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Tunisia: Train derailment near Msaken kills two, injures 34
Two people were killed and 34 injured when an overnight passenger train careered off the tracks and overturned in eastern Tunisia on Wednesday, the state-owned SNCFT rail company said. The accident occurred shortly after midnight (2300 GMT) when a train operating...
Tunisia frees journalist held after criticising penal code
A Tunisian journalist arrested after criticising a law that criminalises insulting the head of state was released on Thursday, he said after leaving court. Zied El Heni, 59, was kept in custody after being questioned on Tuesday evening over alleged "crimes through...
Tunisia protesters demand ‘political’ prisoners’ freedom
Hundreds of supporters of Tunisia's main opposition coalition on Sunday rallied to demand freedom for about 20 detained personalities and opponents of President Kais Saied. Up to 300 protesters, many carrying photographs of what they called the "political prisoners",...
Tunisia: Man stabs to death Brazil’s embassy guard in Tunis
An attacker fatally stabbed a security guard on Monday outside Brazil's embassy in Tunis before being shot and arrested, the Tunisian Interior Ministry said. The guard "was wounded by a sharp object" wielded "by a person he was questioning over the reason for his...
Tunisia: France to donate $28 million to Tunisia to buy equipment to counter migrant crossings
France announced on Monday nearly 26 million euros (around $28 million) in aid to Tunisia to help curb the flow of irregular migrants across the Mediterranean. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin (left in photo with Tunisian counterpart) announced the "bilateral...
Tunisia: Nejib Chebbi, leader of main opposition coalition, says president wants to destroy opposition
A key critic of Tunisian President Kais Saied called in for questioning over allegations of conspiracy against the state accused the president Friday of "criminalising" all opposition. Saied won a landslide victory in a 2019 presidential election but assumed sweeping...
Tunisia: EU considers aid to Tunisia to boost economy, reduce migrant flows
By Françoise Kadri: The European Union on Sunday said it is considering more than one billion euros in aid to boost crisis-hit Tunisia's economy and reduce the flow of irregular migrants across the Mediterranean Sea. The North African country, highly indebted and in...
Tunisia: Tunisia under pressure to accept IMF reforms
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday on Tunisia to agree to IMF reforms and avoid falling off an "economic cliff" after the European Union dangled a major aid package. Tunisian President Kais Saied has repeatedly refused "diktats" from the International...
Tunisia: Three jailed opposition leaders on hunger strike
Three leaders of Tunisia's once-dominant Ennahdha party are on a hunger strike to protest their detention under a crackdown against opponents of President Kais Saied, the party and a detainee's wife said Monday. One of them, Sahbi Atig, 64, a former leader of...
Tunisia: Army helicopter crashes at sea, killing four soldiers
Four Tunisian soldiers died when a military helicopter crashed into the sea off the country's northwest, President Kais Saied said Thursday, stressing the need "to renew military equipment". Offering his condolences to the bereaved families, the president said in a...
Migrant crisis: Italy wants IMF loan for Tunisia to shield self from migrant crisis
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday Rome backed efforts to secure an IMF bailout for Tunisia and support to tackle its growing migrant problem. She was speaking after talks in Tunis with President Kais Saied whose country is going through a dire...
Tunisia: Body of young girl found after migrant ships sink off the coast of Sfax
The Tunisian coastguard Friday recovered the body of a young girl thought to have drowned when two vessels carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean, a journalist working with AFP said. The body, dressed in a pink jumpsuit and grey woollen cap, was discovered by a...
Tunisia’s president considering taxing the wealthy to prevent IMF meddling
Tunisia's President Kais Saied on Thursday proposed taxing the North African country's wealthiest citizens as a way of avoiding what he has called the "diktats" of the International Monetary Fund. Despite reaching an agreement in principle last October on a bailout...
Tunisia says it arrested five “IS militants” in Sfax
Tunisia's national guard on Friday announced the arrest of a suspected Islamic State group member in possession of explosives who was planning "four simultaneous terrorist operations" in the country. The suspect was arrested in Tunisia's second city of Sfax on its...
Tunisia arrests two students for a song critical to police, then releases them under presidential pressure
A Tunisian court on Thursday released two students arrested earlier this week for a song criticising police, shortly after President Kais Saied denounced their detention as "unacceptable" amid a public outcry. Dhia Nassir and Youssef Chalbi, aged 26 and 27, were...
Tunisian president evokes ‘tolerance’ after synagogue attack
Tunisian President Kais Saied has hosted Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders following a deadly mass shooting outside a local synagogue, telling them Tunisia was a country of "tolerance and coexistence". The May 9 attack on the resort island of Djerba killed five...
Tunisia: Senior opposition figure Rached Ghannouchi gets one year in prison, as president moves to authoritarianism
The Tunisian Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party on Tuesday condemned the one-year prison sentence handed to its leader Rached Ghannouchi, calling it an "unjust political verdict". Ghannouchi, a leading opponent of President Kais Saied, was sentenced on Monday on...
Tunisia pushes for more judicial harassment against the media, arrests journalist Khalifa Guesmi
A Tunisian appeals court has handed a five-year jail term to a radio journalist for disclosing information about the security services, his lawyer said Tuesday. Khalifa Guesmi of the private Mosaique FM radio station had appealed a one-year jail term handed down in...
Tunisia: Five killed in terror attack on Jewish community in Djerba
By Fethi Belaid and Akim Rezgui: Tunisia's small Jewish community was in shock and mourning Wednesday after a bloody shooting rampage in which a police officer killed five people outside Africa's oldest synagogue. The shooting Tuesday sparked mass panic during an...
Tunisia: UGTT union chief rejects talks with IMF in fear of tough austerity measures
Tunisia's largest union on Monday attacked the government's handling of negotiations with the IMF on a loan to bail out the North African country as it slides deeper into debt. Tunisia is seeking a bailout package worth nearly $2 billion from the International...
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