Sahel: Mali and Niger troops accused of extra-judicial killings
Bamako, April 30, 2020 – The UN mission in Mali on Thursday blamed Malian and Niger troops for scores of extra-judicial killings between January and March. According to a quarterly MINUSMA report, Malian forces carried out 101 executions and Niger forces 34 more...
Libya: After his forces suffered major losses, warlord Haftar wants a truce ($)
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Algerian authorities under international pressure to stop harassing journalists ($)
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Egypt: Insurgents strike in north Sinai, kill 10 Egyptian troops
Cairo, April 30, 2020 – Egypt’s army said on Thursday that 10 soldiers were either killed or wounded in a blast targeting an armoured vehicle in the restive northern Sinai. The attack occurred south the city of Bir al-Abed in the troubled North Sinai...
Sahel: Fire at Faladié refugee camp in Bamako, Mali
Bamako, April 28, 2020 – A fire on Tuesday destroyed much of the main camp for displaced people in Bamako, where more than 1,000 people who fled the violence in central Mali have found refuge, an AFP journalist said. No report on casualties was immediately...
WHO advises MENA region against loosening confinement measures
Cairo, April 28, 2020 – The World Health Organization warned Tuesday of the impact coronavirus could have in Middle Eastern conflict zones and urged other countries in the region against loosening confinement measures. “This fight has become even more...
Egypt: Al-Sisi orders three-month renewal of state of emergency
Cairo, April 28, 2020 – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday ordered the renewal for three months of a long-running state of emergency, citing health as well as security concerns. Egypt has been under a state of emergency since April 2017 when...
Libya: Warlord Haftar claims to have popular mandate to rule
Tripoli, April 28, 2020 – Libya’s UN-recognised government Tuesday accused rival military strongman Khalifa Haftar of seeking to stage a new coup after he claimed to have a “mandate” from the people to govern the country. “It’s a...
Egypt: 3D-printed face shields made in Egypt
Cairo, April 28, 2020 (By Farid Farid) – Many healthcare workers in Egypt’s threadbare hospital system must provide their own protective gear, so when a digital design company started 3-D printing face shields, they gratefully accepted. Since the novel...
Sahel: Chad abolishes death penalty for terrorism
Chad on Tuesday abolished the death penalty for terrorist activities, Justice Minister Djimet Arabi told AFP. Chad had adopted legal amendments in 2016 and abolished the death sentence, except for terrorism. “The MPs unanimously voted to abolish the death...
Week-in-review podcast: Lockdowns, curfews and government abuse
This is a retrospect on North Africa and the Sahel region, for the week ending 24 April. The review, which focuses on the latest on Covid-19 in the Maghreb, Egypt and the Sahel, is presented by MEA Risk analyst Arezki Daoud. The transcripted text is below. You can...
Tunisia taps into its tech resources to fight Covid-19
Tunis, April 25, 2020 (By Caroline Nelly Perrot) – The feared impact of coronavirus on Tunisia’s fragile public health system has provoked a flurry of innovation from robotics to digitalisation efforts to bolster the North African country’s pandemic...
Sahel: Gunmen attack villages in Mali’s Mopti region, kill dozen civilians
Bamako, April 23, 2020 – At least twelve people have been killed in an attack on several villages in central Mali, a local official said Thursday, in the latest violence to hit the war-torn country. Gunmen on motorbikes struck several villages near the town of...
Egypt: Ramadan under curfew
Cairo, April 23, 2020 – Egypt extended on Thursday a night-time curfew in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic through the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, while announcing the gradual easing of other measures. “The partial curfew will remain in place...
Morocco: Covid-19 infections spread in Ouarzazate prison
Rabat, April 23, 2020 – More than 130 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in a southern Morocco prison on Thursday where 60 people had already tested positive days earlier, according to prison authorities. The infections were recorded at a prison in...
Morocco mobilizes military hospitals, braces for Covid-19 influx
Rabat, April 17, 2020 – Morocco’s army has mobilised all its resources to help the health system tackle the coronavirus pandemic, beefing up facilities for a possible mass influx of patients, the military’s chief medical officer said. “The...
Libya: Stuck between a never ending war and a lockdown
Tripoli, April 19, 2020 (By Rim Taher) – Already tired of the tribulations of war, Libyans in the capital Tripoli are reluctant to respect intensified lockdown measures introduced on Friday to forestall coronavirus. The round-the-clock curfew was flagged by the...
Tunisia: How Tunisian hospitals are coping with Covid-19
Tunis, April 22, 2020 – After a month of lockdown, Tunisian hospitals have not so far suffered the overcrowding some feared from coronavirus — but the pandemic has forced a much-needed upgrade of public facilities, medics say. The intensive care ward at...
The Algerian regime’s weapon against pro-democracy activists: pre-trial detentions
Algiers, April 23, 2020 -By Amal Belalloufi: Dozens of Algerians linked to the country’s anti-government protest movement remain “forgotten” in pre-trial detention during the coronavirus crisis, with little or no legal support. Zinedine Hanane, 32,...
