First Independent Mena Newspaper
Tunisian autocrat Kais Saied is intensifying crackdown to silence potential rivals as he seeks re-election in the presidential elections due in October. The president has ordered a campaign against critical voices in the media and civil society, drawing criticism from rights watchdogs. The most recent measures against political opponents included the arrest of Lotfi Mraihi, […]
The UN denounced widespread violations against refugees and migrants in Libya and Tunisia as it investigates a mass grave yard in the desert country. The U.N. human rights chief said the bodies of 65 migrants were found on the Tunisian-Libyan borders and raised concern over migrants’ rights violations. Both states are involved in these violations […]
The leader of Tunisian Republican Union Party, Lotfi Mraihi, who has announced his intention to run for President in the elections of October 2024, has been arrested by police on suspicion of money laundering. Mraihi is one of the most prominent critics of President Kais Saied who is tightening his grip on power and eliminating […]
Tunisia’s president kais Saied sacked his religious affairs minister after the death of dozens of Tunisian pilgrims. At least 49 Tunisians died in unspecified conditions during the Haj pilgrimage, triggering anger at the chaotic management of Tunisia’s official pilgrimage program. As a sign of his unstable governance, Saied has sacked several members of his cabinet […]
Tunisia has been mistreating migrants subjecting them to refoulement, as authorities continue to round up and throw migrants in Libya where they risk torture, Reuters reported citing an unpublished UN document. Tunisian authorities have been expelling African migrants to Libya, “where they have faced forced labor, extortion, torture and killing”, Reuters said citing a confidential […]
Hundreds of Tunisians are in jail for writing checks they were unable to pay in a debt imprisonment practice that destroys households and businesses in violation of international law, Human Rights Watch warned. In a 41-page report, HRW outlined the defaults of the archaic legislation on checks with insufficient funds, adding that sending insolvent people […]
The European Union’s migration deals with Tunisia and Mauritania have proved to be controversial, with the former strongly criticized for fundamental rights violations of migrants stranded in the north African country, while the latter has not discouraged thousands of Africans from increasingly going through Mauritania to reach European shores. In July 2023, the EU signed […]
Cash-strapped Tunisia will get 450 million euros from the European Investment Bank to fund small and medium-sized enterprises and infrastructure projects, the bank said. The financing deal will be signed on Thursday at the Tunisia Investment, the bank said in a statement, adding that the loan will benefit “high-impact projects for the population and the […]
Tunisia’s president seems to be courting Iran, in a shift that risks further isolating the cash-strapped country. Once an advocate of the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Tunisia under president Kais Saeid has made a U-turn surfing on the anti-Jewish rhetoric of its mentor Algeria and following a foreign policy current that threw it […]
Tunisia has added the final nail in Algeria’s attempt to create a Maghreb union that excludes and isolates Morocco. The Algerian president has spoken about a union in the making with Tunisia and Libya due to the inaction of the Maghreb union that also includes Mauritania and Morocco. Analysts have said that Tebboune was seeking […]