Day: June 26, 2022

TUNIS— Tunisia arrested eight women for alleged link to a terror group in the town of Kram, north of the capital Tunis, the Tunisian Interior Ministry said.

After receiving the information on a violent conflict that broke out between two women, the security units arrived in one of the districts of Kram and arrested them, the ministry said in a statement.

During the operation, the security units found a secret room where six other women were hiding in, and all of the eight were under suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization, according to the statement.

The arrest came about 24 hours after the security services detected information on plans which directly targeted the Tunisian President Kais Saied as well as the national security of the country.

Opposition to Saied has broadened over recent months as nearly all major political parties and the powerful labor union have come out against his plans, holding street rallies against him.

However, while critics of the president say his moves have raised concerns over rights and freedoms won in the 2011 revolution, there has been no widespread crackdown on the opposition.

Saied says his moves are legal and were needed to save Tunisia from years of political paralysis, economic stagnation and the malign influence of Islamist groups.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

NADOR (Morocco)— The death toll from a bid by African migrants to force their way into the Spanish enclave of Melilla, northern Morocco, has risen to 23, Moroccan officials said.

Officials initially said that five people had died in the rush when around 2,000 mostly sub-Saharan African migrants approached the Moroccan border with the tiny territory at dawn on Friday, but the toll rose to 18 on Friday and

five more have since also died of their injuries.

Earlier in the day, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the Melilla migrant rush as an attack on Spain’s “territorial integrity”.

Meanwhile, human activists demanded an investigation into the matter. As per Melilla authorities, at least 500 people managed to enter the border control area after cutting a fence.

Sanchez told reporters that the mafias that traffic in human beings were responsible for the incident. Images of injured migrants lying on the pavement in Melilla surfaced online.

It was the first such incident since Spain and Morocco ended a year-long diplomatic crisis in April this year after the Spanish Prime Minister’s visit to Rabat. Spain backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara region.

The dispute erupted between the two countries when Spain allowed leader of Western Sahara’s pro-independence Polisario Front Brahim Ghali to get treated for COVID-19 in a Spanish hospital in April last year.

Almost a month later, around 10,000 migrants surged across the Moroccan border into Spain’s Ceuta enclave. Madrid considered it a punitive gesture by Rabat.

Notably, Spain’s two tiny North African enclaves, Melilla and Ceuta, have the EU’s only land borders with Africa.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

ACCRA— The Ghanaian government has repatriated 1,320 Nigeriens who beg in the streets to their home country, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The repatriation, through the collaboration of the Ghana Immigration Service and the Embassy of Niger in Ghana, included 300 adult males, 400 adult females, and 620 children.

“The returnees were found under bridges, traffic lights intersections, street pavements, and other places begging for alms or loitering on the streets of Accra,” the statement said.

The exercise, according to the government, is part of measures being taken to deal with the menace of streetism in the West African country.

“Streetism is a social menace that has wreaked havoc on the nation’s social and economic life. The country’s ‘street children’ prevalence is extremely worrying. This literally put their lives at risk so long as they remain on the street,” the statement said.

The government further urged the general populace to support efforts underway to reduce child begging and streetism.

The Ghanaian government also deported 202 African nationals who had been arrested for entering the country unlawfully through its eastern border with Togo last year.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK