Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

UK agencies played key role in Italian mistaken identity case

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Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe wrongly arrested based on tipoffs from NCA and GCHQ

The acquittal of Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe by an Italian court of being a human trafficking kingpin is a major embarrassment for Britain’s National Crime Agency and the GCHQ intelligence service.

Berhe’s arrest in 2016 was trumpeted as a major coup in the battle against international people-smuggling, but unbeknown to them at the time, the Italian and British authorities had mistaken the Eritrean for one of the world’s most-wanted human traffickers, Medhanie Yehdego Mered, aka the General.

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Eritrean man released from jail in Italian mistaken identity case

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Judge acquits Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe of being a human trafficking kingpin

A Palermo judge has acquitted an Eritrean man of being a human trafficking kingpin, confirming he was the victim of mistaken identity when he was arrested more than three years ago in a joint operation between Italian and British authorities.

The arrest of Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe in 2016 was presented to the press as a brilliant coup by Italian and British authorities, who mistook him for one of the world’s most-wanted human traffickers, Medhanie Yehdego Mered, aka the General.

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The Syrian refugees changing the UK’s food scene

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Mohamad Rahimeh found a talent for cooking in the Calais refugee camp. Now he has a viable business in London

When Mohamad Rahimeh arrived in the Calais refugee camp that was nicknamed “the Jungle”, cooking was the last thing on his mind. He was a political scientist from Syria with a journey from hell behind him. Food was just a means to an end.

But when a close friend fell sick, he rustled up a meal of eggs. A hidden talent was uncovered.

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Sudan’s ruling military council reports it has survived coup attempt

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Top general says plotters were trying to disrupt recent truce between army and protesters

Sudan’s ruling military council has foiled a coup attempt, a top general has announced on state television, saying that 12 officers and four soldiers have been arrested.

The announcement late on Thursday closely followed the ruling military and civilian protesters agreeing to end a political impasse, after the army ousted longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in April on the back of a popular uprising.

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UK ships in Gulf on high alert after Royal Navy trains guns on Iranian vessels

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Fears commercial vessels at risk from gunboats following HMS Montrose’s intervention

British ships operating in the Gulf have been put on the highest state of alert amid fears that UK-flagged commercial vessels are vulnerable to attack by Iranian gunboats.

The change in guidance from the British government, changing the alert to level 3, was made on Tuesday, a day before a Royal Navy warship trained its guns on Iranian gunboats that tried to disrupt the passage of an Isle of Man-flagged vessel. Level 3 is described as equivalent to the domestic security classification of critical in which there is an imminent risk of an incident.

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Saudi Arabia ‘planning to relax male guardianship laws’

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Strict rules governing women’s lives could be changed according to Saudi newspaper

Saudi Arabia could be planning to relax the country’s strict male guardianship laws to allow women to leave the country without needing permission from a male relative, according to reports.

Travel restrictions for women over the age of 18 are due to be lifted this year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, quoting Saudi officials familiar with the matter.

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Iranian boats ‘attempted to impede’ British oil tanker in strait of Hormuz

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UK government spokesman says three Iranian boats were warned off by HMS Montrose, but Tehran denies involvement

Three Iranian boats tried to intercept a British oil tanker in the Gulf before being driven off by a Royal Navy warship, the UK said, in a major escalation of tensions in the vital shipping channel off Iran.

The incident took place in the strait of Hormuz through which the commercial vessel British Heritage was attempting to pass on Wednesday.

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Mother of Danish student suspected killed by jihadists demands death penalty

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Helle Petersen asks trial in Morocco for ‘just’ penalty after murder of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen in Atlas mountains

The mother of a Danish student who was beheaded, along with another Scandinavian woman, while hiking in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains has called for the suspected jihadist killers to face the death penalty as their trial neared its end.

In a letter read out by her lawyer in an anti-terrorist court in Sale, near Morocco’s capital, Rabat, Helle Petersen said: “The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve, I ask that of you. My life was destroyed the moment that two policemen came to my door on 17 December to announce my daughter’s death.”

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Seafarers trapped on ship for 33 months say jail threats forced them to reboard

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Men stranded off UAE for almost three years claim they were told they could face two-year sentence for leaving vessel unmanned

Seafarers who abandoned their ship after being stranded at sea for almost three years say they were forced back to their boat after they were warned they faced jail.

The four men, stranded 25 nautical miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, said they were told by coastguards that they faced two years in prison for leaving the vessel, the MV Tamim Aldar, and were advised to return. For abandoned seafarers, leaving a ship is alast resort, as the vessel represents their bargaining power for unpaid wages.

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Syrians are watching crops burn. These starvation crimes must end | Mohammad Kanfash and Ali al-Jasem

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Amid a war that may have cost 500,000 lives, we must hold the Syrian government and others to account for the use of hunger as a weapon

In 2017, we started an agricultural project to help hundreds of families survive the blockade by the Assad government, as part of the Damaan Humanitarian Organization’s programme to support civilians in besieged eastern ghouta in Syria.

The project not only provided sustenance to the besieged population, it offered employment opportunities for many people.

