A court in Tunisia on Monday sentenced four potential challengers of President Kais Saied to prison and banned them from running for office, a move critics said was aimed at ensuring the incumbent’s reelection in the Oct. 6 presidential vote, Middle East Eye reported. The ruling...
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Last month, prominent Tunisian lawyer Sonia Dahmani was on a popular talk show addressing comments by President Kais Saied who alleged a conspiracy to push thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa into Tunisia. She wondered how that was possible, given the dire economic conditions in her...
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Sixteen-year-old Adam migrated with his father and younger brother from Sierra Leone in West Africa to Tunisia on the Mediterranean coast two years ago. Today, after their father was arrested in Algeria, the two brothers live on the street in Al Amra, a coastal city...
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Tunisian President Kais Saied rejected financial aid from the European Union, a move that could undermine a deal between Tunisia and the bloc to stop illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe, Reuters reported. Last month, the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, announced...
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Tunisian authorities expelled hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants from the port city of Sfax this week, part of a government crackdown on illegal migration amid racial tensions in the North African country, Agence France-Presse reported. Non-governmental organizations said security forces rounded up around 500 migrants and...
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Tunisia and the European Union signed a “strategic partnership” deal this week to boost the country’s economy and tackle the migration crisis affecting the bloc, amid a sharp increase in boats leaving the North African nation for Europe, the Middle East Eye reported. The agreement will...
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A security officer shot and killed six people at a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba this week, an attack that took place during an annual Jewish pilgrimage at one of Africa’s oldest synagogues, Sky News reported Wednesday. Tunisian officials said the unidentified gunman killed...
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Tunisian authorities closed the headquarters of the opposition party Ennahdha Tuesday, a day after its leader was arrested in what government critics have described as efforts by President Kais Saied to quash dissent, Al Jazeera reported. Party representatives said police raided Ennahdha’s building and ordered its...
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Tunisian President Kais Saied has recently been claiming that migrants originating from sub-Saharan Africa were coming to his North African country as part of a conspiracy to alter its largely Arab-Muslim culture. His comments came as part of a wave of violence against sub-Saharan migrants...
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Tunisian President Kais Saied dissolved the country’s municipal councils this week, a move critics say is another step toward dismantling the North African country’s democratic gains following the 2011 revolution, Africanews reported. The dissolution has come more than a month before the mandates of 350 mayors...
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Guinea and Ivory Coast began repatriating hundreds of their citizens from Tunisia this week after Tunisian President Kais Saied blamed sub-Saharan migrants for a rise in crime and accused them of attempting to erase Tunisia’s identity, Africanews reported Thursday. Ivorian officials said that the country’s national...
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Less than nine percent of registered voters showed up this weekend to vote in Tunisia’s parliamentary elections, a dismal turnout that is sparking questions over the legitimacy of the government following its takeover by President Kais Saied last year, the Middle East Eye reported Monday. Officials...
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The Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) recently attacked Tunisian President Kais Saied in the run-up to parliamentary elections on Dec. 17, raising the prospect of the union’s million-plus members going on strike and/or boycotting the polls. Already over the weekend, hundreds took to the streets in...
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Tunisian judges said they would continue their hunger strike against President Kais Saied’s controversial decision to dismiss them in what many observers call a rare act of protest for any judge anywhere in the world, the Washington Post reported Saturday. In June, Saied issued a decree...
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Tunisians went to the polls Monday to vote on a new constitution that would grant the country’s president significantly more power, and likely eliminate Tunisia’s democratic gains more than a decade after ousting autocratic leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last...
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Tunisian President Kais Saied presented a draft this week of a new constitution that would greatly expand his presidential powers, with critics and civil groups warning that it would slide the country back into authoritarianism, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. The draft document will give the...
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Commerce and public services ground to a halt in Tunisia recently as the country’s massive Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) went on strike to protest President Kais Saied’s economic plan. Saied has proposed wage freezes, subsidy cuts and other steps that the International Monetary Fund requires...
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Tunisia’s main trade union bloc launched a nationwide strike Thursday shutting down the country, and adding pressure to the already embattled president amid an ongoing political and economic crisis, Agence France-Presse reported. The UGTT confederation called on three million public sector workers to walk off their...
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Tunisian President Kais Saied launched a “national dialogue” this week to resolve the country’s political crisis following his controversial power grab last year even as he has excluded the opposition groups from participating, Agence France-Presse reported. The president said a commission will oversee “the national dialogue,”...
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Tunisian President Kais Saied dissolved parliament this week after lawmakers held an online session to repeal decrees that he used last year to assume near-total power, Reuters reported Thursday. More than half of all legislators took part in an online parliamentary session Wednesday, the first since...
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