Covid-19 in Algeria: Coping with the pandemic inside a Blida hospital
At a hospital near the Algerian capital, staff say they are “on the verge of burnout” more than a year on from the facility’s first coronavirus-related admissions. Blida province has been one of the epicentres of Algeria’s novel coronavirus...
Libya: More evidence that new PM Dbeibah may have been elected in exchange for large cash bribes
At least three participants in UN-led Libya peace talks held in Tunisia in November were offered bribes to vote for a prime ministerial candidate, a UN report published Tuesday found. The report was compiled by UN experts responsible for verifying the application of...
Repression: How the Egyptian army destroyed the Sinai in the name of the “war on terror”
Egyptian troops have demolished more than 12,300 buildings in the Sinai Peninsula since 2013 in a campaign of forced evictions that likely amount to “war crimes”, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. A decade-old jihadist insurgency in North Sinai province...
Algeria: Earthquake rattles coastal Bejaia, seven people injured
Seven people wounded (NAJ – 18 March 2021) – Residents of Bejaia spent a good part of the night from Wednesday to Thursday outside. The earthquake, which was felt within a radius of 300 km, was felt in 12 provinces. Seven people living in old buildings in...
Sahel: Burkina Faso’s Goudebou Camp reopens for Malian refugees
By Armel Baily – “I’m happy — it’s like coming back home,” said Malian refugee Ousmane Wanaher, 34, returning to the camp in northeastern Burkina Faso from which he had been driven out by jihadist attacks a year ago. The...Mali: Two Mali soldiers killed in Jihadist attack on an Ansongo army base
Libya headed toward normalcy as Tunisian president visits Tripoli after a nine-year break
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied is to travel to Libya Wednesday for the first visit by a head of state between the neighbouring countries since 2012, his office announced, in a boost for its new UN-backed administration. Saied’s visit aims to show...
Libya: Transition continues with new government taking over western Libya’s structures
Libya’s Fayez al-Sarraj, outgoing head of the western-based Government of National Accord, formally handed over power Tuesday to a new interim executive hoped to unify the divided and war-torn nation. Sarraj, who has led the UN-recognised GNA since it was set up...Algeria: Trial of media editor for defamation begins with prosecutors seeking 18 months prison
Algerians reject regime’s political roadmap, insist on deep reforms and no status quo
Video: 12 March 2021 protest in Algiers Protesters demanding the end of the military regime, call generals “traitors” Thousands demonstrated in Algiers on Friday, rejecting early legislative elections announced the day before, as weekly rallies by the...
Egypt considers critics and political opponents as terrorists, world starting to push back
By Nina Larson – Egypt must stop using anti-terrorism laws to muzzle critics and even keep them in pre-trial detention indefinitely, dozens of countries told the UN on Friday. In a rare oral rebuke of Egypt at the United Nations Human Rights Council, 31...
Morocco: Health of jailed intellectual Maatib Monjib reportedly deteriorating
Supporters of a jailed Moroccan historian and rights activist expressed “serious concern” for his health on Wednesday, days after he began a hunger strike. The support committee for 60-year-old Maatib Monjib “expresses its serious concern about the...
Mauritania: Ex-President Ould Abdel Aziz facing tough corruption charges
By Hademine Ould Sadi – A Mauritanian state prosecutor on Thursday requested corruption charges against former president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, and about ten other senior figures, after an investigation into his decade-long rule in the country. The...
Tunisia: Landmines claim more lives in Kasserine, two children killed in blast
Two children were killed and a woman wounded in a landmine blast Thursday in a mountainous region of western Tunisia known as a base for jihadists, the government said. The explosion occurred on Mount Salloum, in a military zone in the marginalised region of...
Algeria’s early legislative elections set for 12 June
Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Thursday issued a decree setting June 12 for early legislative elections after he dissolved parliament last month, his office said. Legislative elections were scheduled to be held in 2022, but Tebboune in February...
Egypt’s dilapidated infrastructure: Fire at a garment factory near Cairo kills 20 workers
At least 20 people were killed and 24 others injured Thursday in a clothing factory fire on the eastern outskirts of the Egyptian capital, medical and security sources told AFP. Twelve fire trucks were dispatched to extinguish the huge blaze as smoke billowed out...
Tunisia: Dozens of migrants drown off the coast of Sfax
At least 39 migrants drowned off Tunisia when two boats capsized on Tuesday, the defence ministry said, as numbers risking the dangerous crossing to Europe continue to rise. Rescuers pulled 165 survivors from the floundering boats out of the sea to safety. Defence...
Libya has a unity government, looks for return to stability
By Hamza Mekouar – Libya’s parliament on Wednesday approved a unity government to lead the war-ravaged North African nation to December elections, a key step towards ending a decade of chaos. Oil-rich Libya descended into conflict after dictator Moamer...
