Turkey vows to pursue oil and gas exploration in the eastern Med
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...
Libya: Nearly 50 people perish in the Med Sea
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...
Libya: Patchwork of divided tribes complicate the Libyan crisis
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...
Algeria: Birthplace of the Hirak movement, Kherrata experiences first post-confinement rally
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...
Mali: The military is now in charge
1176 issue: week ending 20 August 2020 Bamako, Aug 19, 2020 – Mali awoke on Wednesday to a new chapter in its troubled history after rebel military leaders forced President Boubacar Keita from office, prompting its West African neighbours to threaten border...
Mali: President Boubacar Keita resigns and the people are cheering
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...
Video: Mutiny in Mali
Rebel soldiers holding Mali president African Union condemns arrest of Malian president Bamako, Aug 18, 2020 (AFP) – Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse are both being held by rebel soldiers, a senior government official...
Breaking: Mutiny leaders announce arrest of president and Prime Minister
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,...
Libya: Turkey and Qatar intensify their involvement in Libya
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...
Former Mauritanian president under investigation for alleged embezzlement
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...
Sahel: The unfolding Malian crisis
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...
Tourism heavily hit in Morocco’s most-visited city
Sahel: Fears of a soldiers’ mutiny in Mali as political crisis lingers
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...
Egypt: Another building collapses in Cairo
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...Chinese workers freed from kidnappers
Warri, Nigeria – Four Chinese workers abducted from a quarry site in southern Nigeria have been freed, police said Sunday. Unknown gunmen seized the Chinese nationals in Akpabuyo in Cross Rivers state last month and killed their police guard. “We were able...
Italy: Overwhelmed by new influx of migrants, Italy calls on Tunisia to help
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...
Niger: Dozen captives freed from Boko Haram
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...Nigeria to resume international flights end of August
Lagos, Aug 17, 2020 – Nigeria will resume international flights on August 29 as it eases restrictions over the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country’s aviation minister said Monday. Africa’s most populous country shut its airspace in March to...
Libya: Foreign countries ‘continue to massively arm Libya’ says Germany’s top diplomat
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...Egypt: More than 20 players of Masry football team test positive to Covid19
Covid-Egypt: Egypt reopens two dozen isolation wards with growing fear of new Covid-19 wave
Covid-Egypt: Foreigners landing in Egypt are required to show results from Covid test, except for tourists flying to Red Sea resorts
Tunisia: Heatwave in Tunisia, temperatures reaching 46°C (155 F)
Algeria: Forest fires rage in Algeria
Algeria: Despite resumption of public transport, Algiers metro remains out of service
Egypt: Land dispute claims six lives in Fayoum, scores wounded
Egypt: Train derails near Shubra al-Khaima station Qalyubia
Egypt: Boat sinks in Nile river section of Beheira, killing four
Libya: Major power outages in eastern Libya
Libya: GNA government accuses warlord Khaftar forces of having killed more than 50 people with mines
Morocco: 24 confirmed Covid-19 infections among players and staff of Tangier’s football team Ittihad
Morocco: Sections of Casablanca’s old town quarantined over Covid-19, five local team footballers infected
Niger: Boko Haram increases kidnappings in Diffa, population displacement underway
Niger: State of emergency extended to entire Tillabéri region, Kouré reserve closed
Niger bans motorcycles in Koure Kollo
Niger: French state travel advisory places entire Niger in red zone, except for capital Niamey
Bandits raid Ukuru in Niger state, kill 14 residents
Dozens of armed cattle thieves killed 14 people and stole herds during a raid on a village in central Nigeria, police said Thursday. The latest deadly attack by cattle rustlers in the restive region was on the Ukuru village in Niger state on Wednesday, regional police...
Niger: Floods kill dozens, 80,000 people affected
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...