COVID-19: North Africa & Sahel
[pj-news-ticker]
Covid-19: Tunisia lifts nighttime curfew as virus cases fall
Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday announced the lifting of a nighttime curfew in place since March 2020 due to...
Egypt inks deal with Chinese Covid vaccine maker to manufacture a billion doses per year
Egypt said Wednesday it plans to manufacture one billion doses a year of China's Sinovac vaccine, claiming it would...
More on Covid-19 in North Africa and the Sahel
Sahel: Niger labor minister succumbs from Covid-19
Niamey, May 4, 2020 - The novel coronavirus caused the death of Niger's minister of employment and labour, Mohamed Ben...
Nigeria: Lagos ends lockdown despite expanding virus
Lagos, May 4, 2020 - Africa's biggest city, Lagos, got back to work on Monday at the end of a five-week coronavirus...
Nigeria: First man to be hanged in ‘virtual’ trial
Lagos, May 5, 2020 - A Nigerian court sentenced a man to death in the country's first ever virtual ruling during a...
Egyptian workers in Kuwait protest over repatriation
Kuwaiti authorities dispersed a "riot" by Egyptian workers who demonstrated on Monday to demand repatriation amid the...
Nigeria: Mass deaths in Kano possibly tied to Covid-19
Kano, Nigeria, May 4, 2020 - Mass deaths in a northern Nigerian state were caused by coronavirus, the authorities said...
Tunisia: Partial easing of lockdown measures revealed
Tunis, April 29, 2020 - Tunisian officials on Wednesday announced a partial easing of lockdown measures in place to...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Egypt: Ramadan under curfew
Cairo, April 23, 2020 - Egypt extended on Thursday a night-time curfew in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Algeria: Prisoners to make face masks
Algiers, April 17, 2020 - Inmates at 30 Algerian prisons are being mobilised to make personal protective equipment to...
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...
Morocco: People helping people in time of pandemic
Casablanca, Morocco, April 12, 2020 - A small van zips through the streets of Casablanca to deliver food to single...
Morocco: Mass arrests for non-compliance with confinement rules
Rabat, April 13, 2020 - More than 4,300 people were arrested over the weekend in Morocco for breaching emergency rules...
Egypt: Covid-19′ new challenge: where to bury the dead
Cairo, April 11, 2020 - Egyptian police arrested a dozen people and fired tear gas in a Nile Delta village Saturday,...
Tunisia gets emergency loan from the IMF
April 10, 2020 - The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved a $745 million emergency loan for Tunisia as it...
The coronavirus in the Sahel
Bamako - By Amaury Hauchard with Armel Baily in Ouagadougou: The rise of coronavirus in the war-torn Sahel has sparked...
Public health: Inside North Africa’s healthcare systems
By Hamza Mekouar: The coronavirus pandemic has put the spotlight on shortcomings in health care in several North...
Egypt: Prison inmates still unprotected against Covid-19
Cairo, April 9, 2020 - An Egyptian rights group said Thursday it had filed a lawsuit against authorities demanding...
Food supply: The struggle to maintain normalcy in time of pandemic
Algiers, April 9, 2020 (By Abdellah Cheballah) - From an acute shortage of regional staple couscous to a surge of...
Morocco to get IMF loan to soften impact of coronavirus on the economy
Rabat, April 8, 2020 - Morocco on Wednesday announced it has started to draw on a $3-billion credit line from the...
Tunisia’s zero-tolerance stance on those breaching containment measures
Tunis, April 7, 2020 - Tunisia's interior ministry warned Tuesday that people infected with coronavirus could be...
Egypt: Looming social unrest
Cairo, April 8, 2020 (By Farid Farid) - Haggard and dishevelled from the stress of making ends meet, day labourers...
Egypt maintains night-time curfew until at least April 23
Cairo, April 8, 2020 - Egypt will extend a nationwide night-time curfew by a further two weeks in a bid to slow the...
Egypt: Covid-19 confirmed inside Cairo’s National Cancer Institute
Cairo, April 4, 2020 - Egypt's main cancer institute has confirmed 15 cases of the novel coronavirus among its medical...
Tunisia: Untested Prime Minister gets super powers thanks to Covid-19
Tunisia's parliament on Saturday gave the prime minister special powers for two months to allow for the accelerated...
Egypt: Coptic leaders cancel Easter Holy Week services
Cairo, April 4, 2020 - Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church has decided to suspend prayers preceding Easter celebrations...
Covid-19 in Algeria: China to the rescue
Algiers, April 4, 2020 - As adversity strikes in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, Algeria has found a helping...
Covid-19: Morocco clears its prisons to fight pandemic
Rabat, April 5, 2020 - Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Sunday pardoned more than 5,600 prisoners and ordered their...
