In south of France a new Islamic republic? (5)
I believe the answer is:
sudan
'republic?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'in south of france a new islamic' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'south of france' becomes 'sud' (French for south).
'a new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'islamic' becomes 'a' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sud'+'n'='sudn'
'sudn' enclosing 'a' is 'SUDAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sudan that I've seen before include "African nation" , "African country on the Red Sea" , "African region" , "Home for many Arabs" , "Region of Africa" .)