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  • How the West hollowed out the Tunisian revolution

    Today is the tenth anniversary of the Tunisian uprising which toppled the authoritarian regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and marked the start of the so-called “Arab Spring”. During the past decade, this date has been a favourite occasion for many Western journalists and academics to weigh in on the state of Tunisian revolutionary activity. After a brief celebration of the Tunisian uprising as historical and exceptional in the immediate aftermath of Ben Ali’s downfall, a tendency emerged to frame the Tunisian democracy-building process as chaotic, disillusioning, and hopeless.

    Read more from the source : Aljazeera

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Tunisia, revolution, arab spring,

  • WFP Mauritania Country Brief, November 2020

    OPERATIONAL UPDATES

    • Lean season response ended in November 2020. A preliminary appraisal of WFP’s drought-response activities indicates the positive impacts of the response provided from May to September in the regions of Tagant and from June to November in Guidimakha, Assaba, Gorgol and Hodh El Charghi. According to several assessments (2019/2020), these regions are characterized with highest prevalence of food insecurity and malnutrition. A total of 147,667 people (63 percent of the general CSP target) received cash transfers as part of the general food distributions, including 16,400 girls, boys and pregnant and lactating women (PLWs) who also received fortified blended foods to prevent malnutrition.

    Read more from the source : Relief Web

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Mauritania, WFP, humanitarian aid,

  • Algerians impatient for change with president still out sick

    ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s first appearance since being hospitalised in Germany with COVID-19 in October was intended to reassure a country where big political decisions are long overdue. But on the streets of Algiers people voiced growing impatience after the five-minute video message he gave on Sunday saying he would still be away for up to three weeks. “Most of our demands are still awaiting a response,” said Ahmed Abbachi, a member of the leaderless protest movement known as Hirak.

    Read more from the source : Reuters

     

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Algeria, Abdelmajid Tebboune,

  • The strategic downfall of Morocco's normalisation

    US President Donald Trump startled Moroccans when he revealed brokering a normalisation deal with Rabat, as public attention was focused entirely on developments in the Sahara. However, the royal office statement made it clear that Morocco is engaging in a new phase in its regional positions. The deal, as revealed so far, comprises two components. Firstly, the US recognises Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces, sets up a consulate in Dakhla and invests $3 billion in the area. In return, Morocco normalises touristic, diplomatic, technological and economic relations with Israel.

    Read more from the source : Middle East Monitor

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Morocco Israel, Normalisation, 

  • James Baker blasts U.S. recognition of Moroccan claims to Western Sahara

    Former Secretary of State James Baker blasted the Trump administration for recognizing Western Sahara as Moroccan territory, writing in a Thursday op-ed the move “was an astounding retreat from the principles of international law and diplomacy”. “The United States has unwisely abandoned its principles for something that will make no difference to the position of the international community and to the resolution of the conflict,” Baker wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

    Read more from the source : Politico.com

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Western Sahara, James Baker,

  • Al-Qaeda names Algerian on UN terror list as new Maghreb chief

    PARIS – A veteran jihadist on UN and US terror lists was named al-Qaeda’s chief in North Africa, replacing Abdelmalek Droukdel following his killing by French forces in Mali last June. Abou Oubaida Youssef al-Annabi (real name Yazid Moubarak), an Algerian national born in 1969, is the new leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), according to the SITE terrorism monitoring group. He is a well-known veteran among jihadist insurgencies wreaking havoc in North Africa but experts say it is unclear what path he will chart to assert his authority.

    Read more from the source : The Arab weekly

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Maghreb, Al Qaeda, Abou Oubaida Youssef al-Annabi,

  • A Misery Dividend for Leaders in the Maghreb?

    In the short term, the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to provide the governments of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia with a respite from political contestation and mobilization. They have all struggled to varying degrees recently with popular dissent and challenges to their legitimacy. But in the long run, as each grapple with the economic and political aftershocks of the virus, the same questions of credibility and efficiency are likely to come back with renewed vigor.

    Read more from the source : Carnegie Middle East Center

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Maghreb, Covid 19, coronavirus, pandemic,

  • Maghreb countries must take this opportunity to unite

    Aside from the ties of heritage, religion and language that group the Maghreb countries, another more important reality binds them: Insufficient growth to alleviate youth unemployment. The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), founded in 1989, was in 2017 described by King Mohammed VI of Morocco as effectively dead. The once-ambitious organization, which hoped to unite Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, is today, if not dead, then at least in a state of paralysis. However, given the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on regional economies, there is a distinct opportunity to grow what is, at present, the least economically integrated region in the world.

    Read more from the source : Arab News

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Maghreb, Egypte, AMU,

  • What’s Next for the Western Sahara Conflict?

    On Dec. 10, Morocco scored a long-dreamed-of foreign policy victory. After decades of international impasse and intense lobbying, the United States recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory, which Morocco has occupied since 1975. The U.S. recognition, in exchange for Morocco normalizing relations with Israel, opens a new chapter in an issue that has long been static. And it has implications not only for Morocco and the Polisario Front—which represents the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the government in exile that aims to govern Western Sahara—but also for those indirectly involved: Algeria, the United States and the European Union.

    Read more from the source : Lawfare

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, Donald Trump, Israel,

  • Trump’s deal with Morocco all but forecloses self-determination for Western Sahara

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise move last week to recognize Morocco’s claim to the disputed region of Western Sahara, in exchange for Morocco normalizing relations with Israel, ushered a long-frozen conflict into a new and more volatile phase. In one sense, it is formal acknowledgement of the reality that Morocco has cemented its de facto control over most of Western Sahara.

    Read more from the source : World Politics Review

     

     

     

     

    Tags : Western Sahara, Morocco, Donald Trump, Israel, Normalization,