[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Maghreb and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Maghreb Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each roundup to maghreb@jadaliyya.com]
Algeria
نسبة المواليد في الجزائر من بين النسب الأكثر ارتفاعا في العالم The Population Directorate of the Ministry of Health, Population, and Hospital Reform indicated an increase in the total birth rate of Algeria from 19.36 live births per thousand inhabitants in 2000 to 25.40 per thousand inhabitants in 2017, one of the highest birth rates in the world.
France expels Islamist to Algeria France deported an Islamist, Djamel Beghal, suspected of spiritually influencing one of the killers in the Charlie Hebdo attack, but negotiations between France and Algeria may lead to a second transfer to another African country, potentially Burkina Faso.
Algeria continues to abandon hundreds of migrants in the desert The head of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration confirmed the arrival of at least 391 migrants on the Niger border.
البرلمان يدعم ترشح بوتفليقة لولاية خامسة Less than a year before the presidential election, the Algerian parliament calls upon current President Bouteflika, eighty-one, to run for a fifth term.
Algeria’s first coding school wants to prepare country’s workforce for digital careers Code213, whose founders also co-founded iMadrassa, an Algiers-based ed-tech startup, intends to solve the problem of unemployment and a lack of competent candidates in Algeria’s digital sector by launching different training programs.
Algeria’s GDP grew 1.3% in Q1 of 2018 Compared to the same period of 2017, the National Office of Statistics reported that the gross domestic product grew by 1.3 percent. However, there was a two percent decline in the hydrocarbons sector growth.
Les retraités, une nouvelle filière d’émigration algérienne vers la France Increasingly, elderly Algerians are choosing to retire in France, often joining their adult children who already live there.
Ressortissants algériens retenus en Russie: Les précisions du Porte parole du MAE Twenty-nine Algerians who visited Russia for the World Cup have been detained in detention centers for attempting to enter other countries bordering Russia.
Libya
وكيل وزارة التعليم مع مسؤولي التعليم بدرنة Federal officials from the interim government met with the education coordinator and examination office director for Derna to set the date for major examinations in the city.
DLA: Ali Mahmoud controls Libyan Investment Authority decisions The Digital Libya Agency (DLA) leaked information on Facebook stating that one of the armed brigades controlling Tripoli holds significant power on the board of the Libya Investment Authority through new CEO Ali Mahmoud.
HoR concludes debate of constitution referendum bill – to put to final vote on 30 July Libya’s house of representatives completed its debate on the referendum bill, despite its initial draft being blocked by a lower court ruling, and will need the vote of at least one of the two assembly members of the three ethnic communities of Libya.
مجلس الدولة يبحث مشروع التأمين الصحي الأساسي The prime minister and others from the state government, met with the president and other members of the National Center for the Development of the Public Health System to discuss the health insurance project and its difficulties.
منظمة الهجرة الدولية تحذر من ارتفاع أعداد المهاجرين المحتجزين في ليبيا The number of migrants detained in Libya coincides with a decline in the number of migrants arriving in Italy.
Amazigh Supreme Council calls for boycott of planned constitution referendum The Amazigh Supreme Council of Libya has called on citizens to boycott the referendum as they consider it to be an illegitimate document.
Italy-Libya sea route deadliest in the Mediterranean in 2018 Despite very low numbers arriving to Italy, the rate of death per thousand people may be at its highest point, with the route between Libya and Italy claiming the lives of one in nineteen people attempting to migrate.
Paris maintient la pression pour des élections en Libye « d’ici la fin de l’année » French foreign minister Jean-Yves le Drian met with Libyan politicians to push for an election in December and announced that France will contribute one million dollars to aid with polling.
Libye : comment les salafistes madkhalistes s’implantent dans le pays, de Tripoli à Benghazi A new group named the Madkhalists have aligned themselves with various antagonistic factions to become a leading ideological security force.
Mauritania
افتتاح مراكز للتسجيل في الإحصاء الانتخابي عن بعد Eighteen offices dedicated to electoral statistics opened around the provinces of Nouakchott in the hopes of accelerating the pace of electoral statistics administration in light of the major upcoming election.
Mauritania launches Sahel irrigation initiative Mauritania launched its component of the Regional Project Supporting the Irrigation Initiative in the Sahel in Boghe, 320 kilometers south of Nouakchott, aiming to diversify agriculture, increase production, and improve competitiveness in order to modernize the sector as a whole.
