First Independent Mena Newspaper
About 500 people stormed Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla on Tuesday (18 March), which is the largest number to force their way across the border in almost a decade as increasing naval patrols discourage entry into the territory by sea. Spain has two enclaves in Morocco – Melilla and Ceuta – and migrants mainly […]
The United Nations has been informed that Morocco would brush up its migration policy so that about 40,000 currently illegal migrants are to be given an official migrant status. Since its implementation ten years ago, Morocco’s migration policy has been hailed as an example of a successful government policy. The European Union as well as […]
As a result of Uganda’s latest discriminatory law against homosexuals, a number of EU countries have expressed their intention to cancel development aid for the country. Despite warnings of the international community, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, gave its ‘yes’ to an anti-gay bill that introduces an “aggravated homosexuality” offence, which is punishable by life imprisonment. […]
First Paris and then Brussels announced last Friday (14 February) that they would boost their peace-keeping forces in the strife-torn Central African Republic. Following a meeting of the national Defence Council at the Elysée Palace, France announced it would deploy 400 more soldiers and gendarmes, bringing its total forces in its former colony to 2,000. […]
Three years down the road from the wave of Arab Spring revolutions that affected the Middle East and North Africa region, MENA economies remain depressed. Egypt’s gross domestic product contracted by about 3 percent in the second quarter of 2013 while the growth rate amounted to only 2 percent last year, when compared to 2.3 […]
In a move to restore its economy after the 2011 uprising, Tunisia plans to issue for the first time an Islamic bond or sukuk worth 700m dinars ($435.85m) with the guarantee of the Islamic Development Bank and $1.8bn in new foreign bonds this year; $880m guaranteed by the United States and $1bn guaranteed by Japan. […]
A resolution authorising European Union troops to use force in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been torn apart by inter-religious violence over the past few months, was approved in a crucial UN Security Council earlier this week. This follows the EU’s own approval of a military operation, in which up to 600 soldiers […]
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (20 January) agreed to dispatch a battalion-sized force counting up to 1,000 soldiers to Central African Republic (CAR) to help to stabilize the war-torn African country. Being effectively the EU’s first major army operation in six years, the intervention by the 28-nation bloc comes after UN […]
Morocco has stressed the need to foster trust between the parties to the Middle East peace process and urged these parties to show the much needed sense of realism and spirit of compromise in order to push forward the peace process. The call was launched by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI during the opening of the […]
The Al-Quds Committee which is holding its 20th session in Marrakesh this January 17-18 under the presidency of Mohammed VI, King of Morocco and chairman of the Committee, is poised to send a strong message to Israel about its unlawful practices in the holy city, deemed by Muslims, Christians and Jews as a common heritage. […]