Thursday, January 17, 2019
January 17, 2019: A public sector strike brought Tunisia to a standstill Thursday as workers heeded calls from a powerful trade union to stay home over demands for wage hikes and economic reforms. Across the country, schools were closed, public offices shuttered and...
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Bamako, Jan 16, 2019 – At least 10 people were killed by “terrorists” in northeastern Mali, including members of an armed group and civilians, a government official said on Wednesday. The attack took place around 45 kilometres (27 miles) from Menaka...
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Jan 16, 2019 – The forces of Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar on Wednesday announced a military operation to “purge” jihadists and criminal gangs from the south of the conflict-hit nation. A spokesman for the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army...
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
The North Africa Journal with AFP – January 16, 2919: Just as the UN warned against escalating violence in the Libyan capital, there is news of clashes that have already claimed at least five lives. Over the past days, the UN’s Libya mission warned against...
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
January 16, 2019 – France on Wednesday threatened to push for more targeted sanctions to be imposed on Mali after hearing a UN official report on worsening violence in the West African country. The Security Council last month put three individuals linked to...
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Cairo, Jan 16, 2019 – Egyptian police killed five suspected Islamic militants in North Sinai, where security forces are fighting an insurgency led by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, the government said Wednesday. The interior ministry said in a...
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Cairo, Jan 15, 2019 (AFP) – An Egyptian court on Tuesday ordered the release of a woman accused of spreading “false statements” by telling the BBC her daughter had been forcibly disappeared. Mona Mahmud Mohammad has been in custody since March 2018...
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Tunis, Jan 12, 2019 (AFP) – A Tunisian court has sentenced 41 jihadists to death over an attack that killed 15 soldiers on the border with Algeria in 2014, prosecutors said Saturday. The sentences for the men, only two of whom are currently in custody, were...
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
N’Djamena, Jan 13, 2019 – Fighting between Chadian and Sudanese rebels at a remote goldmine in northern Chad has left dozens dead, local and rebel sources said Sunday. The fighting pitting Chadian rebels against a Sudanese group close to the...
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Tripoli, Jan 14, 2019 – Libya’s internationally recognised government said Monday it will boycott an Arab economic summit in Lebanon this weekend after supporters of a Shiite movement in the country attacked its flag. “We have been forced to boycott...
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Tunis, Jan 15, 2019 – Anti-corruption campaigners have filed a lawsuit accusing Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi of abuse of power after he pardoned a jailed party official close to his son, a court official said Tuesday. Borhane Bsaies, a communications...
Monday, January 14, 2019
Tunis, Jan 14, 2019 – Tunisia’s powerful UGTT trade union on Monday called for a strike as the country, grappling with economic hardships, marked the eighth anniversary of the 2011 revolution that toppled its longtime dictator. The Tunisian General Labour...
Monday, January 14, 2019
They lost the trust of the population and now some Egyptian leaders appear to just have lost their minds. One of them, at the no-longer respected Al-Azhar University, found it fit to expel a young female student just because she was caught on video hugging a male...
Monday, January 14, 2019
Douar Hicher, Tunisia, Jan 13, 2019 – Young Tunisians say the revolution they staged eight years ago to oust their longtime dictator has failed to restore their “dignity” and ease the North African country’s economic woes. “Since the...
Monday, January 14, 2019
Algiers, Jan 13, 2019 – More than 300 people were injured in football-related violence during the first four months of Algeria’s football season, with hundreds arrested, police said on Sunday. Algeria has for years seen nearly weekly violence at football...
Monday, January 14, 2019
Tiaret, Algeria, Jan 14, 2019 – Dating back centuries, Algeria’s pyramid tombs are unique relics of an ancient era but a dearth of research has left the Jeddars shrouded in mystery. The 13 monuments, whose square stone bases are topped with angular mounds,...
Monday, January 14, 2019
Berlin, Jan 14, 2019 (AFP) – Egypt has deported the second of two young German men who were arrested last month as suspected jihadist militants, the foreign ministry in Berlin said Monday. Eighteen-year-old Issa Ibrahim ElSabagh landed at Frankfurt airport,...
Monday, January 14, 2019
Cairo, Jan 14, 2019 – Eastern Mediterranean countries including Egypt and Israel agreed on Monday to boost energy ties through the creation of a body to strengthen the gas market. The decision came during a meeting bringing together seven energy ministers...
