Coup leaders in Mali faced a wave of international pressure on Wednesday, a day after they forced out a president weakened by months of mass protests. The chorus of disapproval was led by the United States, African Union and European Union — all demanding that the military leaders release President Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou […]
Madrid, Aug 20, 2020 – One African man died and eight people were injured when around 300 migrants tried to storm the border fence separating the Spanish enclave Melilla from Morocco on Thursday, local authorities said. The man, whose identity and nationality were not known, appears to have died from “natural causes”, the Spanish government’s […]
Cairo, Aug 19, 2020 – Egypt’s electoral commission said Wednesday that candidates on an electoral list loyal to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won overwhelmingly in party elections held to a newly-restored upper house last week. But the polling, on August 11 and August 12, brought a turnout of just 14.2 percent out of 63 million […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Wednesday not to yield to “pirates” and to keep searching for energy in disputed eastern Mediterranean waters despite EU pressure to stop. Long-seated suspicions between regional powers resurfaced when Turkey sent a research vessel accompanied by warships off the Greek island of Kastellorizo last week. The European Union […]
At least 45 migrants and refugees perished off Libya this week in the deadliest shipwreck there so far this year, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The UN agencies for refugees and migration said in a statement that 37 survivors from Monday’s sinking, who were rescued by fishermen, said at least 45 others, including five […]
As Egypt flexes its muscle with threats to intervene in Libya’s civil war, its President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has sought to join forces with some of the neighbouring country’s powerful tribes. Cairo hopes the alliances would boost its legitimacy if it were to wade into the battlefield against forces backed by regional rival Turkey, and […]
We may have missed this story and reported as a minor event, and in fact, no national newspapers reported it, but thousands of people came out to demonstrate against the Algerian regime on Saturday, 15 August in Kherrata, 60 km east of Bejaia, in what was the first post-deconfinement rally. As in February 2019, the […]
Bamako, Aug 19, 2020 – Mali’s president said he was resigning to avoid “bloodshed” early Wednesday, hours after his arrest by troops in a sudden coup that followed a months-long political crisis in the fragile West African nation. Rebel soldiers detained Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse on Tuesday afternoon and drove the […]
Developing story: Mutineering soldiers in Mali on Tuesday detained President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, one of their leaders said. “We can tell you that the president and the prime minister are under our control,” the leader, who requested anonymity, told AFP. He added that the pair had been “arrested” at Keita’s […]
Qatar and Turkey have signed an accord to send military advisers and instructors for the armed forces of Libya’s Government of National Accord, the UN-recognised GNA said. “We have reached an agreement with Turkish Foreign Minister Hulusi Akar and Qatar’s (minister) Khaled bin Mohammad Al-Attiyah on tripartite cooperation to build a military institute for training,” […]
Nouakchott, Aug 18, 2020 – Former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, under suspicion over embezzlement dating from his time in power, was being questioned by police on Tuesday for a second day, one of his lawyers said. The meeting came on the heels of a major government reshuffle and a parliamentary report on aspects […]
Aug 18, 2020 – Mali has been gripped for months by a political crisis that has sparked the country’s worst unrest in years, as a protest movement galvanised by a disputed election insists that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resign. After reports that soldiers launched a “mutiny” outside the capital on Tuesday, here is a timeline […]
Bamako, Aug 18, 2020 – Gunfire broke out at a key army base near Mali’s capital Bamako on Tuesday, officials and witnesses said, triggering fears of a mutiny in the crisis-stricken Sahel state. Details of the events were sketchy, but the sources said the soldiers fired their guns into the air at a base in […]
Cairo, Egypt – A listed building in the centre of Egypt’s capital partially collapsed injuring five people Saturday, in the latest such incident, a security source said. Authorities who rushed to the building on Kasr al-Nile street, near the iconic Tahrir Square, tended to 14 people including passersby and transported five to hospitals, the source […]
Tunis, Aug 17, 2020 – Italy has no more room for illegal migrants, its foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said Monday on a visit to Tunisia, from where many of them cross the Mediterranean Sea. After a meeting with the Tunisian President Kais Saied, Italy’s top diplomat said Rome “is ready to present all the […]
Niamey, Aug 17, 2020 – Troops from Niger have freed 11 villagers, four of them children, who had been seized by Boko Haram jihadists and taken across the border into Nigeria, local officials said Monday. “The hostages were freed by our troops on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad, near a Boko Haram base,” Yahaya […]
Tripoli, Aug 17, 2020 – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, visiting war-torn Libya’s capital Monday, warned of a “deceptive calm” since fighting stalled around Sirte, the central hometown of fallen dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Outside powers are “continuing to massively arm the country,” Maas, whose government has tried to broker peace in Libya, said during a […]
Abidjan, Aug 13, 2020 – Thirty-three people in Niger have died and more than 80,000 have been affected by floods caused by heavy rains, the country’s emergency services said on Thursday. The worst-hit regions are Maradi in south-central Niger, Tahoua and Tillaberi in the west, and Dosso in the southwest. Rice, clothing, mats, blankets and […]
Aug 14, 2020 – United Nations experts have accused senior army and intelligence officials in Mali of deliberately obstructing a shaky 2015 peace accord, originally designed to reduce violence in the war-torn West African country. The revelations appear in an expert report delivered to the UN Security Council on August 7, which AFP has obtained, […]
