Middle East & North Africa

24 Sep 2021; MEMO: Lebanon's state electricity company said today it risked a total blackout across the country by end-September as its fuel oil reserves dwindle, Reuters reports.

Lebanon, in the throes of one of the worst economic meltdowns of modern history, has been plagued by worsening fuel shortages for the past few months with most Lebanese relying on private generators for power.

The company can generate less than 500 megawatts from fuel oil it secured through a deal with Iraq, it said in a statement.

24 Sep 2021; MEMO: Israeli prisons authorities yesterday temporarily suspended the head of the Gilboa Prison, Freddy Ben-Sheetrit, after six Palestinian inmates dug their way out of the high security jail earlier this month.

Haaretz said that the Israel Prisons Service Commissioner Katy Perry was muling the "possibility of dismissing Ben-Sheetrit from work" but the Israel Prison Service (IPS) was reported to have rejected her request because the investigation into the jailbreak was "still ongoing."

TUNIS, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Libya's best chance of peace in years is at risk of unravelling as factions tussle over looming national elections that were envisaged as a way to end a decade of chaotic division.

As a cast of factional leaders position themselves for a presidential run, many Libyans are bracing for a return to violence whether the vote goes ahead as planned on Dec. 24 or not.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The cinematic escape of six prisoners who tunneled out of an Israeli penitentiary earlier this month shone a light on Israel’s mass incarceration of Palestinians, one of the many bitter fruits of the conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have passed through a military justice system designed for what Israel still portrays as a temporary occupation, but that is now well into its sixth decade and critics say is firmly cemented.

ALGIERS, Sept 23 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Algerian presidency said the country has closed its airspace to all Moroccan civil and military aircraft amid an escalating diplomatic row, the official APS news agency reported.

The decision was made after Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune chaired a meeting of the High Security Council on Wednesday, which dealt with the “developments at the borders with the Kingdom of Morocco,” APS quoted the Algerian presidency as saying in a statement.

23 Sep 2021; MEMO: On Tuesday, the prime minister of the National Unity Government in Libya, Abdel Hamid Dbeibeh, called on Libyans to go out to the streets and express their opinions.

23 Sep 2021; MEMO: The Israeli occupation army on Tuesday announced the closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to Muslim worshippers until Friday to allow Jewish settlers to Sukkot.

Director of the Mosque Sheikh Hafthi Abu Sneina said the Israeli occupation army informed the administration of the Ibrahimi Mosque of its intent to close the Mosque on Tuesday night until midnight on Friday.

Abu Sneina added that scores of Jewish settlers would defile the mosque during that period to mark the Jewish holiday Sukkot.

23 Sep 2021; MEMO: Sudanese authorities have taken control of lucrative assets that are said to have provided backing for Hamas, Reuters reports.

23 Sep 2021; MEMO: Human Rights Watch have slammed a press release issued by Egypt's United Nations Development Programme office which heaps praise on the Egyptian president.

The statement says Egypt has progressed towards comprehensive reform and prioritised the economy.

UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner congratulated Egypt on maintaining positive economic growth amid the pandemic through implementing bold economic reforms.

23 Sep 2021; MEMO: The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has announced that it is to return a 3,600-year-old stone tablet to Iraq. The artefact shows part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia.

According to the UN, the tablet will be returned at a ceremony in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC today.