While France is retreating from Africa and Washington DC is struggling to figure out Trump's "America First" policy,...
EU Report Accuses Tunisia of Migrant Trafficking to Libya
A report, presented to the European Parliament on January 29 by a group of researchers, accuses Tunisia of deporting...
Franco-Algerian Diplomatic Relations in Turmoil
The Franco-Algerian diplomatic relations are going through a turbulent period. The latest signs of discord between...
More from the Maghreb
Algeria: Ten dead as bus falls into ravine near Bouira
At least ten people died and 25 others were injured after their bus fell into a ravine in northeastern Algeria on...
Tunisia in damage control campaign after president’s remarks on migrants
By Ezzedine Said: Tunisia's top diplomat sought to "reassure" sub-Saharan African migrants on Monday, in an interview...
Close advisor to Vladimir Putin, Nikolai Patrushev, in official visit to Algeria
The head of Algeria's army hosted Russia's top security official on Monday to discuss boosting their military ties,...
Libya: New hopes of presidential and legislative elections in Libya this year.
The UN envoy to Libya on Monday announced a push to help the country organize presidential and legislative elections...
Russian soldiers in the Algerian Sahara ($)
Algeria has apparently taken a distance from Russia, largely under pressure from the west, but also due to factions of...
Tunisia arrests secular opposition politician Jawhar Ben Mbarek
Tunisian security forces have arrested Jawhar Ben Mbarek, the most prominent opposition figure to be rounded up in an...
Tunisia: Presidential ‘hate speech’ on migrants causes public outcry
Tunisian rights groups accused on Wednesday President Kais Saied of racism and hate speech after he said "hordes" of...
Tunisia: Judicial harassment against former Parliamentary Speaker Rached Ghannouchi intensifies
Tunisia's former parliamentary speaker Rached Ghannouchi appeared in court Tuesday on new terror-related charges after...
Morocco: Appeals court reduces sentence of rights activist Rida Benotmane but he is still in prison
A Moroccan appeals court halved the sentence of rights activist Rida Benotmane, jailed for social media posts calling...
Algeria arrests four over dissident who fled to France
Algerian authorities have placed four people in pre-trial detention over the "illegal" departure of wanted...
Egyptian Coptic Christians who were kidnapped in Libya are still detained in an illegal immigration center
Egypt's government said Friday it was "working around the clock" to secure the release of six Egyptian Coptic...
How Morocco’s image is taking a beating at the European Parliament ($)
Morocco’s image in the European Parliament has taken a hit these days with its members (MEPs) investigating...
Aviation: Post-Covid Africa remains lackluster market for Boeing and Airbus ($)
Over the past three years, African airline carriers have been dormant on the procurement front. The Covid pandemic and...
Africa says it wants to tackle the forgotten Libyan conflict
Arezki's Take: There have been so many conferences organized by Libya's North African neighbors, European nations, the...
Africa: Troubled African nations say they want to restore some “democratic” order
By Hillary Orinde: The African Union insisted on Sunday it had "zero tolerance" for undemocratic changes of power and...
Morocco: Inflation exceeds 8%, unions protest economic hardship, defy government’s ban on marches
Moroccan trade union activists protested Sunday in the capital Rabat and other cities to denounce surging costs of...
Algeria arrests analyst Raouf Farrah, keeps elderly mother of opposition figure under court supervision
The mother of prominent French-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui has been released from custody but remains under court...
Tunisia: Police call head of dissolved opposition party Ennahdha for more questioning
The head of Tunisia's dissolved parliament is facing a new police inquiry, his Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party said...
Belgian police detain Member of European Parliament in alleged Morocco/Qatar bribery scandal
Police on Friday detained a Belgian European Parliament member for questioning after searching a bank safe belonging...
Construction of a Morocco-Spain tunnel under consideration but challenges abound
By Valentin Bontemps: In limbo for years, plans for a tunnel linking Spain and Morocco have been officially revived by...
Algeria sentences ex-president’s brother and advisor Said Bouteflika to 12 years in prison
An Algerian court has sentenced the brother of ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to 12 years in prison for...
Algerian regime’s fixation on all and any domestic opposition turns into paranoia
By Abdellah Cheballah: Algeria recalled on Wednesday its envoy to France "for consultations" after Paris intervened to...
Morocco: European Parliament to launch hearing on Morocco’s alleged use of Pegasus spyware, Morocco denies claim
The Moroccan parliament decried Wednesday an "unjust campaign" against it at the European Parliament ahead of a...
