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North Africa’s skilled workers looking to leave their countries in droves
Subscriber access: Algeria is experiencing a mass exodus of medical doctors and other skilled professionals, challenging its efforts to contain the Covid-19 crisis and deal with the other emerging crises. The public sector is the most affected, with doctors, nurses...
Return to authoritarianism fuels anger in the Arab world
By Ezzedine Said A military coup in Sudan has dealt another blow to democracy in the Arab world, months after a power grab by the president of Tunisia, where the 2011 Arab uprisings were born. For some, the latest setbacks spell the end of the democratic experiment in...
Tunisia: Nabil Karoui’s problems escalate after government closes Nessma TV
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...
Tunisia: President Saied annoyed by the opposition abroad, calls them traitors
Tunisian President Kais Saied on Thursday accused unnamed politicians of using refuge overseas to "plot" against the state, implicitly targeting one of his predecessors based in France. "Tunisia is a free and independent state and there can be no interference in its...
Tunisia cracks down on Islamist media
US criticizes Tunisia press crackdown The United States on Thursday criticized Tunisia's shuttering of a television station and urged a clear pathway to restore democratic rule. Authorities on Wednesday confiscated equipment of Zitouna TV, which is considered close to...
Tunisia: President Saied appoints fellow academic to run government
By Aymen Jamli: Tunisia's president on Wednesday named geologist Najla Bouden as the country's first ever female prime minister-designate, to form a government with limited executive clout after the president seized wide-ranging powers two months ago. The university...
Tunisia: Opposition rallies against president
About 2,000 Tunisians rallied in the capital on Sunday to protest against President Kais Saied's recent steps to tighten his grip on power, labelling it "a coup d'etat". Saied, who on July 25 sacked prime minister Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament and granted...
Tunisia: Trade union UGTT perplexed by president’s power grab
Tunisia's powerful UGTT trade union warned Friday against threats to the country's democracy after President Kais Saied implemented rule by decree and suspended parts of the constitution. The UGTT, which played a key role in the country's move towards democracy after...
Environment: Beach pollution in Tunisia
By Akim Rezgui with Francoise Kadri in Tunis: Tahar Jaouebi looks out from a beach south of Tunis remembering the 1990s, when the water was still clean enough to bathe in. "Now I can't swim any more, and neither can my son," he says. Jaouebi, 47, is one of hundreds of...
Algeria: Former Tunisian presidential candidate Karoui placed in pre-trial detention in Algeria
The runner-up in Tunisia's 2019 presidential election, Nabil Karoui, has been placed in pre-trial detention in neighbouring Algeria, accused of "entering the country illegally", local media reported Sunday. Karoui and his brother Ghazi, an MP, had faced a hearing...
Tunisia: The problem of arbitrary practices in Tunisia
The World Organisation Against Torture on Friday urged Tunisia's President Kais Saied -- who suspended the country's parliamentary democracy in a recent power-grab -- to end "arbitrary practises" and restrictions on freedom. Saied won the presidency in a 2019...
Regimes in Algeria and Tunisia gang up to kill democracy and human rights
Algeria-Tunisia: Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours Tunisian opposition politician and media owner Nabil Karoui and his brother, a member of the Tunisian parliament, were arrested by the Algerian authorities during a trip to the Algerian city of Tebessa, on the...
Tunisians confronting uncertainty
By Kaouther Larbi: Many people in Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of Tunisia's 2011 revolution that launched the Arab Spring, see President Kais Saied's power grab as a necessary evil. But there are also fears that last month's dismissal of parliament, sacking of the prime...
Tunisian businessman and ex presidential candidate Karoui arrested in Algeria
Liberal party leader Nabil Karoui, runner-up in Tunisia's 2019 presidential election that saw Kais Saied elected, has been arrested in Algeria along with his MP brother, media reports said Monday. The privately owned Radio Mosaique FM said border police arrested the...
Tunisia: Enjoying popular support, President Saied reasserts his authority, ups pressure on his opponents
Tunisian President Kais Saied has extended his suspension of parliament "until further notice", a month after sacking his prime minister and granting himself greater powers in a shock intervention that opponents decried as a coup. In a statement issued by the...
Tunisian president scores big wins with military support and Islamist party doing soul searching
Ennahda party looking for new directions Tunisia's Ennahdha party ready for 'self-critique' Tunisia's Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party said Thursday it was ready for "self-critique", days after president Kais Saied suspended parliament and sacked the prime minister....
Covid-19 in the Maghreb: More restrictions in Morocco, peak infection in Tunisia and panic in Algeria
Coronavirus: Latest global developments Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: - China outbreak – Millions of people are confined to their homes in China as the country tries to contain its largest outbreak in months with mass testing and travel...
Tunisian police arrest more parliamentarians critical to the president
Tunisian security forces have arrested two MPs from an Islamist party opposed to a power grab by President Kais Saied, their party said Sunday. Maher Zid and Mohamed Affes of Al-Karama have been placed in provisional detention in connection with a military...
Tunisia: Critic of president, Parliamentarian Yassine Ayari arrested
Tunisian security forces on Friday arrested a member of parliament who condemned President Kais Saied's power grab as a "military coup", his party said. The president's shock move, including a 30-day suspension of parliament, has plunged Tunisia into political...
Podcast: Understanding Tunisia’s political crisis in ten minutes
There has been unusual interest in the west about the political crisis engulfing Tunisia this week. Naturally Tunisia was always seen the cradle of the Jasmin Revolution, and the nation that showed the best prospect of democratization. But this week, the president...
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