Libya’s only operational oil refinery was “severely” damaged after gunmen battled for three hours around the complex, the National Oil Corporation said. “The Zawiya Oil Complex was severely damaged as a result of skirmishes by armed groups,” Libya’s state oil company NOC said late Tuesday. “Those involved held no regard for the lives of workers […]
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday announced the lifting of the state of emergency in place since deadly jihadist attacks on Coptic Christian churches more than four years ago. The North African country has been under a state of emergency since April 2017 bombings of two Coptic churches by an Islamic State group affiliate […]
Morocco will spend a record 23 billion euros ($27 billion) on public investment in the coming year to right an economy shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, the economy minister announced on Tuesday. The government is planning to “mobilise public investment of 245 billion dirhams” (23 billion euros) during the 2022 financial year, Nadia Fettah Alaoui […]
Malian authorities have arrested a vice president of the country’s interim parliament for making “subversive remarks” on social media, two legal sources said. Issa Kaou N’Djim, an influential figure in the conflict-ridden Sahel state, was arrested in the capital Bamako on Tuesday, according to a court official who requested anonymity. The official added that the […]
Algeria will from now on deliver its natural gas to Spain exclusively through an undersea pipeline, ministers from both countries reportedly said Wednesday, after Algiers abandoned use of a line through Morocco. In August Algeria cut diplomatic ties with its Maghreb neighbour Morocco which it accused of “hostile actions.” Algeria, Africa’s biggest natural gas exporter, […]
Tunisia’s media authority on Wednesday ordered the closure of Nessma TV channel founded by defeated presidential candidate Nabil Karoui. The authority, known as HAICA, seized the channel’s broadcast equipment and said in a statement that Nessma TV was broadcasting without a licence. “Despite multiple letters and meetings, the channel continued its activities illegally,” the media […]
Extreme weather events in central Mali are complicating even further the lives of residents of the conflict-ridden region, the head of the ICRC warned this week. Robert Mardini, the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, ended a three-day trip to the Sahel state on Wednesday, which included a visit to a […]
Three people have died in floods in Tunisia after heavy rain storms battered the North African nation, a spokesman for the civil protection agency said on Sunday. In Thala, a town in northwest Tunisia, two people aged 20 and 27 died after their car was washed away by surging waters, agency spokesman Moez Triaa said. […]
Mali’s interim government has expelled the representative of West African bloc ECOWAS from the conflict-ridden and coup-prone country, the government said, over actions incompatible with his status. “The government of the Republic of Mali has decided to declare the ECOWAS special representative in Mali persona non grata, in view of his actions that are […]
A notorious French drug baron who skipped bail in March this year has been re-arrested in a Morocco hospital where he is being treated for a serious facial wound, security sources told AFP on Monday. Sofiane Hambli, a 46-year-old Franco-Algerian, used false papers to check himself into a hospital after suffering a 20-centimetre (eight-inch) gash […]
