First Independent Mena Newspaper
Morocco’s central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM), has issued a MAD 250 silver commemorative coin and a MAD 100 commemorative banknote to celebrate the 35th Africa Cup of Nations – AFCON Morocco 2025. The silver coin features a portrait of King Mohammed VI, with the inscription “Kingdom of Morocco” and Mohammed VI” in Arabic, the Tifinagh […]
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have officially launched a joint military force aimed at tackling Islamist insurgencies and cross-border insecurity, deepening their security cooperation outside the framework of West Africa’s ECOWAS bloc. The new formation, called the United Force of the Alliance of Sahel States (FU-AES), was unveiled on Dec 20 at an airbase in […]
Morocco’s government has approved a five percent minimum wage increase effective January 1, 2026, for non-agricultural sectors, establishing new legal remuneration thresholds businesses must observe. The Government Council approved the related decree this December, continuing multi-year wage enhancement dynamics. According to the Employment Ministry, the minimum interprofessional guaranteed wage will have progressed 20 percent during […]
The Algerian regime has suffered another humiliating diplomatic setback after Moscow excluded again Polisario from the Russia-Africa cooperation forum held over the weekend in Cairo. By excluding the separatist group from such an international event, Russia confirms its unwavering position that participation in its forums is open only to sovereign States recognized by the United […]
NATO Defense College (NDC) has commended Morocco’s role as a “strategic and trusted partner” for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The comment was made by the Alliance’s premier academic institution on its X account on the occasion of a working visit paid to the Kingdom over the weekend by a high-level NDC delegation. During this […]
When Zitouna TV aired secret clauses of the October 7 defense agreement between Tunisia and Algeria, the revelations sounded less like routine military cooperation and more like a blueprint for tutelage and vassalization. The leaked text grants Algerian forces the right to conduct incursions of up to 50 kilometers inside Tunisian territory and to intervene […]
Morocco’s central bank detailed in a recent report its efforts to reduce reliance on cash- which has been dominating the economy- and promoting mobile payments to boost financial inclusion. In its 2024 annual report on financial market infrastructure and payment systems, Bank Al-Maghrib outlined regulatory and operational measures aimed to address entrenched habits relying on […]
Lucía Jiménez, a Spanish journalist and human rights activist who spent decades campaigning for recognition of Canary Islands victims of terrorist attacks by the Polisario Front, died suddenly at the age of 60 from a heart attack in Málaga. Jiménez’s name became synonymous with efforts to give voice to civilians targeted during terrorist attacks against […]
Egypt’s Armed Forces have dismissed social media claims alleging that military officers were granted unlawful privileges, describing the reports as a coordinated misinformation, drive by hostile actors abroad. In a statement issued on Sunday, 21 December, the military said the circulating documents were falsely attributed to the institution and deliberately included names of retired or […]
More than 107,000 Sudanese civilians have been displaced from El-Fasher and surrounding villages in North Darfur amid worsening insecurity, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday, December 21. According to the UN agency, an estimated 107,294 people, representing about 24,221 families, fled the area between Oct. 26 and Dec. 8, after the paramilitary […]