Middle East & North Africa

21 April 2022; MEMO: Israel will provide Ukraine with protective gear for its rescue and emergency organisations, local media reported.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksiy Reznikov, and discussed international and Israeli efforts to end the Russian war in Ukraine, the reports said.

According to Gantz, Israel will send protective gear such as helmets and flak jackets to Ukraine for rescue and emergency organisations to use.

21 April 2022; MEMO: Egypt's Court of Cassation yesterday upheld the life sentence handed to Mohamed Badie, the leader of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, Anadolu reported.

Judicial sources reported that the court also upheld life terms against two other Muslim Brotherhood leaders – Mohamed Beltagy and Safwat Hijazi.

21 April 2022; MEMO: The Prime Minister of Libya's Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, has again refused to hand over power until a new government has been put together after a General Election. The alternative government backed by the Tobruk-based Libyan House of Representatives is "born dead," he insists.

21 April 2022; MEMO: Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Interior Minister Omer Bar-Lev have been told that the decision to limit the number of Christians visiting Jerusalem's historic Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a "flagrant violation" of Palestinian rights.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Police appear to have prevented hundreds of ultra-nationalist Israelis from marching around predominantly Palestinian areas of Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, an event that served as one of the triggers of last year’s Israel-Gaza war.

Police set up large roadblocks outside the Old City walls, closing the main road leading down to Damascus Gate, the epicenter of last year’s unrest. Bottled up, the marchers waved Israeli flags, chanted and sang.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — At least 1,900 children under 5 have died from malnutrition in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region in the past year, according to a study conducted by regional health officials and seen by The Associated Press.

The deaths were recorded at health facilities across Tigray between June last year and April 1. Western Tigray, which is under the control of forces from the neighboring Amhara region, was not included in the survey.

19 April 2022; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates has summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest against occupation forces storming Al-Aqsa Mosque and injuring over 150 Palestinians, the Gulf State's Foreign Ministry said today, Reuters reports.

Reem Bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, UAE minister of state for international cooperation, stressed the need "to immediately stop these events [and] provide full protection for worshippers," the ministry said in a statement.

20 April 2022; MEMO: A Chinese technology company has secured three oil and gas subsea cable supply projects with the United Arab Emirates, local UAE media reports.

According to the report, ZTT Submarine Cable & System has signed an agreement with UAE's National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) on three oil and gas subsea cable supply projects set to be delivered to the end-user, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

20 April 2022; MEMO: Children made up 26.9 per cent of Turkiye's population in 2021, down from 27.2 per cent in 2019, official figures showed today.

There were 22.74 million children in Turkiye in 2021, of an overall population of 84.7 million, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

"According to population projections, the proportion of child population was expected to be 26.6% in 2025, 25.6% in 2030, 23.3% in 2040, 20.4% in 2060 and 19% in 2080," it added.

20 April 2022; MEMO: Israel is beginning to impose temporal and spatial divisions of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the deputy director of the Islamic Awqaf in Occupied Jerusalem has warned.

The Palestinian Information Centre reported Sheikh Najeh Bakirat accusing the occupation of making efforts to impose its administrative control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and end Jordan's role as the custodian of the holy site.