First Independent Mena Newspaper
Algeria’s crude oil, Saharan blend, dropped below production costs and is now sold at a loss at $11.72 per barrel boding ill for the country’s struggling finances. Oil prices have plunged across the globe due to shortage of demand as the lockdown reduced economic activity worldwide. Analysts expect oil prices to remain at their lowest […]
Moroccan pharmacies are supplied daily with 4.5 million facemasks to enable citizens protect themselves against the coronavirus, said minister of industry & trade Moulay Hafid Elalamy. Speaking at a parliamentary question time on Tuesday, the minister said the country has 7 million masks in stock, which have become compulsory in the North African country since […]
World Athletics launched on Tuesday, upon the initiative of Moroccan former athletics star Hicham El Guerrouj, a $500,000 fund to support professional athletes experiencing financial hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fund, set up in partnership with the International Athletics Foundation (IAF), will be used to assist athletes who have lost most of their […]
An official in the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) has finger-pointed the UAE for attempting to divide war-torn Libya after its protégé Khalifa Haftar declared himself ruler of the oil-rich country. Mohamed Amari, member of the GNA, took to his Facebook page to castigate the Gulf country. He wrote that the Tripoli-based government was […]
The Conference of Heads of State and Government of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) decided to suspend temporarily the application of the Convergence, Stability, Growth and Solidarity Pact. The decision was made at an extraordinary session by videoconference on 27 April 2020 to address the health crisis in WAEMU countries. According to […]
Togolese Head of State Faure Gnassingbé will be sworn in on Sunday, May 3, 2020, the President of the Togolese Constitutional Court, Aboudou Assouma, announced. Re-elected on February 22, 2020, he will officially begin his 4th term of office at the end of this ceremony, which will be done in the most sober way because […]
US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has donated personal protective equipment to lab technicians of Moroccan National Institute of Hygiene to enhance their protection against coronavirus pandemic. “This equipment goes directly to safeguarding the lives of Morocco’s healthcare workers who are on the front lines in the fight against the novel coronavirus, helping them to […]
The Tunisian government Tuesday denied claims by the country’s leading LGBT group that it has approved a same marriage, adding that the North African country still does not recognize homosexuality, Webdo Tunis reports. Minister of Local Affairs, Lotfi Zitoun speaking in front of the Tunisian parliament squashed the controversy that birthed in the North African […]
The global coronavirus epidemic will knock 8.9 points off of Morocco’s economic growth in the second quarter of 2020, says Morocco’s Statistics agency (HCP). In its updated forecast for first semester of 2020, le “Haut Commissariat au Plan” says Covid-19 will cost the country $2.9 billion in economic loss due to a sharp drop in […]
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Morocco at ‘BBB-‘ rating and revised the Outlook on country’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to negative. The global rating agency explained the negative outlook by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Moroccan economy which will experience the sharpest GDP contraction in 25 years, besides a marked increase […]