Tunisia, Syria, Egypt,

Today's three stories you should know.

Mar 25, 2023

Tunisia

Back in summer 2015 people drowning in the Mediterranean as they tried to reach Europe in unsafe boats dominated the headlines, particularly after the shocking image of Alan Kurdi was published. It doesn’t feature so prominently anymore but it has never stopped happening. In the latest incident, at least 34 asylum seekers are missing after their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia. There has been a sharp increase in the number of boats trying to reach Italy from north Africa in recent weeks, which often happens as the weather moderates after winter. But sub-Saharan Africans living in Tunisia have also been subject to violent attacks since President Kais Saied made a racist speech last month calling them a threat to the country’s demographics.

Syria

A delicate situation has developed between US forces and Iranian-backed forces inside Syria with tit-for-tat missile and drone strikes killing several over the last 24 hours. The US says a suspected Iran-made drone killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans and that it responded with air raids against sites in Syria associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. A local activist group said the US attacks had killed at least four people. While such skirmishes are not uncommon, it would appear to be the most significant loss of life for some time and comes during a sensitive period with US and Iranian relations deteriorating over stalled nuclear talks.

Egypt

Egyptian police are using an LGBTQ+ dating app to target users for arrest, the app warned today. Users in Egypt are seeing the following warning when they open the Grindr App: “We have been alerted that Egyptian police is actively making arrests of gay, bi, and trans people on digital platforms. They are using fake accounts and have also taken over accounts from real community members who have already been arrested and had their phones taken. Please take extra caution online and offline, including with accounts that may have seemed legitimate in the past.” Though homosexuality is not outlawed in Egypt, members of the LGBTQ+ community have been arrested and charged with “debauchery” or “violating public decency”.