued on: 19/04/2026 - RFI

French doctor and pilot Valérie André receiving a medal from the US Secretary of State for Air, Harold Talbot in Paris on 26 October 1953. She was one of the first women in the world to fly a helicopter in combat zones. © AFP - STF

By: Jessica Phelan

Long before she was France’s highest-ranking female officer, Valérie André was a girl who wanted to fly.

“I decided when I was three years old that I would be a pilot,” she told RFI in 2010, then aged 88.

“I used to cut out articles from newspapers and aviation magazines. I collected it all. They were my idols, the aviators of days gone by.”

Pioneers including Elisa Laroche, the first woman to get a pilot’s licence in 1910, and Adrienne Bolland, the first woman to fly over the Andes, in 1921, had shown André that women had a place in the sky.

But they didn’t yet have a place in the armed forces. A handful of women would be recruited as auxiliary pilots during the Second World War, but France disbanded their unit once the conflict was over.

But in the wars that came afterwards, André would become one of the first pilots, man or woman, to fly a new type of aircraft on a new type of mission.

Witness to war

Born in Strasbourg on 21 April, 1922, André came from a family where girls and boys alike were encouraged to pursue their passions.

Alongside aviation, hers was science. As a teenager she saved up to pay for flying lessons, then enrolled to study medicine – but both were interrupted when the Nazis invaded France.

Her native region of Alsace was annexed and André fled, resuming her studies in Paris. In August 1944, she watched the city's liberation.

By the time she qualified as a doctor in 1948, France was at war again. Communist independence fighters were battling France for control of what was then the colony of Indochina – today Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

The French army was relying on volunteers, and it badly needed medics. While women were barred from combat, they were accepted into the medical corps. André signed up.

From Strasbourg to Saigon

Shipped out to a military hospital in Saigon, André was confronted by what she would later call “the daily horror” of war.

Injured soldiers streamed in. Given the number of severe head wounds, she developed a specialism in brain surgery, sometimes operating on as many as 100 people a month.

French forces were scattered across Indochina, many in remote outposts, and not all the wounded could make it to hospital. The army’s solution was to airdrop doctors.

André was the perfect candidate. Writing her university thesis on injuries suffered by parachutists, she had taken up parachuting as a hobby.

She got to work jumping over distant parts of Laos, setting up tents in which to treat patients – French soldiers, locals and sometimes even the Viet Minh that France was fighting.

Soon, technology replaced her parachute. “I saw the helicopters arrive,” André told RFI. “It was love at first sight.”

The flying doctor

The helicopters in question were lightweight and “very primitive”, according to aviation historian Charles Morgan Evans, author of a biography of André.

“This helicopter afforded absolutely no protection. It was entirely made out of aluminium and very underpowered,” he told RFI. “It was just a very difficult helicopter to work with.”

Developed by the American company Hiller, they were fitted with a stretcher on either side on which to carry wounded soldiers.

It was the first time the French army had used them, and André lobbied her superiors for the chance to fly one. Not only did she have the medical training, she pointed out, but she weighed less than most men.

“Since these helicopters had such terrible payload capacity performance in tropical environments, she said it would be possible not just to take two wounded soldiers back to a hospital, but possibly three,” said Evans. “One in the cockpit and two in the litters on the side of the helicopter.”

The head of the medical corps agreed and André returned to France to get her pilot’s licence. Redeployed to Vietnam, she began flying rescue missions.

These involved heading into the heart of areas where fighting was taking place, often escorted by fighter planes firing machine guns or dropping napalm to drive back the Viet Minh. They would have just minutes to land, load up the wounded and take off before the enemy regrouped, then fly long distances to a hospital.

Pilots were exposed to enemy fire, as well as mechanical failures. It was, Evans said, “incredibly, incredibly dangerous”.

“It was mainly afterwards it sank in,” André told RFI decades later. “In the moment, you had to get on with it.”

Under her call sign “Ventilateur”, between 1951 and 1953 she flew 128 missions and rescued 168 soldiers.

'A woman like any other'

After two tours, André returned to France. Soon the country was at war again, this time in Algeria. She flew another 350 missions there from 1959 to 1962, both evacuating soldiers and transporting troops.

After that she came back to France for good, serving as a medical officer on military bases. She was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, colonel and then, on 21 April, 1976 – her 54th birthday – brigadier general.

It was big news. A TV interviewer asked her husband – a fellow army rescue pilot – about her cooking, while André, her eyes hidden behind aviator sunglasses, told the reporter she was “a woman like any other”.

In fact, the French armed forces were structured to allow only exceptional women in. Quotas limited the percentage of female recruits each year that could go into the various branches, which meant only those with the very highest qualifications were picked.

In some cases, according to Evans, André saw men admitted to the medical corps with lower entrance exam scores than female applicants.

She lobbied to revise those quotas, and headed a commission that recommended allowing women into certain officer positions that were previously barred to them.

Today, the medical corps is the only branch of France’s armed forces where women outnumber men. Overall, they make up around 17 percent.


A quiet pioneer

Since André retired in 1981 as a three-star general, the French forces have dropped their quotas and opened all posts to women. It currently has 65 serving female generals, including its first with the highest possible five stars.

Defence officials say they expect that number to rise in the next five years, as women admitted to France’s top military academies in the 1990s – when they stopped capping the numbers of female students – climb the ranks.

André died in January 2025 at the age of 102, with a dozen medals to her name. She avoided calling out sexism in the military publicly, telling RFI: "As long as you do what’s expected of you, you set an example. It’s not a problem.”