Tunisia: Attacks against trade union leaders could backfire on beleaguered President Kais Saied
Dozens of Tunisian civil society organisations,parties and political figures on Thursday voiced their "full support"...
Morocco: Man sets himself ablaze outside Morocco consulate in Madrid, motives unknown
A Moroccan man sustained serious injuries after setting himself on fire outside the Moroccan consulate in Madrid on...
Tunisia foreign minister Othman Jerandi fired
Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday fired the country's top diplomat -- the fourth minister to lose his post this...
Devastation in Turkey and Syria: Death toll from quakes nears 8,000, figure likely to increase sharply
By Remi Banet with Youssef Karwashan in Aleppo: Rescuers in Turkey and Syria battled bitter cold Tuesday in a race...
Tunisia reopens case of two politicians murdered ten years ago
Tunisia's justice ministry said Monday it had set up a special commission to examine files relating to the...
Tunisia: Government of Kais Saied now targets trade union leaders
A powerful Tunisian trade union Wednesday condemned the arrest of one of its top officials, saying it was linked to...
Energy: Libya says agreement on major gas development project reached with Italy’s ENI
Libya's National Oil Corporation said Wednesday it had reached an $8-billion deal with Italian energy giant ENI to...
Energy: New Italian PM heads to Algeria to secure more gas
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed Monday to strengthen energy cooperation with Africa's top gas exporter...
Morocco: Criticized by EU Parliament, Rabat hits back in what could become a diplomatic row
Moroccan lawmakers on Monday voted unanimously to review ties with the European Parliament, accusing it of meddling...
Tunisia: Opposition figure Seifeddine Makhlouf sentenced to prison by military court for “insulting police
Plainclothes security officers in Tunisia detained a prominent critic of President Kais Saied in the early hours of...
Western Sahara: Brahim Ghali reelected head of Polisario Front
The Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western Sahara, re-elected its leader Friday in its first vote since...
Economy: Tunisia gets food donations from Libya
Food shortages and rising cost of commodities in Tunisia: briefly explained Conflict-wracked Libya donated several...
Algerian: Independent journalist Ihsane el-Kadi still in prison
Rights group Amnesty International urged Algeria on Tuesday to immediately release prominent jailed journalist Ihsane...
Morocco: Euro Parliament concerned about press freedom in Morocco as kingdom denies corruption allegations
The European Parliament on Thursday condemned what it described as a decline in press freedom in Morocco, saying it...
Morocco among top sources of illegal immigration to Switzerland
Illegal immigration into Switzerland almost tripled last year, the government announced Thursday, citing a recent...
Algeria: Sheltered abroad, ex energy minister Chakib Khelil sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption
A former Algerian energy minister was sentenced in absentia Thursday to 20 years in prison for corruption, the latest...
Migrations: Italy tells Tunisia to help reduce irregular migration in exchange of more legal migrant inflow
Italy is prepared to allow more Tunisians to reach its shores legally in exchange for greater efforts to cut irregular...
Algeria: Opposition figure Rachid Nekkaz freed from prison after he allegedly vowed to quit politics
An Algerian businessman and activist imprisoned for urging a boycott of the country's 2019 presidential election was...
Tunisia: President faces public discontent over economy
Thousands of Tunisians marched Saturday in the capital to protest against President Kais Saied, whom they accuse of...
Morocco in Spanish court over journalist accusing Rabat of spying on him with Pegasus spyware
By Christian Chaise: Morocco on Friday called on a Madrid court to exonerate the kingdom of repeated claims by a...
Western Sahara: Polisario leader Brahim Ghali expected to be reelected after ongoing Congress meeting
The Polisario movement, which seeks independence in disputed Western Sahara, started meeting Friday for leadership...
Tunisia: Nine women sentenced to prison for plotting to kill government minister
Tunisia has jailed nine members of an all-women "terrorist" gang accused of plotting to assassinate a government...
Libya: CIA Director William Burns meets with leaders of Libya’s rival governments
CIA chief William Burns has met Libya's interim premier weeks after the authorities handed the United States a suspect...
Insurgencies: Three alleged members of Islamic State group arrested in Morocco and Spain
Moroccan and Spanish authorities have broken up a jihadist cell linked to the Islamic State group and arrested its...
Podcast: Sahel and North Africa week in review 7 Jan 2023
Greetings to our second episode of Week in Review and a quick summary of what we are tracking in the Sahel and in...
