First Independent Mena Newspaper
The Moroccan and Algerian armies will both take part at the US-led Flintlock 2019 military games in Burkina Faso and Mauritania from February 18 to March 1, 2019. The two North African rivals have closed borders since 1994 with Algeria backing a separatist front that waged a war against Morocco until 1991. More than 2,000 […]
The ruling coalition in Algeria agreed to nominate President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a fifth term amid cries for election boycott. Ailing Bouteflika has yet to confirm. The 82-year-old president who has been in power since 1999 has not spoken in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013. “The parties of the presidential […]
Thirteen high ranking military officers have been arrested in Algeria at the orders of the army chief of staff Gaid Salah over alleged contact and support for retired army general Ali Ghediri who became last month the first figure in the country to announce his plans to run for April 2019 presidential elections. Local media […]
The province of El Oued in southeastern Algeria was rocked by violent clashes between disenchanted youth demanding jobs and better living conditions and Algerian security forces. The clashes take place in a climate of uncertainty in Algeria where the government failed to use the oil mantra to develop the long-neglected south. The protesters in the […]
The UN Security Council expressed on Thursday full support to the efforts made by the Personal envoy of the Secretary-General for the Sahara Horst Köhler to relaunch the Sahara negotiation process stalled since 2012 due to the intransigence of the Polisario and Algeria. In a press statement issued by the Council President José Singer Weisinger […]
Since the launch of the G5 counter-terrorism task force by Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad, Algeria has shown little if no support for the initiative, which it deems as a move by France to boost influence in what Algiers would love to become its backyard. Algeria’s stand against collective regional security efforts stands […]
Venezuela will reconsider in all likelihood its recognition of the Polisario separatist group under the administration of interim President Juan Guaido. Actually, Juan Guaido expressed his will to relaunch, on sound and serene bases, the relations of cooperation between Morocco and Venezuela, and to remove the obstacles, which could hamper their evolution. Juan Guaido expressed […]
The US Congress has included the Sahara into its aid program to Morocco in a move that translates the US administration’s recognition of the North African country’s sovereignty over the land. The decision means a victory for Morocco, comments local Al Massae daily, which notes that the decision was made possible thanks to the Democrats […]
The Personal Envoy of UN Secretary-General for the Sahara Horst Köhler briefed on Tuesday the Security Council on the first roundtable meeting held in Geneva Dec. 5-6 on the Sahara that brought together Morocco, Algeria, the Polisario and Mauritania. During this briefing and consultation held in accordance with resolution 2440, Köhler updated the Security Council […]
Algeria’s oldest opposition FFS party called for a mainstream boycott of the presidential elections set for April, stressing that it will present no candidate for the bid. “Conditions of democratic, free, fair and transparent elections are absent,” said the FFS national council. The party added that it will not lend support to any candidate in […]