South of France leads a northern country (5)
I believe the answer is:
sudan
'country' is the definition.
(I know that Sudan is African country)
'south of france leads a northern' is the wordplay.
'south of france' becomes 'sud' (French for south).
'leads' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go in front of others).
'northern' becomes 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland).
'sud'+'a'+'n'='SUDAN'
(Other definitions for sudan that I've seen before include "Country in NE Africa, capital Khartoum" , "Country south of Egypt" , "Recently-split country" , "Home for many Arabs" , "Country divided by the Nile" .)