North Africa’s Economy
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan launch another attempt at negotiations over Nile dam
Foreign ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan held talks in Kinshasa on Sunday over Addis Ababa's contested giant dam on the Nile, seen as vital by Ethiopia and a threat by downstream Egypt and Sudan. "These negotiations represent the last chance that the three...
Egypt: Negotiations over Ethiopian dam project going nowhere
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned Tuesday that Ethiopia's enormous dam project, upstream on the Nile, risked causing "unimaginable instability". The dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been simmering for around a decade and...
Egypt: Suez Canal reopens after container ship refloated
By Hager Harabech with Mona Salem in Cairo - Suez, Egypt, March 29, 2021 (AFP) - The MV Ever Given was refloated and the Suez Canal reopened on Monday, sparking relief almost a week after the huge container ship got stuck during a sandstorm and blocked a major artery...
Egypt: Container ship still stuck in Suez Canal
By Mohamed Abouelenen - Egyptian authorities decided Sunday that more tugboats will be needed to free a mammoth container ship blocking the Suez Canal, a shipping agency said, dashing earlier hopes that the vital global trade route could be clear by the end of the...
Egypt: Russia marketing its Northern Sea route as alternative to Suez Canal
Russia cheekily pushed the Northern Sea Route on Thursday as an "alternative" to Egypt's Suez Canal after a huge container ship blocked the busy shipping lane. President Vladimir Putin has long promoted the passage along the country's Siberian coast as a rival to the...
Egypt: Single container ship cripples Suez Canal traffic
By Farid Farid - The owners of a giant container vessel blocking the Suez Canal said Thursday they faced "extreme difficulty" refloating it, as Egypt temporarily closed one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's advisor on...
Tunisia launches first domestically made satellite
By Caroline Nelly Perrot - Tunisia celebrated the launch Monday of its first domestically made satellite, hoping it would inspire young engineers to reach for the stars at home rather than join those emigrating overseas. Challenge-1, built by a team from...
Business: With a choking tourism industry, Morocco’s craftsmen face daunting outlook
By Redouane Benmehdi - Hundreds of thousands of Moroccan craftsmen are facing a daunting future as the government’s Covid-19 policies have resulted in their isolation and lack of effective financial support. The pandemic has starved the craftsmen from their usual...
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...
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 that overthrew...