Libya: Former Interim Prime Minister of Libya Jibril dies from Covid-19
Mahmud Jibril, the former head of the Libyan rebel government that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, died...
Nigeria: Refugee camps in Nigeria facing a new enemy
Maiduguri, Nigeria, April 3, 2020 (By Audu Abba Kurama and Aminu Abubakar in Kano) - Men and women cluster around...
Sahel: Mali held elections despite the pandemic
Bamako, April 2, 2020 - Turnout for Mali's parliamentary elections this week was 36 percent, officials said on...
Sahel: French soldiers active in the Sahel test positive for Covid-19
Paris, April 2, 2020 - Four French soldiers deployed in the Sahel region of western Africa in France's anti-jihadist...
Sahel: Covid-19 magnifies food crisis in the Sahel
Dakar, April 2, 2020 - More than five million people in Africa's conflict-ravaged Sahel region are facing hunger, the...
Maghreb: Media as collateral damage of Covid-19
April 2, 2020 - Measures to stem the novel coronavirus pandemic have affected the distribution and publication of...
Algeria: Food shortages lead to breaches in social distancing and confinement rules
The coronavirus is creating acute shortages of high-consumption foods and commodities. Despite the calls for social...
Tunisia wants global approach to pandemic, but Security Council in disarray
April 1, 2020 - Tunisia has proposed a UN Security Council resolution calling for "urgent international action" to...
Maghreb: Anger in Tunisia and Morocco over poorly managed lockdown
Mnilha, Tunisie, March 31, 2020 - Several hundred Tunisians demonstrated in a working class district of the capital...
Africa: How to lock down a 20-million-people city?
Lagos, March 31, 2020 - Roads in Africa's largest city Lagos were deserted Tuesday after Nigeria locked down its...
Sport: Mediterranean Games pushed to 2022 due to Covid-19
Algiers, March 31, 2020 - The 2021 Mediterranean Games have been postponed a year until 2022 as a result of the impact...
Mauritania: French-Mauritanian national dies from Covid-19
Nouakchott, March 31, 2020 - Mauritania has declared its first fatality from coronavirus, state media reported on...
Algeria jails more journalists despite Covid-19
Algiers, March 29, 2020 - An Algerian journalist was Sunday ordered to be held in pre-trial detention, press freedom...
Libya does the right thing: it releases prisoners in pretrial detention amid Covid-19
Tripoli, March 29, 2020 - Libya's justice ministry announced Sunday over 450 prisoners were being freed in a bid to...
Africa is completely unprepared to deal with confinement of large populations
Lagos, March 30, 2020 (By Celia Lebur) - Over 20 million Nigerians on Monday scrambled to prepare for lockdown in...
Morocco earmarks more than $200 mil. to buy equipment to face Covid-19
Rabat, March 27, 2020 - Morocco's economy ministry said Friday it had allocated two billion dirhams ($201 million) to...
Tunisia: The women behind the mask
Tunis, March 26, 2020 - By Caroline Nelly Perrot: In Tunisia, 150 people -- mostly women -- have isolated themselves...
North Africa faces unprecedented economic crisis
Listen to the podcast above or read the transcript below. Download MP3 file here. 26 March 2020: By Arezki Daoud:...
North Africans rush to Sanofi, betting on its antimalarials to fight Covid-19
The Algerian Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform announced on 23 March the use of a drug to treat...
Libya now fighting two wars: a civil war and Covid-19
Tripoli, March 25, 2020 - Libya has reported its first case of the novel coronavirus, a particular source of concern...
The disastrous confinement of the poor and the mediocrity of Maghreb regimes
March 25, 2020 (By Sophie Pons) - In Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, workers in informal jobs fear not only the novel...
Four more African countries announce first case of Covid-19
Bamako, March 25, 2020 - Four countries led by war-ravaged Mali on Wednesday joined the lengthening list of African...
Sahel: Mali announces Covid-19 curfew after first case was identified
Bamako, March 25, 2020 - Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a nationwide night-time curfew on Wednesday...
North Africa’s incomprehensible night curfews
Opinion by Arezki Daoud: Persistent, logical and even unpopular policies must be implemented to fight the coronavirus....
Education: Studying from home amid Covid-19
Tripoli, March 24, 2020 - By Rim Tahar - Either on television as in Libya or on tablets in the IT-savvy Gulf...
Concerns about Africa’s readiness to confront Covid-19
Lagos, March 24, 2020 - Equipment shortages, scarce beds and poorly-paid doctors and nurses: Africa is finding that it...
Covid-19: Africa update as of March 23, 2020
March 23, 2020 - Democratic Republic of Congo's second largest city began a 48-hour lockdown and three more African...
Covid-19: Morocco deploys troops on the streets
Rabat, March 22, 2020 - Groups of Moroccans went out to pray and to protest in the streets at the weekend, defying...
![The latest development on Covid-19 [21 March update]F](https://north-africa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/covid19-2-1-300x250.jpg)
The latest development on Covid-19 [21 March update]
March 21, 2020 - Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: Nearly one billion people confined to...
Libya: Night-time curfew in Libya to thwart Covirus-19
Tripoli, March 21, 2020 - Libya's UN-recognised government declared a night-time curfew and closure of public spaces...
Egypt suspends religious gatherings, shuts down mosques and churches
Cairo, March 21, 2020 - Egypt's religious authorities ordered Saturday the closure of all mosques and churches and...
Tunisia’s total confinement approach
Tunis, March 20, 2020 - Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday declared a nationwide, round-the-clock self-isolation...
Algeria: The empty streets of Algiers
Algiers, March 20, 2020 - For the first time in over a year, the streets of the Algerian capital were quiet and almost...
Africa: Beware of the chloroquine rush, warn Nigerians
Lagos, March 20, 2020 - Authorities in Nigerian megacity Lagos said Friday that hospitals had seen cases of...
Egypt’s prisons could become death traps for inmates and political prisoners
Cairo, March 20, 2020 (By Farid Farid) - In Egypt's overcrowded and putrid jails, families of prisoners fear a...
Africans doing their best to thwart Covid-19 in a tough environment
Lagos, March 20, 2020 (By Max Delany - Photo: Cape Town, Tim Johnson @timalanjohnson) - African countries led by...
Editorial: 2020, the exceptional year
Editorial by Arezki Daoud: It’s official, Covid-19 is now North Africa’s biggest problem, just as it is for the entire...
Egypt: Government shuts down the country
Cairo, March 19, 2020 - Egypt on Thursday ordered the overnight closure of cafes, restaurants, nightclubs and sporting...
Libya: Syrian airline accused of bringing into Libya people infected with coronavirus
WHO does not have good news for Africa, sees “worse” ahead
Ouagadougou, March 18, 2020 (AFP) - Sub-Saharan Africa on Wednesday recorded its first COVID-19 death, a high-ranking...
Moroccans brace for a period of “hibernation”
Rabat, March 18, 2020 - Morocco on Wednesday urged residents to stay home in an effort to contain the novel...
Despite global health crisis, Arab regimes continue to repress
March 18, 2020 - Egyptian police arrested four prominent women dissidents Wednesday after they demanded the release of...
Sahel and Sub-Sahara’s first coronavirus death
Ouagadougou, March 18, 2020 (By Armel Baily with David Esnault in Abidjan) - Sub-Saharan Africa's weeks-long reprieve...
Sahel | 18 March: First death from coronavirus in Burkina Faso
Middle East countries urged to come clean about their covid19 numbers
Cairo, March 18, 2020 - The World Health Organization urged Middle Eastern governments Wednesday to be more...
Egypt cracks down on foreign journalists for their reporting on Covid19
Cairo, March 17, 2020 - Egypt revoked the press credentials of a journalist for The Guardian and censured The New York...
Algeria prepares for a pause of the Hirak movement, president bans gatherings
Opposition figures in and outside of Algeria have been issuing statements calling for the halt in the anti-government...
17 March: Algeria and Tunisia announce mutual agreement to close land borders
Morocco arrests Salafist preacher for publicly opposing anti-coronavirus measures
The Moroccan authorities arrested Salafist Preacher Abou Naim for publicly opposing anti-coronavirus measures enacted...
Morocco: Second death and 10 more tested positive for Covid-19
A 75-year-old man, who tested positive to Covid-19, died on Tuesday, 17 March in Salé, Morocco, bringing the number of...
Tunisia goes after speculators taking advantage of the pandemic
Tunisia’s law enforcement authorities have upped their campaign to limit the damage of the speculative practices that...
Tunisia brings back loudspeakers to get its message out and fight coronavirus
MEA Risk brief: The municipality of Tunis resuscitated the old means of communicating official statements with...
Egypt: Hundreds of families north of Cairo quarantined after coronavirus death
Cairo, March 17, 2020 - Egypt has placed over 300 families under quarantine in a Delta village to stem the spread of...
Egypt: Covid-19 fallout, Hurghada resort and village in the Daqahliya on lockdown
Cairo, March 17, 2020 - Egypt on Tuesday locked down the Red Sea resort of Hurghada where a German tourist died of new...
Several Muslim countries close mosques, conservatives push back
Several Muslim countries have decided to close their mosques and ban collective prayers to protect their populations...
Authorities seek to appease population on food supply amid virus containment phase
Just as in many countries, North Africans have been flocking to their neighborhood markets, increasing their shopping...
Egypt to freeze flight activity, seeks complete closure
Cairo, March 16, 2020 - Egypt said on Monday all flights would be suspended until the end of the month to stem the...