Mauritania: Gardens grow resilience against food insecurity The Mauritanian Red Crescent, with support from the International Federation of Red Cross, responded to emergency food insecurity by helping to build a women’s cooperative market garden.
دكاترة يطلبون من الرئيس التدخل لترقيتهم A group of Mauritanian doctors have requested that the president intervene and end the ban on career promotions.
Mauritania and Senegal renew fishing agreement after two year silence Two and a half years after the end of their last fishing agreement, Mauritania and Senegal have a new agreement allowing Senegalese fishermen to fish in Mauritanian waters.
Released Mauritanian anti-slavery activists to continue fighting Two anti-slavery activists, recently freed from prison due to their alleged role in a protest, vowed to continue their efforts to end slavery in their country, which has one of the world’s worst slavery rates.
Un général mauritanien et un adjoint tchadien prennent la tête de la force du G5 Sahel The Mauritanian deputy chief of staff has been appointed commander of the G5 Sahel force, replacing the Malian general after the headquarters were attacked, resulting in the death of three people.
Hydrocarbures : Shell décroche deux contrats en Mauritanie The Mauritanian government signed two exploration and production contracts with the oil company Shell.
Morocco
لأزمي: هناك برلمانيون سيعيشون وضعية اجتماعية عسيرة إذا توقفت المعاشات The head of the Justice and Development parliamentary group, Idris al-Azmi, announced during a presentation to the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives that a number of parliamentarians will live in harsh and difficult conditions if pensions stop in a proposed liquidation.
Diplomatic Relations Between Morocco and Iran Sour Over Western Sahara Dispute Two months after Morocco cut ties with Iran over accusations that Lebanese Hizbullah officials served as proxies to provide Iranian support to the Polisario Front, tensions continue to rise between the two states.
Morocco: around one third of households are borrowing money to cover their expenses A recent study by the Moroccan High Commission for Planning found that 29.5 percent of households are borrowing money to cover daily expenses and that 37.5 percent of households believe that life standards have deteriorated in the past year.
أطباء القطاع العام يختتمون إضرابهم الوطني The union of public sector doctors concluded their general national strike, which lasted forty-eight hours in various public hospitals (excluding emergency departments) and achieved a participation rate of sixty-seven percent nationally and up to one hundred percent in some locales.
More than 1300 migrants injured after crossing Morocco-Spain border, Spanish Red Cross says Cutting through the wire, around eight hundred migrants attempted to push the fortified border fence separating the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in Morocco, the most coordinated effort in Ceuta since February 2017.
EU Fisheries Deal With Morocco Sparks Criticism Over Inclusion of Western Sahara Waters The deal includes the Western Sahara, deemed a non-self-governing territory by the United Nations, and will face difficulty in its ratification given that earlier this year, the European Court of Justice ruled that a fisheries deal could not include the territory’s water.
Les ventes de Centrale Danone ont baissé de 40 % entre avril et juin More than four months after boycotts were called, Danone’s report on its financial results shows a forty percent drop in sales in Morocco.
4 choses à retenir du rapport de Bank Al Maghrib sur la stabilité financière A review of the four key takeaways from the Bank Al Maghrib’s recently published report on financial stability for the year of 2017.
Tunisia
بعد تدخل السياسة في الرياضة: الملاكمة التونسية مهددة بالايقاف The International Boxing Federation (IBA) prepares to punish Tunisia due to the violation of federation rules leading to suspension of activity and failure to organize elections for leadership within the sport.
Tunisia's president calls for resignation of prime minister if crisis continues Amid economic challenges and rising impatience, Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi followed his son, leader of the incumbent Nidaa Tounes party, in calling for the resignation or dismissal of Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.
Tunisia tourism revenues jump as Europeans return European visitors grew by sixty percent this season, a strong boost to the struggling economy after tourism declined due to the 2015 attacks that killed over sixty tourists.
اعتصام أمام البرلمان التونسي وجلسة مشحونة لاستجواب وزير التعليم Dozens of parents, students, and professors staged a protest in front of the Tunisia’s parliament, demanding the minister of education fulfill the promises made to them, including a reduction of the 15/20 rate to enter educational institutions.
Tunisia, Italy to conduct 60 joint defence activities in 2019 The two countries have also agreed to continue cooperation in the field of military training and to establish new centers for vocational training in diving and underwater activities.
