First Independent Mena Newspaper
Algerian business tycoons’ close ties with the opaque Algerian regime are making genuine reforms harder to implement as the country faces a crisis reminiscent of the era preceding the 1990s civil war. The Financial Times has published an analysis on the Algerian regime’s vested interest in business and how top businessmen owe their success to […]
The abundance of sun and wind is increasingly attracting foreign firms to invest in Morocco’s south, the Sahara, as the government set the target of generating 50% of its energy mix out of renewable sources. The recent announcement by Soluna, a New York-based computing company backed by Brookstone Partners, to build a wind-powered center in […]
King Mohammed VI has called for a new social contract and outlined a roadmap for a complete overhaul of social dysfunctions, calling on the Government and all the stakeholders concerned to undertake an in-depth, thorough restructuring of national social welfare programs and policies. The call came in the speech of the Throne the king addressed […]
Although it is self-evident that Algeria backs the separatist Polisario fronts militarily, financially and diplomatically, Algiers refuses to pull its head out of the sand and formally acknowledge its responsibility in perpetuating the Sahara conflict. While Algerian officials and diplomats maintain that their country is not concerned with the Sahara issue, the Polisario has unveiled […]
Respect for territorial integrity of member states is a sine qua non for achieving the long-sought integration of the Maghreb Union (AMU), Morocco’s Lower House Speaker Habib El Malki told AMU’s Secretary General Taieb Baccouche. During a meeting in Rabat, the two officials highlighted the wasted potential of the Maghreb as it continues to be […]
The Financial Times has unveiled the reasons behind the support of the corporate barons of the bid of ailing Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a 5th term in office despite uncertainties over his health. “The businessmen have been one of the biggest interest groups behind Bouteflika, aged 81-year old. All made their money under him,” […]
The EU has been thinking of outsourcing the management of migration and asylum to North African countries where most migrants are taking the perilous sea route to Europe. The idea of setting up migrant processing centers is winning support in the EU but has been met with utter rejection by Morocco, Algeria and tunisia. “Morocco […]
Algeria’s voice is becoming increasingly inaudible in the African Union as it continues to be rebuked by international NGOs for its ill-treatment of Sub-Saharan migrants. The 31st summit, held in Nouakchott July 1-2, clearly shows that the Pan-African organization is breaking free of the Algiers-Pretoria pro-Polisario axis, which has been using the African Union for […]
Morocco is reaping the benefits of its return to the African Union as the continental organization is gradually remedying its past biases in the Sahara issue by affirming that the UN is the sole body that can lead talks for a solution, while calling on Algeria and Mauritania to contribute to find a lasting settlement […]
Algeria has been slammed by international rights organizations and the media for its notoriously brutal treatment of Sub-Saharan migrants who are often abandoned in harsh conditions in the southern desert. A new report by the Associated Press that has investigated Algeria’s hostile policy towards Sub-Saharan migrants said that Algiers has abandoned more than 13,000 people […]