As more young Tunisians look away from politics, many wish to live abroad

Election officials prepare a polling station near Tunis on Saturday. (AFP)
Election officials prepare a polling station near Tunis on Saturday. (AFP)
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Updated 05 October 2024
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As more young Tunisians look away from politics, many wish to live abroad

Election officials prepare a polling station near Tunis on Saturday. (AFP)
  • The Arab Barometer said the new figures contrasted with the 22-percent rate it had recorded in Tunisia in 2011

TUNIS: At a cafe in Tunis’s bustling Bab Souika, young men lean over sports betting slips. With presidential elections just days ahead, they are instead focused on Champions League scores — a sign of common indifference in a country many wish to leave.

Mohamed, a 22-year-old who chose not to give his full name for fear of “imprisonment,” said he and his friends would not vote because it was “useless.”

“We have nothing to do with politics,” he said.

“We try to live our lives day by day. It doesn’t concern us.”

About a third of the nearly 10 million Tunisians set to cast their ballots on Sunday are under 35, according to official figures.

Yet the election appears to have created a mood of resignation among young people, most of whom would rather leave the country, according to a recent study.

Published by the Arab Barometer in August, the study found that seven out of 10 Tunisians aged between 18 and 29 wished to emigrate.

Tunisia now leads Arab nations measured by the desire to migrate, with an estimated 46 percent of the population wanting to live abroad.

“If you provide three boats right now, no one here will stay,” Mohamed added, looking around at the busy cafe.

Each year, thousands of Tunisians, mainly young men, attempt to make the dangerous sea crossing to Europe in search of a better life.

Others try to do it by overstaying tourist visas or through study-abroad programs.

The Arab Barometer said the new figures contrasted with the 22-percent rate it had recorded in Tunisia in 2011.

But over a decade later, they face dimmed prospects, grappling with a stagnant economy, soaring unemployment, and dwindling rights.

Official figures show that 41 percent of young Tunisians are unemployed — even as 23 percent hold university degrees.

Ghaith, a high-schooler who also chose not to provide his last name for fear of retribution, said he was thinking about leaving too.

“I’m only 17, and when I see older people who haven’t done anything with their lives, I ask myself: What will I do?” he said.

Next to him, his 19-year-old friend, also named Mohamed, said he wanted to learn German and move to Berlin, but that it was too expensive.

“This country has let us down,” he said. “It’s become hard to consider a future.”

If none of the youngsters interviewed by AFP wished to disclose their last names, it was because authorities have stepped up cracking down on dissent.

New York-based Human Rights Watch recently said that more than “170 people are detained in Tunisia on political grounds or for exercising their fundamental rights.”

A number of his critics have been prosecuted under Decree 54, a law he enacted in 2022 to combat “false news.”

Slim, a 31-year-old gig worker who also chose not to give his full name out of fear, said he hasn’t “gained anything” under Saied.

“I like him,” he said. “He fought corruption, but I didn’t benefit personally.”

“What’s in it for me if I still can’t find eggs, milk, coffee, and other necessities?” he added.

“We’re tired, seriously,” he pleaded. “Why do you think people keep leaving the country? They take to the sea knowing they might die.”

This week, 15 Tunisians were found dead after their boat capsized as two boats bearing dozens were intercepted.

Some, however, choose to stay.

At a recent protest near the parliament in Tunis, Souhaieb Ferchichi, a 30-year-old activist, called for boycotting the election, which rights groups have said wasn’t fair.

Many of Saied’s challengers have been barred from running, some even jailed.

Salma Ezzine, a 25-year-old protester and doctor, said Tunisia was “noticing patterns from the past.”

“This is how dictatorships are born,” she said.

Unlike more than 1,000 doctors who left Tunisia last year, according to labor figures, Ezzine said she has to stay and chip into bettering the country.

“Leaving the country can be a short-term solution,” she said. “But people need to realize that it adds to the problem. If no one stays, who is going to make the change?“

 


Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara

Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara
Updated 4 sec ago
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Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara

Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara
  • Khattab called for continued cooperation to ensure safe return for Syrians who sought refuge during civil war

LONDON: Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab discussed various topics with his Turkish counterpart, Ali Yerlikaya, during his official visit to Ankara this week.

