Tunisia

27 Apr 2021; MEMO: The Ennahda movement in Tunisia said on Monday that any "return to individual rule is unacceptable," Anadolu has reported. The movement warned against any action that might divert the country from the gains of the revolution.

Ennahda is the largest parliamentary bloc in the Tunisian parliament, with 54 out of 217 seats. The statement was issued after a meeting of its Shura Council over the weekend.

TUNIS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi has ruled out again the possibility of a nationwide lockdown despite the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, the Tunis Afrique Presse reported Monday.

However, targeted lockdown could be imposed to preserve the balance between the health of citizens and economic activities, Mechichi said.

23 Apr 2021; MEMO: Tunisian hospitals have run out of intensive care beds amid a surge in coronavirus cases, a member of the independent scientific committee that advises the government said yesterday.

Amenallah Messadi told Reuters the health system had been pushed to the point of collapse by a rise in cases driven by the more infectious coronavirus variant first detected in Britain.

TUNIS, April 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 40 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, United Nations and Tunisian officials said.

The Tunisian coastguard had so far recovered 21 bodies, all African migrants, and rescued three people, Tunisian officials said. The dead included at least one child.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: Tunisian Minister of Finance and Investment Ali Al-Kali announced that public debt has reached its highest level, amounting to 16 billion Tunisian dinars ($5.7 billion).

In a statement to Watania 1, Al-Kali said: "Tunisia's budget deficit is mainly related to paying back old loans, which prompted the government to borrow more funds to bridge the debts."

10 Apr 2021; MEMO: Tunisian President Kais Saied has asserted: "Tunisia needs a respectable national parliament and a fully responsible ministry (referring to the government)."

This came in a speech delivered by Saied during his participation in the commemoration of the 83rd anniversary of Martyrs' Day in Tunis on Friday morning.

08 Apr 2021; MEMO: Tunisia's Ministry of Religious Affairs announced on Thursday that citizens are allowed to perform prayers in mosques, including the Friday prayer, outside of curfew hours.

This came in a statement issued by the ministry one day after the authorities decided to tighten curfew measures in Tunisia due to a surge in coronavirus infection rates.

TUNIS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Tunisia and China signed on Tuesday an economic and technical cooperation agreement at the headquarters of the Tunisian Foreign Ministry in Tunis, capital of Tunisia.

The cooperation agreement, signed by Chinese Ambassador to Tunisia Zhang Jianguo and Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs Othman Jerandi, "shows, once again, the sincerity and the quality of the friendship between our two peoples and countries," said Zhang.

TUNIS, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied received Monday the visiting Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit.

According to the presidency, the two officials reviewed the activities of the general secretariat of the League of Arab States and discussed the latest developments in the region.

"Saied stressed the need to adopt a new approach in the service of joint Arab action, while calling for reviewing regulations, developing specialized Arab structures and organizations and making their work more effective," reads the presidency statement.

SOUSSE (Tunisia), March 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Dozens of Tunisian activists protested in the port city of Sousse to demand the return of nearly 300 containers of household waste illegally imported from Italy.

Tunisian customs officials last summer seized 282 containers that had been shipped from Italy in the guise of plastic scrap for industrial recycling.

But the containers were found to contain household waste, which is barred from import under Tunisian law.