Libya: Finally Afriqiyah Airways resumes Benghazi-Misrata service after a seven-year state of war
Flights between the eastern Libya city of Benghazi and the western city of Misrata were restored Tuesday after a near seven year absence, the latest tentative step towards national reconciliation. An Afriqiyah Airways plane that took off from Benghazi touched down at...
Libya: Foreign meddlers continue to maintain thousands of mercenaries in Libya
Libya’s prime minister-designate demanded the departure Tuesday of an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters as he sought support from lawmakers to help end a grinding civil war in the North African nation. Oil-rich Libya descended into chaos after dictator Moamer...
Algeria: Protest movement enters third week of rallies as students maintain their Tuesday marches
Hundreds of students and pro-democracy supporters demonstrated in Algiers Tuesday as a revived protest movement enters its third week of rallies. The march made its way through the main streets of the Algerian capital to reach the central post office, AFP journalists...
Tunisia: Russia to deliver first batch of 30K Sputnik V doses to Tunisia
Tunisia said Monday the first coronavirus vaccines were set to arrive to start mass inoculation in the North African nation using Russia’s Sputnik V jabs. An initial 30,000 doses are due to arrive Tuesday from Russia, followed by 500,000 doses “in coming...
Tunisia: State companies on the brink of collapse
By Aymen Jamli – Tunisia’s state-owned firms are in dire straits, facing a perfect storm of debt, mismanagement, the coronavirus pandemic and a decade of political instability that could push some to bankruptcy, experts say. Ten years since a revolution...
Morocco: Jailed historian Maati Monjib goes on hunger strike
A Moroccan historian and rights activist who was jailed in January has begun a hunger strike, supporters and a legal representative said. Maati Monjib, 60, declared that he had begun the hunger strike on Thursday, a statement by his supporters said on Friday....
Tunisia’s gender violence law struggles to get beyond paper
When Nadia told police about her husband’s violence during a coronavirus lockdown in Tunisia, she nearly lost custody of her daughter, illustrating a chasm between a gender law and its enforcement. Adopted in 2017, the celebrated law greatly expanded the scope...
Algeria: At least seven killed by floods in Chlef
At least seven people died and three were unaccounted for after floods caused by torrential rains in northwestern Algeria, the country’s civil protection agency said. Three men, two women, a five-year-old boy and a girl of 12 died after vehicles they were...
Tunisia: Uproar in Tunisia over arrest of LGBT campaigner Rania Amdouni
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Tunisian capital Saturday to demand the release of a gay rights and democracy activist sentenced to jail for insulting police officers. Rania Amdouni, a 26-year-old LGBT rights campaigner often seen at pro-democracy...
Algeria: Momentum builds for pro-democracy Hirak movement, Algerians insist on end of regime
UN urges Algeria to stop attacks on protesters The United Nations on Friday voiced concern about an increasing crackdown on a pro-democracy protest movement in Algeria, highlighting hundreds of arrests in recent weeks and torture allegations. UN rights office...Morocco: Financial Action Task Force puts Morocco in money laundering and terrorism financing watchlist
Algeria: China bans Air Algerie from flying over its air space after authorities identified six Covid cases on board flight
Algeria seeks to revoke citizenship to opponents abroad
Morocco Suspends Flights from 18 countries
Turkey: Escalating tension between Turkey and Iran over Iraq
Turkey and Iran summoned each other’s ambassadors on Sunday, Turkish and Iranian state media reported, escalating a rumbling row over Turkey’s presence in Iraq. Iran and Turkey are rivals in several parts of the Middle East and Central Asia but both have...Nigeria: Who are the ‘bandits’ behind Nigeria’s mass kidnappings?
By Camille Malplat andh Louise Dewast in Abuja – For the past decade, criminal gangs in northwest Nigeria have terrorised communities, attacking villages, pillaging, raping, stealing cattle, ambushing travellers and kidnapping people. Groups have also turned to...
Sahel: Unfolding humanitarian crisis in Niger with growing masses of refugees from Nigeria and from within
The United Nations warned Tuesday that bloodshed in northwestern Nigeria was fuelling an exodus into neighbouring Niger, where violence was also rising. The UN Refugee Agency said fear of armed groups and communal clashes in Nigeria had sent nearly 7,700 Nigerian...
Morocco: Germany summons Moroccan envoy over Rabat’s anger on the Western Sahara and Libya
The German government said Wednesday it had called in the Moroccan ambassador in Berlin for “urgent” talks, after Rabat said it had suspended contacts with Germany’s embassy. “Yesterday, we summoned the Moroccan ambassador to urgent talks at...
Egypt continues to favor capital punishment, executes 11 people
Egyptian authorities on Tuesday executed 11 people convicted of murder, a security source said, in the latest cases of what rights campaigners have labelled “a horrifying execution spree”. Capital punishment for civilian convicts in Egypt, the most...