The two ministers explored ways to strengthen security cooperation and coordination, in addition to supporting and developing Syrian security institutions.

Khattab highlighted the status of Syrian nationals who sought refuge in Turkiye during the civil war, calling for continued cooperation with Ankara to ensure their safe return home, the SANA agency reported.

Yerlikaya wrote on X that his meeting with Khattab focused on providing essential support to the security and related units of the Syrian Interior Ministry.

“(We discussed) sharing experience and providing an intensive training program and cooperating on the return of Syrians under temporary protection in our country,” he said.

“Strengthening security in Syria is vital for the consolidation of internal peace, economic development and social welfare,” he added, affirming Turkiye’s support of Syria’s stability.


Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border

Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border
Updated 05 August 2025
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Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border

Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border
  • Border Guards detected, neutralized both drones within Jordanian territory
  • More than 300 drones have been intercepted this year

LONDON: Jordanian border and anti-narcotics authorities intercepted two drug-laden drones on Tuesday.

The General Command of the Jordan Armed Forces said that the Southern Military Region, in coordination with Military Security and the Anti-Narcotics Department, intercepted the drones along the western border.

Border Guard units detected and neutralized both drones within Jordanian territory, with the seized drugs handed over to the relevant authorities for investigation, it added.

The Jordanian Armed Forces have intercepted 310 drug-laden drones and thwarted multiple smuggling attempts from January to mid-July, seizing more than 14.1 million narcotic pills, 92.1 kg of illegal drugs and more than 10,600 slabs of hashish, with a street value amounting to tens of millions of US dollars.

General Command said that Jordan will combat infiltration and smuggling decisively, quashing any threat to national security.


Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26

Mourners carry the body of one of the victims killed during overnight Israeli bombardment on a camp sheltering displaced people.
Mourners carry the body of one of the victims killed during overnight Israeli bombardment on a camp sheltering displaced people.
Updated 05 August 2025
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26

Mourners carry the body of one of the victims killed during overnight Israeli bombardment on a camp sheltering displaced people.
  • Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said eight people were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid near Khan Yunis
  • Six more people were killed, 21 injured by Israeli fire in central Gaza while waiting for food near a distribution center

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said 26 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Tuesday, including 14 who were waiting near an aid distribution site inside the Palestinian territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that eight people were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid near the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Six more people were killed and 21 injured by Israeli fire in central Gaza while waiting for food near a distribution center, according to Bassal.

The Israeli army told AFP it was looking into the incidents.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.

Thousands of Gazans gather daily near food distribution points across Gaza, including four belonging to the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect rations.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza since the start of the war nearly 22 months ago have led to shortages of food and essential goods, including medicine, medical supplies and fuel, which hospitals rely on to power their generators.

Bassal said that five people were killed by a nightly air strike on a tent in Al-Mawasi in south Gaza, an area Israeli authorities designated as a safe zone early on in the war.

“It’s said to be a green zone and it’s safe, but it’s not. They also say that the aid (distribution) is safe, but people die while obtaining aid,” said Adham Younes, who lost a relative in the strike.

“There’s no safety within the Gaza Strip, everyone is exposed to death, everyone is subject to injury,” the 30-year-old told AFP.

Mahmud Younes, another Gazan who said he witnessed the strike, said: ““We found women screaming — they were covered in blood. The entire family has been injured.”

Bassal of the civil defense agency said that six more people were killed in a strike near Gaza City, and one in a strike near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing and the largest armed force in Gaza, said in a statement Tuesday that they had bombarded an Israeli command-and-control center in south Gaza’s Morag Axis, an Israeli-controlled corridor.


Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure

Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure
Updated 05 August 2025
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Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure

Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure
  • The session scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Lebanon’s presidential palace is the first time that cabinet will discuss the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons
  • Pressure from the US and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals for the group to relinquish its arms has spiked following last year’s war with Israel

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday to discuss Hezbollah’s arsenal, after Washington ramped up pressure on ministers to publicly commit to disarming the Iran-backed group and amid fears Israel could intensify strikes if they fail to do so.