Pregnant women among migrants stranded at sea off Tunisian coast Tunisia became the latest of four countries to deny entry to a Tunisian supply vessel carrying migrants who were found adrift a small wooden boat.
Les dessous d’un vote décisif Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed will attempt to secure endorsement for the appointment of Hichem Fourati to the Ministry of the Interior.
Tunisie – Usine des Pick-ups Peugeot d’Al Mghira Rated “excellent” by experts of the brand, Tunisia’s Peugeot pick-up plant has become a symbol of the success in Tunisia’s al-Mghira industrial zone.
Western Sahara
ايطاليا: تشكيل مجموعة برلمانية للصداقة والتضامن مع الشعب الصحراوي The Italian parliament hosted the Parliamentary Group of Friends and Solidarity with the Sahrawi People, attended by the Polisario Front Representative in Italy and the ambassador of South Africa to Italy, in order to discuss initiatives and studies to find a lasting solution to the Western Sahara issue.
EU foreign ministers to include Western Sahara under agricultural agreement with Morocco Foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) approved a resolution to include Western Sahara under an EU-Moroccan agricultural agreement, despite a verdict from the European Court of Justice that ruled otherwise.
Sahrawi National Council delegation undertakes an official visit to Algerian National Assembly Continuing Algeria’s general support to the Sahrawi people’s struggle for self-determination, a delegation from the National Council of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was received by the deputy speaker of the Algerian National Assembly.
على اثر وصول شحنة من السمك قادمة من الصحراء الغربية المحتلة The Polisario Front condemns what they consider the illegal shipment of fish products from the occupied Western Sahara to Germany and requests that the German government not unload the cargo, claiming that under European Union law, the cargo belongs to the government of the Western Sahara.
Sahrawi political prisoners carry on their unlimited hunger strike in Moroccan Tiznit prison Members of the Sahrawi student group Comrades of El-Wali, have entered their eleventh day of an unlimited hunger strike, with the prison administration unwilling to open a dialogue to meet their demands.
Key player quits dirty Western Sahara phosphate game In a press release, Innophos Holdings explained their decision to terminate its decade-long phosphate imports from the occupied territory.
Mécanisme africain pour le Sahara Occidental, un pas important pour le règlement du conflit With a unanimous decision, the leaders of the African Union established an African mechanism in the Western Sahara in order to provide support as a full partner of the United Nations.
Latest from Jadaliyya
Revue de presse sur les élections municipales en Tunisie An overview of French media coverage in Tunisia’s recent municipal election.
Muriam Haleh Davis and Thomas Serres, eds. North Africa and the Making of Europe: Governance, Institutions and Culture (New Texts Out Now) An interview with editors of North Africa and the Making of Europe elaborates on how “marginal” areas such as North Africa have had a significant impact on the development of Europe.
No Love Lost and Love Gained: On the Morocco-Iran Rift Morocco’s decision to sever ties with Iran and accusations of Iranian support for the Polisario Front comes after decades of tensions with Iran since its 1979 Revolution, but the recent changes stem more from an attempt to solidify the relationship with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the United States than it does spite for Iran.
Samia Henni, Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria (New Texts Out Now) An interview with Samia Henni on her latest book that examines the often neglected aspects of France’s efforts to maintain Algeria under French rule during the Algerian War of Independence.
The Life Span of Alternative Media: Cases of Lake and Mamfakinch in Morocco Journalists and activists in Morocco helped to launch a new wave of alternative online media before, during, and after the 2011 Arab uprisings; two alternative media in particular, Lakome and Mamfakinch demonstrate in their life cycles trends of interaction between alternative media, politics, and economic powers.
Jeffrey R. Halverson and Nathaniel Greenberg, Islamists of the Maghreb (New Texts Out Now) Jeffry Halverson and Nathaniel Greenberg discuss their book, Islamists of the Maghreb, in light of the central role that Maghreb countries played in the Arab uprisings.
زحف الثورة المضادة Seven years after the Arab uprising began in Tunisia, issues of revolution and counterrevolution persist, as does the urban-rural divide.
James McDougall, A History of Algeria (New Texts Out Now) Interview with historian James McDougall on his latest book entitled A History of Algeria.
Tunisia and the International Community since 2011: Rentierism, Patronage and Moral Hazard Despite perceptions of a democratic Tunisia, the incoming flow of loans has upheld an undemocratic practices of patronage, failing to address protesters’ dominant socioeconomic grievances.