Tag: Tunisia

Tunisia president sacks defence minister amid political turmoil

Tunisian President Kais Saied sacked the defence minister Monday, a day after ousting the prime minister and suspending parliament, plunging the young democracy into constitutional crisis in the midst of a pandemic. Street clashes erupted Monday outside the army-barricaded parliament, after Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and ordered parliament closed for 30 days, a move the biggest political party Ennahdha decried as a “coup”. Saied declared on Sunday that he had “taken the necessary […]

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Tunisia hopes novel methods will aid virus fight

by Caroline Nelly Perrot Agence France-Presse TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) — The feared impact of coronavirus on Tunisia’s fragile public health system has provoked a flurry of innovation from robotics to digitalisation efforts to bolster the North African country’s pandemic response. The government has even turned to students for help, asking the engineering school in Sousse, south of the capital Tunis, to task its students with designing a locally made ventilator as their end-of-year project. Ventilators are […]

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Hundreds of Tunisians protest virus lockdown

MNILHA, Tunisia (AFP) — Several hundred Tunisians demonstrated in a working-class district of the capital Tuesday, demanding government support and protesting a week-old lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately impacted the poor. “Nevermind coronavirus, we’re going to die anyway! Let us work!” shouted one protester. “Let me at least bring bread home for my children,” the bricklayer told AFP. In poor areas like Mnilha and Ettadhamen on the outskirts of the Tunisian capital, […]

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Tunisia says, over 400 arrested for breaking virus curfew

TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) — Tunisian police arrested more than 400 people for breaking a night-time curfew imposed to fight the spread of coronavirus, the authorities said Monday. Around 30 of the 408 transgressors who were arrested remained in custody, while the others were released after a warning, Interior Minister Hichem Mechichi told reporters. “Anyone who breaks the security rules will be treated as a criminal because failing to respect rules within the context of the […]

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Blast targets US embassy in Tunis, attacker dead: police

TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) — An attacker targeted the US embassy in the Tunisian capital on Friday, causing an explosion and injuries among police before being killed, police said. The assailant tried to enter the embassy but was prevented by police who guarded the diplomatic mission in the Berges du Lac district, a police official said. Several police were wounded in the attack, the official added, without giving further details. “The operation was doomed to fail,” […]

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Seeds of hope: Young volunteers replant Tunisia forests

  by Caroline Nelly Perrot Agence France-Presse   SILIANA, Tunisia (AFP) – Around 40 young Tunisian volunteers gather on a bare hill in the central region of Siliana. Their weekend mission — revive a burned forest by planting Aleppo pine shoots. Hamdi, from the eastern city of Sfax, gets straight to work after travelling 250 kilometres (150 miles) to the marginalised region. A camping and hiking enthusiast, he found out about the initiative on Facebook. “It’s […]

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President falls ill as IS-claimed attacks hit Tunisia capital

by Kaouther Larbi TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) — Double suicide attacks shook Tunisia’s capital Thursday, even as the country was plunged into uncertainty with the hospitalization of President Beji Caid Essebsi who was said to be “seriously ill”. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying the “executors of the two attacks on Tunisian security elements” were its “fighters”, according to US-based monitor SITE Intelligence Group. The violence revived fears for the stability of the North African […]

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Tunisia says woman’s suicide bombing ‘isolated act’

TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) — A suicide attack by an unemployed graduate woman on a busy street in the Tunisian capital this week was an “isolated act”, a government minister said Tuesday. Mna Guebla detonated explosives Monday near a gathering of police cars in the upmarket Avenue Habib Bourguiba in central Tunis, wounding 15 officers and two teenagers in the first such attack in the city since 2015. Interior Minister Hichem Fourati, whose ministry is on […]

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Woman suicide bomber wounds 20 in first Tunis attack since 2015

by Kaouther Larbi Agence France Presse TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) — A female suicide bomber injured 20 people on a busy street in the center of the Tunisian capital on Monday, authorities said, after a three-year break in attacks in the city. “It’s a tragedy,” said Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, during a visit to the German capital Berlin. “We thought we had eradicated terrorism …(but it) is still in the heart of capital,” he said. […]

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Five killed in torrential Tunisia rains

by Fethi Belaid Agence France Presse NABEUL, Tunisia (AFP) — Flash floods in Tunisia’s Cap Bon peninsula have killed at least five people, authorities said Sunday, as surging waters caused by heavy rains carried away homes, cars and chunks of road. Saturday’s storm caused water levels in some areas to rise as much as 1.7 meters (5.6 feet), as bridges and roads were damaged in record rains that dropped the equivalent of nearly six months […]

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Tunisia celebrate first World Cup win for 40 years

  Saransk, Russia (AFP) — Tunisia won their first match at a World Cup for 40 years on Thursday, beating Panama 2-1 to leave Russia on a high. The North African side fell behind to a 33rd-minute own goal from Yassine Meriah but battled back to score twice in the second half through Fakhreddine Ben Youssef and Wahbi Khazri. Tunisia, ranked 21st in the world, finished third in Group G behind Belgium and England. “Today’s […]

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Kane grabs late winner for England, Belgium beat Panama

by Daniel Hicks © Agence France-Presse VOLGOGRAD, Russia (AFP) — Harry Kane grabbed a dramatic late winner for England on Monday, powering home a header in injury time of their World Cup opener after Belgium had earlier swept past Panama. Kane’s second goal of the game secured a 2-1 victory after it looked as if England had squandered their chance to take all three points after being rocked by a Tunsian equaliser which followed a bright […]

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