The session scheduled for 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) at Lebanon’s presidential palace is the first time that cabinet will discuss the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons — unimaginable when the group was at the zenith of its power just two years ago.

Pressure from the US and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals for the group to relinquish its arms has spiked following last year’s war with Israel, which killed Hezbollah’s top leaders and thousands of fighters and destroyed much of its rocket arsenal.

In June, US envoy Thomas Barrack proposed a roadmap to Lebanese officials to fully disarm Hezbollah, in exchange for Israel halting its strikes on Lebanon and withdrawing its troops from five points they still occupy in southern Lebanon.

That proposal included a condition that Lebanon’s government pass a cabinet decision clearly pledging to disarm Hezbollah.

After Barrack made several trips to Lebanon to urge progress on the plan, Washington’s patience began wearing thin, Reuters reported last week. It pressured Lebanon’s ministers to swiftly make the public pledge so that talks could continue.

But Lebanese officials and diplomats say such an explicit vow could spark communal tensions in Lebanon, where Hezbollah and its arsenal retain significant support among the country’s Shiite Muslim community.

PROPOSED WORDING

On Monday evening, a group of dozens of motorcycles set out from a neighborhood in Beirut’s suburbs where Hezbollah has strong support, carrying the party’s flags.

Hezbollah’s main ally, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, has been in talks with President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam ahead of Tuesday’s session to agree on a general phrase to include in a cabinet decision to appease the US and buy Lebanon more time, two Lebanese officials said.

Berri’s proposed wording would commit Lebanon to forming a national defense strategy and maintaining a ceasefire with Israel, but would avoid an explicit pledge to disarm Hezbollah across Lebanon, the officials said.

But other Lebanese ministers plan to propose a formulation that commits Lebanon to a deadline to disarm Hezbollah, said Kamal Shehadi, a minister affiliated with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party.

“There’s frankly no need to kick the can down the road and postpone a decision. We have to put Lebanon’s interest first and take a decision today,” Shehadi told Reuters.

Lebanese officials and foreign envoys say Lebanese leaders fear that a failure to issue a clear decision on Tuesday could prompt Israel to escalate its strikes, including on Beirut.

A US-brokered ceasefire last November ended the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, though Israel has continued to carry out strikes on what it says are Hezbollah arms depots and fighters, mostly in southern Lebanon.


Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP

Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP
Updated 05 August 2025
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Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP

Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP
  • “Everyone in El-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Perdison of WFP
  • “Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost“

PORT SUDAN: Thousands of families trapped in a besieged city in war-torn Sudan’s west are at “risk of starvation,” the World Food Programme warned on Tuesday.

Since May last year, El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been at war with the army since April 2023.

The RSF has encircled the city, blocking all major roads and trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians with dwindling food supplies and limited humanitarian access.

“Everyone in El-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, the WFP’s regional director for eastern and southern Africa.

“People’s coping mechanisms have been completely exhausted by over two years of war. Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.”

El-Fasher is the last major city in Darfur still held by the army, and has come under renewed attack by RSF fighters this year since the paramilitaries withdrew from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

A major RSF assault on the Zamzam displacement camp near El-Fasher in April forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee, with many seeking shelter in the city.

According to the WFP, prices for staple foods like sorghum and wheat — used to make traditional flatbreads and porridge — are as much as 460 percent higher in El-Fasher than in other parts of Sudan.

Markets and clinics have been attacked, while community kitchens that once fed displaced families have largely shut down due to a lack of supplies, the UN agency added.

Desperate families are reportedly surviving on animal fodder and food waste, while acute malnutrition is soaring, especially among children.

According to the UN, nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher are now acutely malnourished, with 11 percent suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The rainy season, which peaks in August, is further hampering efforts to reach the city, with roads rapidly deteriorating.

Last year, famine was first declared in Zamzam, later spreading to two other nearby camps — Al-Salam and Abu Shouk — and some parts of Sudan’s south, according to the UN.

The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

The country is effectively split in two, with the army controlling the north, east and center of Sudan and the RSF dominating nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.