North Africa

Home >> North Africa

Libyan airstrikes target group attacking oil ports

Libyan forces carried out airstrikes against a militia attacking key oil ports in the east, a spokesman said as Libya's national oil firm warned Monday of further damage to oil infrastructure as well as environmental contamination in the north African country. A militia, led by Ibrahim...

Haftar forces launch push against militias in Libya oil crescent

The self-styled Libyan National Army loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar announced Sunday a "major offensive" to drive rival groups from the country's northeastern oil crescent. Armed groups on Thursday attacked the Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra terminals held by Haftar's forces around 650...

Tunisian security chiefs fired after mass migrant drowning

Tunisia's interior minister has fired 10 security officials amid an investigation into the sinking of a boat carrying migrants trying to reach Europe that left an estimated 112 dead or missing. It was the deadliest shipwreck this year on the dangerous route from North Africa...

Tunisia searches for survivors of deadly shipwreck

Tunisia's navy scoured choppy waters Monday for survivors and victims of the Mediterranean's worst shipwreck in months, with the UN migration agency warning more than 100 people may have been killed. A total of 68 survivors were rescued Sunday off the coast of Sfax in southern Tunisia, while...

Bodies of 11 migrants recovered off Tunisian coast: ministry

The bodies of 11 migrants have been recovered and 67 others rescued after their boat began sinking off Tunisia's southern coast, the interior ministry said Sunday. Those rescued from the fishing vessel off the coast of southern Sfax province included "Tunisians and foreigners", it said...

Russia's Lavrov discusses Syria, Ukraine with US counterpart: foreign ministry

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo spoke by phone Wednesday and discussed the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Lavrov and Pompeo agreed on the need to overcome differences in relations between...

First rights trial since 2011 revolt opens in Tunisia

A Tunisian court Tuesday heard the first round of cases brought by a commission probing human rights violations stretching back six decades, with 14 former officials, including the ousted dictator, on trial. The Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) was set up in 2014 following the revolt...

Paris conference seeks political roadmap for lawless Libya

Libya's rival leaders are meeting in Paris to agree on a political roadmap including elections, in an effort to bring order to Libya's chaos, which is feeding Islamist militants, traffics of all kind and instability in the region. Representatives of twenty countries, including Libya's...

Paris conference on Libya risks being 'counterproductive': ICG

A Paris conference seeking a political roadmap for Libya is at risk of being "counterproductive" for the conflict-riven country, the International Crisis Group warned Monday on the eve of the gathering. The conference will bring together Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, head of...

Libya breakthrough to be sought at Paris conference

Libya's rival leaders are expected in Paris next Tuesday under pressure to agree to a political roadmap for the war-struck country that could see elections held before the end of 2018, according to the French presidency. The major international conference dedicated to the oil-rich north...

Clashes intensify in east Libya as car bomb kills 2

Forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar engaged in fierce clashes around the city of Derna Tuesday, as two soldiers were killed in a car bomb and another was abducted from a checkpoint elsewhere in the east. The fighting south-west of Derna was the most intense since Haftar's...

Car bomb kills two soldiers in eastern Libya

At least two army personnel loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by Libya’s Tobruk-based parliament, were killed Tuesday in a car-bomb attack in eastern Libya. Libya’s Channel 218 television station reported that the car bomb blew up near Gate 60 outside the...

Thousands of Moroccans protest against US embassy move

More than 10,000 Moroccans chanting "Death to Israel" took to the streets of Casablanca Sunday to protest against the U.S. decision to move its embassy in Israel to occupied Jerusalem. The marchers carried Palestinian flags and placards that read "Al Quds (Jerusalem) Palestine's...

ICC seeks UN help in arresting 3 Libyan fugitives

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor requested help from the United Nations Security Council Wednesday to arrest three fugitives in Libya, including military strongman Khalifa Haftar and a son of the late leader Moammar Gadhafi. During a U.N. Security Council meeting,...

Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia at loggerheads on Nile dispute

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have failed again to make progress on their Nile dispute as Ethiopia works to complete a massive upstream dam, an Egyptian official said Tuesday. Egypt fears the Renaissance Dam will cut into its share of the river, which provides virtually all the freshwater for the...

Libya's Haftar announces offensive to capture Derna

Khalifa Haftar, commander of Libyan forces backed by the Tobruk-based parliament, has announced the launch of a military offensive to capture Libya's northeastern city of Derna. Derna was captured by the Shura Council of Mujahideen after the expulsion of Daesh from the city in 2014....

Tunisians vote in 1st municipal polls since uprising

Tunisians began on Sunday to vote in the country’s first local election since a popular uprising ousted autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) across the North African country. "We vote to improve municipal...

Suicide attack targets Libyan electoral commission offices in Tripoli - spokesman

A group of militants including a suicide bomber targeted the offices of the Libyan electoral commission in Tripoli Wednesday, a spokesman said. The assailants entered the offices and set them on fire, said spokesman Khaled Amar, who fled the building with other staff when it was...