Tunisia facing daunting economic outlook, headed to IMF bailout
Tunisia faces a year of low economic growth and runaway inflation, and urgently needs a bailout deal with the...
Spain cracks down on use and abuse of undocumented migrants in agriculture
Spanish police said Thursday they have broken up a criminal group that exploited undocumented migrant workers in the...
Tunisia lawyers protest tax hike on legal services
Dozens of Tunisian lawyers protested on Thursday against newly imposed taxes on legal services, part of a 2023 budget...
Morocco: EU parliament worker and boyfriend of arrested Greek MEP implicates Morocco in corruption scandal
The EU on Wednesday defended a trip by its top diplomat to Morocco, which has been linked, along with Qatar, to a...
Morocco’s argan industry in need of stimulus
By Kaouther Larbi: Morocco's argan oil is highly prized by the cosmetics industry, yet it is now mostly produced by...
Tunisia looking to stabilize its economy with new development plan
The Tunisian government on Tuesday presented a three-year development plan that relies heavily on private sector...
Tunisia: President on the offensive to eliminate the opposition
The main coalition against Tunisian President Kais Saied said Tuesday his administration was using the judiciary to...
Migration: Tragedy at sea with dead-by-drowning of 13 Moroccan migrants in failed sea crossing
The bodies of 13 Moroccans have been recovered after their boat sank off the country's southern coast while attempting...
Covid-19: Ban on entry into Morocco for travelers from China takes effect on 3 January
Morocco said Saturday it will ban entry to all travellers from China, where cases of Covid-19 have exploded. Other...
Morocco: Migrant incursions from Morocco to Melilla on new year’s eve
A group of Moroccans entered Spain's Melilla enclave overnight Saturday-Sunday, a rights group said, out of dozens...
Tunisia: Rough start of the year for commuters in Tunis, as tram and bus workers go on strike
Tram and bus workers in the Tunisian capital staged a strike over delays in salaries and the lack of an end-of-year...
Libya: 35-year-old Lockerbie bombing case gets into Libyan politics
By Jihad Dorgham: Libya's Tripoli-based leadership is facing a public backlash for handing Washington a suspect in the...
Morocco: French national seeks UN help to fight extradition to US from Morocco
The lawyer of a Frenchman held in Morocco and fighting extradition to the United States for alleged hacking told AFP...
Algeria makes baby steps to stimulate tourism sector, but just in the Sahara
Algeria will allow foreign tourists heading to its vast desert south to obtain visas on arrival, part of efforts to...
Tunisian president fights back against critics after disastrous election results
Tunisia's President Kais Saied on Wednesday played down massive abstention in this month's parliamentary elections and...
Tunisian regime seeks to strip judges of immunity before charging them of terrorism
Tunisian prosecutors asked the top judicial body to strip 13 judges of immunity so they can be tried on terror...
Algeria’s political police arrest independent journalist El Kadi Ihsane
The Algerian political police secret services arrest the journalist El Kadi Ihsane and close the premises of the Radio...
Libya: Treating each other as enemies, Libyan leaders carry out prisoner swap
Libya's unity government has carried out a prisoner exchange with rival eastern forces, releasing a pilot captured...
Tunisia: While waiting for an international bailout, Tunisia looks to raise taxes to stay afloat
Tunisia's finance minister unveiled a budget Monday aiming to use new tax revenues to claw the deficit back to near...
Tunisia electoral board sues media outlets for “attacking dignity of voters”
Tunisian rights groups on Tuesday accused the electoral authority of "threatening" press freedom, after it sued...
Morocco sentences for migrants over Melilla tragedy ‘unjust’: rights group
A Moroccan rights group on Saturday slammed "unjust" punishments given to migrants sentenced over a mass attempted...
Tunisia deports migrants, rights group calls move “repressive and inhumane”
A Tunisian rights group condemned Sunday a "repressive and inhumane" government decision to deport a group of migrants...
Tunisia’s UGTT labor union urges action to end political stalemate
A powerful Tunisian trade union called Wednesday for a road map to "save" the country from a slide back to autocracy,...
Algeria troubled by Europe’s gas price cap
Africa's top gas exporter Algeria on Tuesday spoke out against a European Union price cap on natural gas, saying it...
Tunisia: Political crisis worsens with arrest of former PM Laarayedh
Tunisian police have arrested former prime minister Ali Laarayedh, his Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party said Tuesday,...
