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Tunisia: Landmines claim more lives in Kasserine, two children killed in blast
Two children were killed and a woman wounded in a landmine blast Thursday in a mountainous region of western Tunisia known as a base for jihadists, the government said. The explosion occurred on Mount Salloum, in a military zone in the marginalised region of...
Tunisia: Dozens of migrants drown off the coast of Sfax
At least 39 migrants drowned off Tunisia when two boats capsized on Tuesday, the defence ministry said, as numbers risking the dangerous crossing to Europe continue to rise. Rescuers pulled 165 survivors from the floundering boats out of the sea to safety. Defence...
Tunisia: Russia to deliver first batch of 30K Sputnik V doses to Tunisia
Tunisia said Monday the first coronavirus vaccines were set to arrive to start mass inoculation in the North African nation using Russia's Sputnik V jabs. An initial 30,000 doses are due to arrive Tuesday from Russia, followed by 500,000 doses "in coming weeks", a...
Tunisia: State companies on the brink of collapse
By Aymen Jamli - Tunisia's state-owned firms are in dire straits, facing a perfect storm of debt, mismanagement, the coronavirus pandemic and a decade of political instability that could push some to bankruptcy, experts say. Ten years since a revolution that overthrew...
Tunisia’s gender violence law struggles to get beyond paper
When Nadia told police about her husband's violence during a coronavirus lockdown in Tunisia, she nearly lost custody of her daughter, illustrating a chasm between a gender law and its enforcement. Adopted in 2017, the celebrated law greatly expanded the scope of...
Tunisia: Uproar in Tunisia over arrest of LGBT campaigner Rania Amdouni
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Tunisian capital Saturday to demand the release of a gay rights and democracy activist sentenced to jail for insulting police officers. Rania Amdouni, a 26-year-old LGBT rights campaigner often seen at pro-democracy...
Tunisia: Street protests and political standoff in Tunisia
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...
Covid-19: Tunisians adjust burial practices to cope with the coronavirus
By Aymen Jamli - Lotfi Jlassi stood facing Mecca beside the ambulance carrying the body of his brother, who died of Covid-19, and said a prayer -- one of the few rites still allowed in Tunisia's pared back funerals. In the North African country, hit hard by the...
Tunis Air CEO dismissed after month into job
Tunisia's transport minister on Monday fired the CEO of Tunisair, just over a month after naming her to revive the ailing national carrier's fortunes. Olfa Hamdi, an engineer educated in France and the US with experience in managing major enterprises, was dismissed...
Tunisia: IS claims killing of 4 Tunisia soldiers near Mount Mghila
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the February 3 killing of four soldiers in a rugged region of central Tunisia, SITE Intelligence Group reported. The US monitor of jihadist groups said late Thursday that the soldiers were killed in three blasts...
Covid-19: Tunisia postpones vaccination campaign to March
Tunisia will receive its coronavirus jabs in March, postponing the expected start of its vaccination campaign, a health official said Wednesday. The government had previously announced it was expecting an initial 94,000 doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca-Oxford jabs to...
Tunisia: Five killed by bootleg brew in Kasserine
Five people died and 25 others were hospitalised in Tunisia after drinking a bootleg brew reportedly containing alcohol intended for perfumes, health officials and local media said Monday. Abdelghani Chaabani, director of health of the central town of Kasserine, told...
Tunisia: As the world decriminalizes use of cannabis, Tunisian law remains stubbornly intransigent
Thirty years' jail for smoking a joint after a football game? Tunisia has seen calls for reforms to dictatorship-era drug laws after a court handed down heavy sentences to three young men. Tunisians have taken to social media to demand changes to the law after the...
Tunisia: Soldiers killed in blast during anti-terror sweep at Mount Mghila
A landmine killed four Tunisian soldiers on Wednesday during an counter-terrorism operation in mountainous central Tunisia, the defence ministry said. "Four soldiers who were part of a military unit tasked with carrying out a combing operation of Mount Mghila looking...
Tunisia: President’s aide briefly hospitalized after opening suspect letter
The Tunisian president's chief of staff has been hospitalised after handling a suspicious letter addressed to head of state Kais Saied, his office said Thursday, suggesting an attempted poisoning. Nadia Akacha had opened the envelope addressed to Saied but found it...
Tunisia investigating suspect letter sent to president
An investigation has been opened into a suspect letter addressed to Tunisia's President Kais Saied, his office said Wednesday, as media and Algeria's presidency spoke of an attempted poisoning. Tunisia's presidency said that the letter, opened by Saied's chief of...
Tunisia’s government dangerously sliding into repression
Mothers in the Tunisian capital are accusing authorities of arbitrarily arresting their children in response to several nights of unrest, with rights groups saying at least 1,000 people have been detained. "The policeman shoved the door of my building and arrested my...
Unable to govern, North African governments are using repression as their only tool in their toolbox
This week (ending 21 January 2021), Tunisia made the front pages of global media with Tunisians clashing with security forces over the past days to complain about their living conditions. The riots, which are still underway, have been taking place in several regions,...
Tunisia: Rights groups decry mass arrests in Tunisia
Tunisian security forces have arrested at least 1,000 people during six nights of urban unrest between disaffected youths and riot police, human rights and other non-government groups said Thursday. The North African country, where the Covid-19 pandemic has deepened...
Tunisia: Prime Minister recognizes “legitimate” anger of protesters but unrest continues
Young Tunisians clashed with security forces overnight and protest organisers called for anti-government rallies Wednesday after five days of riots in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi acknowledged their "legitimate" anger in a televised...
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