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Cairo, Jan 12, 2019 (AFP) – Egyptian police killed six suspected Islamist militants in a shootout early Saturday in the country’s south, the interior ministry said. The clashes broke out during a police raid on a militant hideout in a mountainous area on...
Saturday, January 12, 2019
United Nations, United States, Jan 11, 2019 (AFP) – Morocco has accused Polisario Front fighters in Western Sahara of violating a ceasefire agreement, just weeks before an expected new round of talks on ending the decades-old conflict. In a letter seen by AFP on...
Saturday, January 12, 2019
N’Djamena, Jan 11, 2019 (AFP) – Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno has sacked two members of his cabinet, including the oil minister, a presidential decree announced Friday. Oil and Energy Minister Boukar Michel and Ndolenodji Alixe Naimbaye, minister for...
Friday, January 11, 2019
Abuja, Jan 10, 2019 – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said he was confident of winning a second term of office at polls next month. The 76-year-old former military ruler, from the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, is one of 73 candidates on...
Friday, January 11, 2019
United Nations, United States, Jan 10, 2019 – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging the Libyan government to bring all prisons under its control and fre from the grip of militias, some of whom run migrant-smuggling networks. Guterres said in a report...
Friday, January 11, 2019
Sofia, Jan 11, 2019 – Prosecutors in Bulgaria on Friday opened an investigation into the alleged illegal sale of a Libyan oil tanker, after Libya ordered the seizure of Bulgarian ships entering its ports in retaliation. “The regional prosecution in Burgas...
Friday, January 11, 2019
Cairo, Jan 11, 2019 – Egypt has arrested two German nationals on suspicion they tried to join an Islamic State group affiliate and deported one of them, Egyptian security sources said Friday. German media reported earlier this month that two Germans had gone...
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Ouagadougou, Jan 10, 2019 (AFP) -Burkina Faso’s army chief was sacked on Thursday as the armed forces struggle to put a stop to jihadist attacks in the west African nation. Major General Oumarou Sadou was replaced by General Moise Minoungou, according to a...
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
By Raziye Akkoc – Mudurnu, Turkey, Jan 9, 2019 – Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage — hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle. Meant...
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Cairo, Jan 9, 2019 – A leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolution [see profile here] was handed 15 years in prison on Wednesday after a retrial, a judicial source told AFP. Ahmed Douma was arrested in 2013 on charges of clashing with security forces in...
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
A leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolution was handed 15 years in prison on Wednesday after a retrial, a judicial source told AFP. Ahmed Douma was arrested in 2013 on charges of clashing with security forces in Cairo two years earlier, and received a 25-year...
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Rabat, Jan 9, 2019 – Moroccan authorities closed 2,000 illegal mineshafts last year in Jerada, an impoverished former coal town that has been the site of a string of deadly mining accidents. The closure of the “abandoned and illicitly exploited...
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Tunis, Jan 9, 2019 – A Tunisian court has convicted dozens of jihadists over the 2015 murder of a teenage shepherd, but the vast majority remain on the run, a prosecution spokesman said Wednesday. Mabrouk Soltani, 17, was beheaded as his sheep grazed on Mount...
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
The North Africa Journal – January 9, 2019: The uncertainty over the presidential election in Algeria has created new divisions within the military ranks, with current leaders, siding with the president, who is being politically attacked by retired officers. The...
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Doha, Jan 8, 2019 – Qatar broadcasting giant beIN said on Tuesday it will stop broadcasting programmes on its only cable network in Egypt, CNE, a move that could affect hundreds of thousands of viewers. The move comes amid a 19-month diplomatic regional crisis...
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Tunis, Jan 7, 2019 (AFP) – A collision between a Tunisian boat and a Cypriot container ship that sent hundreds of tonnes of fuel spilling into the Mediterranean in October was due to an extraordinary series of human errors, investigators said Monday. The watch...
Monday, January 7, 2019
Cairo, Jan 6, 2019 (AFP) – A policeman was killed while trying to dismantle an explosive device outside a Coptic church in Egypt on Saturday, a security source said. Two other officers were also wounded in the explosion as security personnel attempted to defuse...
