First Independent Mena Newspaper
Africa’s cultural and natural heritage gained significant recognition at UNESCO’s 47th World Heritage Committee session in Paris, with five new sites inscribed and three historically threatened locations successfully removed from the danger list after decades of conservation efforts. The rescued sites demonstrate remarkable resilience through targeted interventions. Madagascar’s Atsinanana Rainforests, endangered since 2010, achieved restoration […]
Morocco continues to shine on the global tourism stage as Marrakech and Fez have been ranked in the top 10 best cities in Africa and the Middle East in the prestigious World’s Best Awards 2025, published by Travel + Leisure magazine. The annual ranking, based on votes from international readers, highlights cities that offer exceptional […]
Morocco’s culture ministry has reinforced its legal arsenal to combat the illicit appropriation and trafficking of its cultural heritage, with the signing of a new partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The agreement aims to better protect the country’s rich traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, and artifacts from misappropriation, particularly in the fashion and […]
A groundbreaking genetic study has revealed that ancient Moroccan populations played a foundational role in the emergence of Ancient Egypt’s early civilization. Published in Nature, the study presents the first fully sequenced genome of an individual from Egypt’s Old Kingdom (circa 2855–2570 BCE), showing that the majority of his ancestry traces back to Neolithic North […]
An Algerian appeals court has upheld a five-year prison sentence against renowned French Algerian author Boualem Sansal, intensifying concerns over freedom of expression in the North African country. The ruling also includes a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars (approximately $3,850). Sansal, 80, was convicted of “undermining national unity” under Article 87 bis of the Algerian […]
The Moroccan Atlantic city of Essaouira will host the 2026 Annual Conference of the Creative Cities Network of the UNESCO, becoming thus the first city in Africa and the Arab world to host the Network’s annual conference. The UNESCO said in a press release that this decision to hold the Annual Conference’s 18th session in […]
The 2025 Antiquity Prize, established by the prestigious archaeological journal Antiquity, has been awarded to the study of the Oued Beht site in Morocco. The archaeological fieldwork carried out in Morocco has uncovered a hitherto unknown early farming society from a poorly understood period of north-west African prehistory, revealing for the first time the importance […]
The book “Matières à rêver”, dedicated to the textile, clothing, and leather industries in Morocco, was released last week at the UNESCO Office for the Maghreb in Rabat. This richly illustrated documentary work features 70 original photographs that offer a unique immersion into one of the country’s most dynamic sectors, UNESCO noted in a press […]
The International University of Rabat (UIR) maintains for the 3rd consecutive year its 1st position at the national level in the prestigious International Times High Education (THE) Impact Rankings, out of 14 Moroccan universities which appear in the ranking issued this week. The International THE Impact Rankings measures the commitment of universities to achieving the […]
After nearly two decades of dormancy, Egypt and Mauritania have reactivated on May 27 their bilateral cooperation mechanism through the revival of the Joint Committee, signaling a strategic commitment to developmental diplomacy and South-South collaboration. The second session of the Committee, held in Nouakchott, underscored a shared ambition to recalibrate bilateral ties in line with […]