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Lusail: sleek new city offers glimpse of Qatar’s post-oil future

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During the 2022 World Cup, all eyes will be on the coastal metropolis located 16km from Doha

Text and photography by Stéphanie Buret

From the sands of the Qatari coast rise the towering glass, steel and concrete forms of Lusail, a city being built almost entirely from scratch. Pharaonic in its scale and ambition, the under-construction metropolis is the vision of the country’s former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, born in part from the desire to diversify the Qatari economy and distance it from oil dependence.

Financed by the government via the Qatari Diar real estate company, the city was initially conceived in 2005 but development truly took off when Qatar was announced as the host of the 2022 World Cup.

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Iran refuses to end breach of nuclear deal until it gets ‘full rights’

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French envoy visits Tehran as Rouhani warns UK tanker seizure will have repercussions

Iran has told Europe it will not reverse its decision to increase uranium enrichment beyond the limits set by the 2015 nuclear accord until it achieves its “full rights” to an economic relationship with the EU under the deal.

Ali Shamkhani, a senior security official and representative of Iran’s supreme leader, made his remarks as he met a senior French diplomat sent to Tehran by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

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Missiles found at base of Libyan warlord are ours, France admits

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Defence ministry denies supplying weapons in breach of UN arms embargo

France has said some of its missiles were found at a Libyan base used by forces loyal to the military strongman Khalifa Haftar – an embarrassing admission that raises new questions about its role in the conflict.

Confirming a report in the New York Times, the French defence ministry said it had purchased the US-made Javelin missiles that were subsequently discovered at a camp south of Tripoli.

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New cities in the sand: inside Egypt’s dream to conquer the desert

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Four decades ago Egypt embarked on the most ambitious new cities building programme in the world. Their boom shows no sign of stopping

Seen from space, Egypt is a vast dusty land with a green Y opening into the Mediterranean Sea – a fertile valley that makes up 5% of the country yet is home to 95% of the population.

This pattern of human occupation had characterised the country for thousands of years, but in the 1970s, as ever more precious green land was eaten up by urban growth, an idea that had been taking shape in the national consciousness for decades was finally put into policy. Egypt would “conquer the desert” and redistribute its burgeoning population across the white sands of the Sahara – an Egyptian version of the 19th-century US “manifest destiny” to move west, no matter how punishing the consequences.

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‘I saw hell’: under fire inside Libya’s refugee detention centres | Sally Hayden

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As deadly airstrikes prompt plans to release detainees, fears rise for those trapped in the country amid claims of serious abuses

Kosofo was hiding in the bathroom when a deadly airstrike ripped through the ceiling of the hall he was locked inside, in Tripoli’s Tajoura migrant detention centre last week.

“I saw the hell with my eyes. I saw things that I had seen during the Darfur war,” says the Sudanese man in his 20s, who has asked to go by a nickname for his own safety.

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US plans coalition of military allies to patrol waters off Iran and Yemen

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Pentagon’s top general says group of nations would ensure freedom of navigation in Straits of Hormuz

The United States hopes to enlist allies in the coming weeks for a military coalition to safeguard strategic waters in the Persian Gulf where Washington blames Iran and Iran-aligned fighters for attacks, the Penatgon’s most senior general has said.

Under the plan, which has only been finalised in recent days, the US would provide command ships and lead surveillance efforts for the military coalition in seaas off Iran and Yemen. Allies would patrol waters near those US command ships and escort commercial vessels with their nation’s flags.

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Saudi princess tried in absentia over alleged attack on worker

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Princess Hassa accused of getting bodyguard to beat man for taking photo in Paris home

The sister of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is going on trial in absentia in Paris accused of conspiring to kidnap and beat a worker who was refurbishing her luxury apartment in Paris.

Hassa bint Salman’s French lawyer said she denied the charges of complicity in armed violence, complicity in holding someone against their will and theft against an Egyptian-born man who was carrying out repairs at her family’s Paris residence on the exclusive Avenue Foch in September 2016.

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Egypt asks Interpol to trace Tutankhamun relic auctioned in UK

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Cairo calls on international police agency to find head sold to unknown buyer for £4.7m

Egypt has called on Interpol to intervene and will sue over the sale at Christie’s auction house in London of a 3,000-year-old Tutankhamun sculpture that may have been looted from a Luxor temple.

The 28.5cm brown quartzite head was part of a statue of the ancient god Amun with the facial features of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun, who ruled Egypt between 1333 and 1323 BC. Similar statues were carved for the Temple of Karnak in the city of Thebes, now Luxor.

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Yemen: UAE confirms withdrawal from port city of Hodeidah

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Move is a significant moment in civil war, but officials say UAE remains in Saudi-led coalition against Houthis

The United Arab Emirates has announced a “strategic redeployment” from the port city of Hodeidah in Yemen, as well as a more limited tactical retreat elsewhere in the country – marking a significant moment in Yemen’s four-year civil war.

UAE officials said the move, under discussion for as long as a year, was designed to support a United Nations-led peace process that began in Stockholm last December. It was the first official UAE confirmation of a withdrawal, which has been reported in recent weeks by witnesses and foreign officials.

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Iran has enriched uranium past key limit, IAEA confirms

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Tehran breaches agreed 3.67% limit and hints it could soon start enriching to 20%

Iran has enriched uranium beyond the key limit dictated in its 2015 deal with major powers, in the latest escalation of the crisis between Washington and Tehran.

The move, confirmed by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, came amid hints from Iran that it could start enriching to 20% later in the year unless it secured European help in the face of crippling US sanctions.

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