Sahel: Niger faces escalating riots in coming days
Niamey, April 22, 2020 (By Boureima Hama) – With the holy Muslim month of Ramadan set to start this weekend, authorities in Niger are fearing violence after several cities saw riots over anti-coronavirus lockdowns banning collective prayers. “We just want...
Moroccan government spying on its people with mobile app tracking
Rabat, April 22, 2020 – Moroccan police have started using a mobile application in recent days to track violators of the kingdom’s lockdown in response to the coronavirus, according to the official MAP news agency. The application was built by developers...
Egypt’s military propaganda initiative: sending medical aid to America
Washington, April 22, 2020 – Egypt on Tuesday flew a plane of medical supplies to the United States to assist in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a role reversal for a top US aid recipient. Egypt’s general-turned-president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,...
Egypt accuses former lawmaker Zyad al-Elaimy of terrorism
Egypt added on Saturday 13 people, including former lawmaker Zyad al-Elaimy, on the country’s “terrorism list” for collaborating with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The decision, published in the official gazette, stated that their “placement...
Morocco reports Covid-19 contamination in prisons’ staff and inmates
Rabat, April 21, 2020 – More than 60 cases of coronavirus infections have been recorded in a jail in southern Morocco, mostly among staff, the country’s prisons service said. The DGAPR agency, in a statement late Monday, said 60 workers and six inmates had...
Tunisia: Blocked border prevents Tunisians from returning home
Ras Jedir, Tunisia, April 21, 2020 – Hundreds of Tunisians stranded for weeks in war-racked Libya due to the coronavirus have returned home after forcing their way through a border crossing, the UN and aid groups said. Tunisia’s interior ministry denied...
Sahel: After Chad captured 58 Boko Haram suspects, 44 die mysteriously
By Ali Abba Kaya, Djimet Wiche, and Camille Malplat in Libreville: The deaths by apparent poisoning of 44 suspected Boko Haram jihadists in a Chad prison were shrouded in mystery on Sunday, with observers wondering whether they were murdered or had committed...
Sahel: Tense election runoff in Mali
Acts of intimidation and allegations of vote buying marred the final round of legislative elections in Mali on Sunday aimed at reviving confidence in embattled institutions despite a bloody jihadist conflict and a virus pandemic. In central Mali, the president of a...
Niger: Police arrest 108 protesters after unrest in Niamey, 10 sent to prison
Sahel: Extrajudicial killing of civilians in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso’s security forces allegedly executed 31 unarmed detainees in the northern town of Djibo, Human Rights Watch said Monday, calling for an immediate investigation. The men, all from the Fulani ethnic group, were allegedly killed just hours after being...
Tunisia sees progressive easing of confinement after 3 May
Tunisia’s Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh has announced that a lockdown to fight the spread of coronavirus will be extended to May 3 before it is progressively eased. The situation will “soon be mastered”, Fakhfakh declared in a televised interview...
Africa: How to pay a country’s debt with cows
1159 issue: week ending 23 Apr. 2020 Angola has received a herd of more than 1,000 cattle from Chad, a government official said Monday, the latest shipment of an unusual debt repayment deal. The landlocked central African country, impoverished despite its oil...
Sahel: Unrest in Niamey’s Lazaret neighborhood over curfew
Niamey, April 20, 2020 – Clashes erupted in Niamey, the capital of the Sahel nation of Niger, over the government’s anti-coronavirus curfew and a ban on prayer gatherings, local inhabitants told AFP Monday. Violence broke out just after 8pm (1900 GMT) on...
Egypt: While fighting Covid-19, Egypt’s healthcare workers face public harassment
Cairo, April 21, 2020 -By Menna Zaki: After showing symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus, Egyptian doctor Ahmed Negm went into self-isolation in an old apartment, but before long he was hounded out by fearful neighbors. While health workers in many countries...
Government of Algeria attacks Internet news sites
April 20, 2020 – Algerian authorities have blocked a third online news website that covered the anti-government “Hirak” protest movement, stirring condemnation Monday from media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. RSF also voiced concern that a draft...
Africa reassesses its relations with China as Covid-19 exposes racial tensions
Abuja, April 14, 2020 (By Celia Lebur) – African countries are seething over accounts that Africans are battling stigma and discrimination in China over the coronavirus pandemic, apparently linked to a cluster of cases in the Nigerian community in the southern...
Algerian diplomat Lamamra withdraw from UN Libya envoy consideration
Algerian former foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra on Thursday ruled himself out of becoming the next UN envoy to Libya, after diplomats said Washington opposed his nomination. In a statement to the Algerian press, Lamamra said he had been invited last month by UN...
Algeria: Prisoners to make face masks
Algiers, April 17, 2020 – Inmates at 30 Algerian prisons are being mobilised to make personal protective equipment to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, official news agency APS reported. Authorities will “open sewing workshops for the production of...
Tunisia: A Tunisian initiative to identify potential Covid-19 carriers
Tunis, April 17, 2020 – Tunisian engineers have created a web-based platform that scans lung X-rays and evaluates whether patients are likely to be suffering from the novel coronavirus. While it’s not the first initiative of its kind in the world, its...