Libya: Mercenaries of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar accused of war crimes
Amnesty International accused Monday an eastern Libyan armed group of committing war crimes and serious abuses to...
Libya: Court in Tripoli sentences 17 IS members to death
A Libyan court on Monday sentenced 17 people to death after finding them guilty of joining the Islamic State group and...
France set to readjust visa issuance policy for Maghreb visitors
By Delphine Touitou: France and Morocco announced Friday they were mending fences after months of tensions over visas,...
Algeria: Activist Slimane Bouhafs sentenced to prison
An Algerian activist who had refugee status in Tunisia but was mysteriously returned to face trial in Algeria was...
Tunisia: President faces turmoil after election turnout fell below 9%
By Kaouther Larbi and Francoise Kadri: Tunisia plunged into political uncertainty Sunday as its main opposition...
Morocco makes history, reaches semifinals at World Cup 2022
COMMENTARY By Arezki Daoud: Morocco has achieved a miracle. Its victory over Portugal to reach the semifinals of...
While Algerian gas keeps flowing into Spain, trade between the two is frozen
By Valentin Bontemps: Six months after Algeria cut ties with Spain following a spat over disputed Western Sahara,...
Spain looks for 12 who fled plane after ’emergency landing’
Spanish police were still searching for 12 passengers who fled their plane Wednesday after an emergency landing at...
Morocco’s fertilizer export earnings to reach new records, used in diplomatic competition
By Ismail Bellaouali: A global fertiliser supply shock deepened by Russia's Ukraine invasion has brought boom times...
Tunisian migrants increasingly eyeing Germany as a destination
By Françoise Kadri: Germany is becoming a key destination for disillusioned young Tunisians despite a language barrier...
Morocco: Social protests erupt in Morocco
Protesters turned out in force to march in Morocco's capital Rabat Sunday to denounce the "high cost of living and...
Algeria’s Rai music is now on the UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list
Raucous, expressive and revolutionary: Algeria's Rai music took its place on the United Nations' list of intangible...
European plane maker Airbus to pay less than 16 mil. euro to avoid corruption probe
A French judge on Wednesday allowed European aerospace firm Airbus to pay 15.9 million euros ($16.4 million) to avoid...
Tunisia: Harissa chili paste gets UNESCO heritage status
UNESCO on Thursday added Tunisia's spicy national condiment Harissa to its list of intangible cultural heritage,...
Podcast: Food shortages and rising cost of commodities in Tunisia: briefly explained
Arezki Daoud of MEA Risk and The North Africa Journal visited Tunisia this November and is bringing better...
Algeria sentences stunning number of people to death over forest fires
An Algerian court Thursday sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly...
Tunisia: Government accuses opposition party Ennahdha of sending fighters to Iraq and Syria
The speaker of Tunisia's dissolved parliament appeared on Monday before a judge investigating accusations his party...
UNESCO set to give Algerian Rai music and Tunisian Harissa heritage status
The French baguette, Algerian Rai music and Tunisia's harissa condiment are among this year's contenders for...
Tunisia: Dozen policemen get only 2 years in prison in case involving death of young man
Twelve Tunisian policemen were jailed for two years Thursday for manslaughter in the case of a 19-year-old football...
Morocco: Two million captagon pills seized in port of Tangier
Moroccan authorities Friday seized more than two million amphetamine-type captagon pills, foiling an "international...
Human Rights: Saudi Arabia jails Tunisian midwife for a retweet
The sister of a Tunisian woman jailed by Saudi Arabia for retweeting a post about Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on...
Western Sahara: As conflict persists, UN urges new talks
The UN Security Council called Thursday on the parties to the conflict over the disputed Western Sahara to resume...
Morocco: Gang of human smugglers arrested in Nador
Morocco arrests 32 migrants trying to reach Spain Moroccan police on Friday arrested 32 migrants as they tried to set...
Energy: Italian companies make new gains in Algeria’s gas infrastructure sector
Algeria's national petrochemicals firm Sonatrach said Thursday it had signed deals worth around $600 million with...
Tunisia: Company offering divorce service under attack for “undermining family values”
Tunisia's bar association claimed Monday a company offering a three-step pathway to divorce undermines family values,...
Libya: Tripoli-based government inks controversial defense agreements with Turkey
Libya's Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah signed two deals with Turkey's defence minister on Tuesday,...
Tunisia wants toddler migrant back after she reached Italy without parents
Tunisia said Wednesday it plans to repatriate a four-year-old girl who reached Italy aboard a boat with other...