First Independent Mena Newspaper
Algerian authorities are alarmed by the rising bill of refined products, which hit $2.5 billion in 2017 up from 800 million in 2016 due to a surge in domestic demand and lack of national refining industry. As Algeria feels the heat of an economic and financial crisis propelled by the oil price plunge, the country […]
A German court has sentenced an Algerian man to a year and nine months in prison for supporting the Islamic State group and for attempting to recruit and smuggle a would-be jihadist fighter to terror hotbeds in Syria. The Berlin district court said it convicted the 32-year-old, identified only as Fayssal M.B., for supporting a […]
Civil society associations in Guinea, Gabon and Niger have urged the African Union to put the issue of the human rights violations by Algerian authorities against Sub-Saharan migrants on the agenda as Algiers continues arbitrary expulsions of would-be migrants who are often abandoned in the desert on the borders with Niger. At a time the […]
Human Rights Watch has denounced the systematic violations of freedom of speech, assembly & association despite constitutional amendments guaranteeing these rights. Algerian authorities continued to resort in 2017 to criminal prosecutions for peaceful speech. They have also continued to ban demonstrations in Algiers, says HRW in its report 2018. The document says Algerian authorities routinely […]
President Alpha Condé has recalled Guinea’s Ambassador in Algiers in protest over the inhuman treatment endured by Sub-Saharan migrants in Algeria. The decision by Condé, who is also Chairman of the African Union, will draw attention to the double speak of Algeria, which aspires to have a voice in Africa while mistreating Africans on its […]
Morocco is set to be a major player within the African Union by integrating its supreme decision making body on peace and security issues: the Peace and Security Council (PSC). Morocco’s ambition to be member of the most important body within the African Union was expressed by Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita during talks recently in […]
Morocco has been described as one of the few safest countries in the globe for travelers by the US travel advisory issued by the US Department, while Algeria has been included in tier 2 danger requiring “increased precaution” due to the threat of terrorism. The contrast reflects the security gap in the Maghreb between oil-rich […]
Battered by a sharp decline in its international reserves, Algeria made of tourism a key sector to relieve its economy from an acute dependency on oil revenues. However, little is done to boost the contribution of tourism in GDP, which remains limited to 1.4% in 2016 with most tourists being Algerian expatriates returning to visit […]
The Polisario is set to occupy the border crossing linking Morocco to Mauritania through its repetitive acts of banditry in the area that is supposed to remain demilitarized under the UN sponsored 1991 ceasefire agreement in the Sahara. Few days after barring the road to participants in a desert rally departing from Dakhla and bound […]
Emboldened by Algeria’s military and diplomatic cover, the Polisario inaugurated 2018 with a resumption of provocations in the Guerguarat area, the southernmost tip of Morocco’s southern provinces, the Sahara. Three armed Polisario men have barred the road for an hour and a half to participants in the Desert Sahara Challenge rally competition departing from Dakhla […]