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...
Algeria: Students resume their anti-regime Hirak movement, with Tuesday rallies
Some 2,000 Algerians, mostly students, rallied against the government Tuesday in defiance of lockdown measures, as their two-year-old pro-democracy protest movement resurges. For the second consecutive week, young protesters accompanied by lecturers and other...Algeria: More than third of banknotes in Algeria escapes banking sector
Algeria: Avian flu continues to spread in Tiaret
Morocco reimposes night curfew over new Covid-19 variants
Morocco: Diplomatic tension between Morocco and Germany over Western Sahara
Chad: Opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo withdraws from presidential elections as dictator Deby ups intimidation against opposition
[Photo: Saleh Kebzabo] – Chad’s main opposition figure, Saleh Kebzabo, on Monday announced he was withdrawing from the country’s upcoming presidential elections, accusing veteran leader Idriss Deby Itno of using force to intimidate rivals after a...
Algeria: Police unleash violence on population in Ouargla after blogger sentenced to seven years in prison
Unrest broke out late Sunday in a southern Algerian town after a blogger and activist was handed a seven-year jail sentence for condoning acts of terrorism, a news website reported. El Watan said protesters burnt tyres and blocked several roads in Ouargla, after a...
Western Sahara: European court to decide if Western Sahara goods are part of EU-Morocco accords
Luxembourg, Feb 28, 2021 (AFP) – The European Court of Justice is next week to discuss EU-Morocco accords allowing Rabat to export goods from Western Sahara that are contested by the pro-independence Polisario Front. It is to hold two sessions on Tuesday and...
Algeria says it released 59 political prisoners but continues to unleash violence on peaceful protesters
Algerian police and biased judicial system still on the hunt The presidential pardon has not stopped the security authorities and the judicial machine from arresting people on the basis of their political views. The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights...
More migrants rescued off the coast of Libya
German charity Sea-Watch said Saturday it had saved nearly 150 migrants off the Libyan coast in two operations. Its Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship picked up 102 migrants on Saturday morning from a rubber dinghy in trouble, the organisation said on Twitter. The previous day...
Tunisia: Street protests and political standoff in Tunisia
Tunisia’s main parliamentary bloc Ennahdha rallied thousands of people Saturday in a demonstration of support for the government amid a tug-of-war with President Kais Saied. The Islamist-inspired Ennahdha and liberal Qalb Tounes parties pushed for a reshuffling...
Algeria’s anti-regime Hirak movement is back
Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets across Algeria on Friday, as the “Hirak” pro-democracy movement gathers renewed momentum after a year-long hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite a ban on gatherings over Covid-19, crowds...
Libya PM Dbeibah pledges unity, faces major challenges in forming government
By Rim Taher – Libya’s prime minister-designate Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Thursday said he had submitted a “vision” for an interim government, as he seeks to lead the North African nation to elections in December. Dbeibah was selected early this...
Moroccans debating legalization of cannabis for medicinal use
Morocco, a country where large volumes of cannabis are grown illicitly, is considering legalising production for therapeutic use of the drug, the government said Thursday. The government has “begun to study a legislative bill relating to the legal use of...
Senegal braces for Jihadist spillover from the Sahel
Senegal’s President Macky Sall said Tuesday that his native country and neighbouring West African states must “prepare to do battle” to stop jihadist expansion beyond the Sahel. In an interview broadcast that day by French radio RFI, the president...