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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 later this month as part of efforts to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. The church, which last month ordered the closure of churches and...
MENA (MidEast/North Africa) regimes increase their repression
Cairo, March 29, 2020 - Armoured vehicles in the streets, hundreds arrested, smartphone surveillance -- sweeping measures to fight the coronavirus have raised concerns in the Middle East over the erosion of already threatened human rights. As the world battles the...
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 monarchies, in the time of novel coronavirus millions of schoolchildren around the Arab world are now learning lessons at home. Governments across the region...
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 banned communal prayer gatherings to try and stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. The decision taken by the ministry of religious endowments, which...
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 potentially catastrophic coronavirus outbreak and are calling for their imminent release as the rest of the country hunkers down. Egypt has halted family...
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 world. In recent times, we have heard of, but from afar, diseases such as the Ebola virus in West Africa, the plague epidemic in Madagascar, and...
Egypt: Government shuts down the country
Cairo, March 19, 2020 - Egypt on Thursday ordered the overnight closure of cafes, restaurants, nightclubs and sporting clubs to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. The decision, issued by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli and carried in the official gazette,...
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 prisoners for fear of a coronavirus outbreaks in jails, their families said. The four activists and academics -- sisters Mona, Laila and Ahdaf...
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 Times Cairo bureau chief on Tuesday over "bad faith" reporting on the country's coronavirus cases. "The correspondents' rush to promote incorrect...
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 the new coronavirus after two deaths were recorded this month originating from the area. "We have confined more than 300 families to their homes where...
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 coronavirus earlier this month as it battles the spread of the disease. Hurghada is a magnet for tourists, including divers, who come year-round for...
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 spread of the coronavirus, in a move expected to hit the key tourism industry. "Flights will be suspended from Thursday until March 31," Prime Minister...
Egypt: Six suspected insurgents killed in Sinai
Cairo, March 16, 2020 - Egyptian police have killed six militants in a shootout in the restive northern Sinai region, the interior ministry said Monday. The firefight broke out as police forces raided a hideout of "terrorist elements" intent on carrying out "hostile...
Egypt: 20 killed in floods, as Egypt is unable to fix its crumbling infrastructure
Cairo, March 13, 2020 - Heavy rains and flooding have killed around 20 people in Egypt, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli said Friday, in what he described as some of the worst weather in several decades. In a statement posted on a government Facebook page, Madbouli...
North Africa coronavirus: 12 March 2020 update
Listen to the audio podcast above By Arezki Daoud: It is not total panic mode yet, but there is a feeling that the situation is bubbling up a bit more every day and could get out of control. Most of the pressure that has been building can be attributed to the hype...
Egypt: Foreign tourists stranded in Nile cruise over coronavirus flown back home
Luxor, Egypt, March 11, 2020 - Egyptian authorities said Wednesday that 46 French and US tourists who had been quarantined on a coronavirus-hit Nile cruise boat have flown home. They were among dozens of foreign tourists and Egyptian crew who had been either confined...
Egypt (8 March 2020): First death from coronavirus in Egypt
Egypt: First death in Egypt’s coronavirus outbreak
Luxor, Egypt, March 9, 2020 - Scores of foreign tourists and Egyptian crew Monday remained quarantined aboard a Nile River cruise ship from which 45 suspected coronavirus cases have been evacuated, people aboard told AFP. US, French and Indian nationals were among...
Egypt: New coronavirus cases detected in Egypt
Cairo, March 6, 2020 - Egypt detected 12 new cases Friday of the novel coronavirus among workers aboard a Nile cruise boat heading from Aswan to Luxor, a health ministry statement said. "Twelve new cases tested positive for the coronavirus among Egyptian staff on the...
Coronavirus exposes the deep divisions in the Arab world
March 4, 2020 - Egypt's government said Wednesday it will ban Qatari nationals from entry over fears of coronavirus after the oil-rich Gulf state took similar measures against people coming from Egypt. "A ban is to be imposed on Qatari citizens arriving through...
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