UN urges Algeria to stop attacks on protesters The United Nations on Friday voiced concern about an increasing crackdown on a pro-democracy protest movement in Algeria, highlighting hundreds of arrests in recent weeks and torture allegations. UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters the rights situation was deteriorating and criticised the “continued and increasing […]
The United Nations warned Tuesday that bloodshed in northwestern Nigeria was fuelling an exodus into neighbouring Niger, where violence was also rising. The UN Refugee Agency said fear of armed groups and communal clashes in Nigeria had sent nearly 7,700 Nigerian refugees fleeing into Niger’s southern Maradi region since the start of the year. At […]
The German government said Wednesday it had called in the Moroccan ambassador in Berlin for “urgent” talks, after Rabat said it had suspended contacts with Germany’s embassy. “Yesterday, we summoned the Moroccan ambassador to urgent talks at the Foreign Ministry to clarify events reported in Morocco,” ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told a government press conference […]
Egyptian authorities on Tuesday executed 11 people convicted of murder, a security source said, in the latest cases of what rights campaigners have labelled “a horrifying execution spree”. Capital punishment for civilian convicts in Egypt, the most populous Arab country, is carried out by hanging. “Eleven people were executed at Borg al-Arab prison” near the […]
Some 2,000 Algerians, mostly students, rallied against the government Tuesday in defiance of lockdown measures, as their two-year-old pro-democracy protest movement resurges. For the second consecutive week, young protesters accompanied by lecturers and other supporters poured through central Algiers, shouting slogans demanding “a free and democratic Algeria” and an end to the military’s domination of […]
[Photo: Saleh Kebzabo] – Chad’s main opposition figure, Saleh Kebzabo, on Monday announced he was withdrawing from the country’s upcoming presidential elections, accusing veteran leader Idriss Deby Itno of using force to intimidate rivals after a deadly shootout at the home of another candidate. In a statement, Kebzabo said his party had decided “purely and […]
Unrest broke out late Sunday in a southern Algerian town after a blogger and activist was handed a seven-year jail sentence for condoning acts of terrorism, a news website reported. El Watan said protesters burnt tyres and blocked several roads in Ouargla, after a court in the town convicted Ameur Guerrache. In a video posted […]
Luxembourg, Feb 28, 2021 (AFP) – The European Court of Justice is next week to discuss EU-Morocco accords allowing Rabat to export goods from Western Sahara that are contested by the pro-independence Polisario Front. It is to hold two sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday but a ruling will take “several months”, a spokesman for the […]
Algerian police and biased judicial system still on the hunt The presidential pardon has not stopped the security authorities and the judicial machine from arresting people on the basis of their political views. The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) reported nearly 500 people were arrested in some 20 provinces in the […]
German charity Sea-Watch said Saturday it had saved nearly 150 migrants off the Libyan coast in two operations. Its Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship picked up 102 migrants on Saturday morning from a rubber dinghy in trouble, the organisation said on Twitter. The previous day the vessel had rescued 45 migrants, including 15 minors. The Sea […]
Tunisia’s main parliamentary bloc Ennahdha rallied thousands of people Saturday in a demonstration of support for the government amid a tug-of-war with President Kais Saied. The Islamist-inspired Ennahdha and liberal Qalb Tounes parties pushed for a reshuffling of the government by Prime minister Hichem Mechichi in mid-January, introducing 11 new ministers. Saied has strongly criticised […]
Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets across Algeria on Friday, as the “Hirak” pro-democracy movement gathers renewed momentum after a year-long hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite a ban on gatherings over Covid-19, crowds rallied in several neighbourhoods of the capital Algiers in the early afternoon after Friday prayers and marched toward […]
