Tag Archives: Tunis

At least 43 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy, while another 84 were rescued, the Tunisian Red Crescent told Reuters on Saturday. The boat had set off from Zuwara, on Libya’s northwest coast, carrying migrants from Egypt, Sudan, …

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi has been infected with the coronavirus, the government said on Friday. Mechichi received a COVID-19 vaccine last month. The prime minister will cancel his meetings and continue to work remotely, the government statement added. Tunisia is seeing a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, with intensive …

Violent protests erupted in the streets of Tunisia’s capital again on Saturday night, adding to the pressure on Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi’s government to crack down on police abuses. The clashes occurred in the Sejoumi neighborhood of Tunis and followed protests earlier in the day in the center of the …

At least 57 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off Tunis as they tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy and 33 were rescued, humanitarian organization Tunisian Red Crescent said on Tuesday. In recent weeks, drowning incidents have occurred off the Tunisian coast, with an increase in the frequency …

Tunisian security forces killed five suspected militants in the mountains near the border with Algeria on Monday, a Tunisian security official says. The operation, carried out by joint police and army forces in the Chaanabi mountains, is still continuing, he added. Six years ago an Islamic State terrorist group shot …

Tunisia prime minister-designate Hichem Mechichi said on Monday he will form a technocrat government without political parties, due to the disagreement between parties in the North Africa country. Mechichi’s decision will likely put him in confrontation with the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, the largest party in Parliament, which announced its …

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Saturday designated the interior minister as the new prime minister to succeed Elyes Fakhfakh, who resigned over allegations of a conflict of interest, the presidency said. New premier Hichem Mechichi pledged to respond to the social and economic demands that have spawned constant protests in …

The death toll from the sinking of a boat carrying migrants off the Tunisian coast has risen to 54 as more bodies were recovered during the search operations. The boat, heading for Italy’s coast on Saturday, sank off the Tunisian city of Sfax. Tunisian search teams recovered the bodies of …

A police robot has been deployed to patrol areas of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, to ensure that people are observing a coronavirus lockdown. If it spies anyone walking in the largely deserted streets, it approaches them and asks why they are out. They must then show their ID and other papers …

A policeman has been killed and several others have been wounded in an explosion outside the United States Embassy in the Tunisian capital, Tunis. Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said two assailants on a motorbike blew themselves up outside the embassy in the Lac district on Friday, adding that that attack also …

Tunisia has a new president. Kais Saied has been sworn in after winning a landslide victory in this month’s election. The low-profile law professor took the presidential oath of office before the parliament on Wednesday. Saied’s victory delivered a heavy blow to the established political elite, who have failed to …

Conservative political outsider Kais Saied has won Tunisia’s presidential election with 72.71 percent of votes, the North African country’s electoral commission said Monday. Saied garnered 2.7 million votes against one million received by his rival business tycoon Nabil Karoui in Sunday’s runoff, the commission said. Karoui conceded defeat earlier on …

Tunisia’s electoral commission said on Wednesday it had approved 26 candidates including two women for next month’s presidential election and had rejected 71 other applicants. The Sept. 15 vote follows the death at age 92 last month of Beji Caid Essebsi, the first president to be democratically elected in Tunisia …

Mourners and international delegates have gathered at Tunisia’s Carthage Palace to bid farewell to the country’s first democratically elected president Beji Caid Essebsi. The state funeral was attended by foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Spanish King Felipe VI, Algerian President Abdelkader …

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed decided Friday to ban the niqab Muslim face covering for women in Tunisian government offices “for security reasons”, his office said. It said Chahed signed a government circular “banning access to public administrations and institutions to anyone with their face covered… for security reasons”. The ban …

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb blast in the Tunisian capital earlier this week, the militant group’s Amaq news agency said on Thursday. A wanted militant wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in Tunis on Tuesday after being surrounded by police, the government said, but there …

At least one person is dead and several others injured after Tunisia’s capital was hit by two suicide bombings Thursday. The first blast occurred in central Tunis when a bomber targeted a police patrol on the city’s main thoroughfare, Charles De Gaulle Avenue, according to an Interior Ministry statement. A …