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...
Sahel: Profile of Niger’s new president, Mohamed Bazoum
By Boureima Hama – Mohamed Bazoum, named the winner of Niger’s presidential election, worked for years as the right-hand man of outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou, often doing tough or tedious jobs that earned him little prominence. But that seemingly...
Niger: Former interior minister wins presidential elections, violence ensues
By Amaury Hauchard – Former interior minister Mohamed Bazoum won Niger’s presidential elections, according to provisional results issued on Tuesday, as the opposition cried foul and clashes erupted. Bazoum, the ruling party’s candidate, picked up...
Egypt: Boat capsizes on Lake Mariout, nine killed
Nine people drowned and at least four were missing Tuesday after a boat chartered for a family fishing trip capsized near Egypt’s second city Alexandria, a security source said. State newspaper Al-Ahram said a six-month-old infant was among the family members...
Covid-19: Tunisians adjust burial practices to cope with the coronavirus
By Aymen Jamli – Lotfi Jlassi stood facing Mecca beside the ambulance carrying the body of his brother, who died of Covid-19, and said a prayer — one of the few rites still allowed in Tunisia’s pared back funerals. In the North African country, hit...
Sahel: People of Niger vote for a new president
By Boureima Hama and Amaury Hauchard – Niger voted Sunday in a presidential run-off between two political heavyweights that is set to bring about the first democratic transition of power in the coup-prone country’s history. But the balloting was marred by...
Tunis Air CEO dismissed after month into job
Tunisia’s transport minister on Monday fired the CEO of Tunisair, just over a month after naming her to revive the ailing national carrier’s fortunes. Olfa Hamdi, an engineer educated in France and the US with experience in managing major enterprises, was...
Morocco: Police seize 9.5 tons of cannabis near Rabat
Around 9.5 tonnes of cannabis resin was seized from a refrigerated lorry near Morocco’s capital Rabat, the national security service said Monday. A police operation intercepted “a refrigerated lorry carrying 380 bales of around 9.5 tonnes of the drug,...Daviz Simango, head of Mozambique’s second largest opposition party and mayor of Beira dies at 57
The leader of Mozambique’s second largest opposition party and a top mayor who fought climate change in his low-lying coastal city Beira, Daviz Simango, has died aged 57, his family said Monday. He was transferred to a South African hospital last week for...
Algerians take back their streets, reaffirm illegitimacy of Tebboune regime
By Abdelhafid Daamache – Thousands marched in Algeria’s capital and other cities Monday to mark the second anniversary of the “Hirak” protest movement that forced long-time president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power. “We are not here to...