Her autobiography contains a clue as to how she saw herself. “In my own way, I’ve always been a rebel, bucking against injustice and outdated traditions,” she wrote.

“But I’m a rebel who loves order… and taking risks.”

Why China’s decades-long ambition to green the desert could run dry

At the edge of China's Taklamakan Desert, rows of trees are slowly edging into one of the world’s harshest landscapes after decades of planting. Scientists say this shows how human action can transform extreme environments – but warn of the cost to water resources, and that such schemes might not be easy to repeat elsewhere.


Issued on: 19/04/2026 - RFI

Aerial view of the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Bayingolin, Xinjiang, on 27 August 2025, where large-scale tree planting is reshaping the landscape. © CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty

The Taklamakan, in the vast Xinjiang region, is one of the driest deserts on Earth. Surrounded by mountains that block humid air, it has long been hostile to plant life.

China launched its Great Green Wall project in 1978 to slow the spread of deserts in the north of the country. The programme, which stretches across roughly 4 million square kilometres, is due to run until around 2050.

Authorities said in 2024 they had completed a green belt around the desert, planting 66 billion trees along roughly 3,000 kilometres.

A study published in January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found this is already having an impact, with the region becoming greener, rainfall increasing and carbon absorption improving.

Chain reaction

Using satellite images and field data, researchers described a clear pattern: more trees brought more rain, more rain fed more vegetation and more vegetation pulled more carbon dioxide from the air.

During the wet season from July to September, rainfall rose by up to 16.3 millimetres per month. While that would be a low rainfall in most places, in a desert such as the Taklamakan it's a notable increase.

China’s forest cover has grown from 10 to 25 percent of its territory over recent decades. During the wet season, carbon dioxide levels in the regional atmosphere fall by around three parts per million compared with the dry season.

“We observed three very clear trends,” explained Yang Jiani of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which uses satellite data to study the Earth’s climate.

"First, vegetation cover has increased significantly over the past 20 years. Second, the intensity of photosynthesis has continued to grow. And third, the ecosystem’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide is also increasing.”

Each hectare in the planted zones absorbs around 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, Yang told RFI. Across the entire desert, that would add up to 58 million tonnes annually.

The findings show that human action can strengthen carbon storage even in extreme dry landscapes, co-author Yuk Yung told the news website Live Science.

Water pressure

While the results suggest the project is having a real impact on the desert environment, they do not answer a key question – what it means for water resources in such a dry region.

That concern has been raised by critics for several years. Mass tree planting could come at the expense of water resources for future generations, Jiang Gaoming of the Chinese Academy of Sciences warned. Grasses, which need less water, would be more effective in fighting desertification, he argued.

Other researchers have raised broader concerns about how such projects reshape fragile ecosystems. Planting trees in very dry regions could have unintended effects, French hydrologist Emma Haziza told RFI.

“Once you start modifying an extremely arid environment and planting on a massive scale, a huge number of factors will determine whether it is a good or a bad idea,” she said.

Planting trees in very dry regions can shift water out of the ground and into the air, Haziza explained, adding that moisture can later fall as rain somewhere else – sometimes far away – but the area where the trees are planted may lose water.

“We are dealing with a complex system that requires many variables to be taken into account,” she said.

A separate study published in October in the journal Earth’s Future, by Chinese and European researchers, found that changes in land cover between 2001 and 2020 shifted rainfall towards the Tibetan Plateau, while reducing it in eastern China and especially in the north-west.

The study did not directly assess groundwater or quantify the specific impacts on the regional water cycle. “This article does not allow us to confirm that there is a risk of overexploiting future water resources,” Yang said.

Long-term viability

The long-term stability of the desert’s carbon storage also remains uncertain.

“A green belt this vast, stretching thousands of kilometres, will certainly change the carbon sink, but for how long?” Haziza asked.

Carbon storage depends on the water cycle and soil moisture, she explained. “As long as the soil is fully moist, it can act as a carbon sink. Once it dries out, that function disappears.”

Other researchers say the picture is more complex. Changes to air circulation and the water cycle could produce unexpected results, Li Zhaoxin, a senior researcher at France’s national scientific research centre CNRS, told RFI.

The field is still new and sometimes produces inconsistent or even contradictory findings, with outcomes often depending on local conditions. This desert greening effort also has clear limits.

“The case of the Taklamakan Desert is relatively rare on a global scale,” Yang said, because it reflects decades of continuous investment by a single country and relies on locally adapted species backed by scientific monitoring.

The project also integrates engineering with ecology and is not a model that can be easily reproduced, she said. Rather than a universal solution, it is a demonstration that it can be done, and each country must adapt to its own specific situation.

An African echo

The Chinese model has travelled beyond the country’s borders, though not without challenges. Africa’s Great Green Wall, launched by the African Union in 2005, aims to stretch from Dakar to Djibouti, over 7,800 kilometres in a corridor 15 kilometres wide.

The project has had mixed results and has been slowed by political and financial difficulties.

Despite this, China continues to promote its experience in the Taklamakan as an example for African countries.

For Yang, the lesson is that such projects can work, but only under certain conditions.

“Our research mainly shows that with scientific management and long-term investment, even the most remote and arid desert areas can become functioning carbon sinks,” she said. “But a balance will have to be found between carbon gains and water security.”

This article was adapted from an article in French, using original reporting by Yang Mei for RFI's Chinese-language service.