🇩🇿⚽️🇲🇦 The Algerian television channel Canal Algérie 2 showed a clear bias against Morocco when it covered the country's victory in a football match. This is just one example of the many ways in which the Algerian media has been hostile towards Morocco.
🇲🇦🌧 The Moroccan King has ordered that prayers be held in all mosques across the country on Tuesday in response to recent heavy rains. This is seen as a way to ask for God's help in alleviating the effects of the rains.
🌍 In an interview with Le Monde, Stephen Smith, professor of African studies at Duke University in the United States, discusses the recent case of the Ocean Viking, a ship carrying migrants that was stranded at sea for weeks before being allowed to dock in Italy.
Smith sees this as an example of the "war of religions" between "open borders" and "closed borders" that is playing out across the world. He argues that every migrant who leaves Africa reinforces a sense of collective failure, and that the only way to change this is to address the root causes of migration.
🇲🇦 Hadj Ahmed Barikallah was once a high-ranking member of the Polisario, the Saharan separatist group. He has since left the organization and now leads the Saharan Movement for Peace. In this interview, he discusses his journey and what led him to become a separatist. He also sheds light on the inner workings of the Polisario and its goals.
- Hadj Ahmed Barikallah, a former minister and ambassador for the (SADR), gives a rare account of the inner workings of the Polisario Front to Jeune Afrique. Though he eventually left the organization, he has not aligned himself with Morocco. Barikallah describes his journey from Tindouf to Madrid, via Algeria and Caracas, as a Sahrawi nationalist who became an opponent, and believes that the autonomy plan proposed by the Kingdom of Morocco is a good starting point for negotiations.
🌍🇫🇷 Although 90% of Sub-Saharan cultural heritage is scattered outside the continent, Paris has committed to making restitution of pieces held in France following colonial looting possible by 2022. So far, very few have found their way back to their home countries. The challenges posed by this process are numerous, including the lack of infrastructure and resources in many African nations, and the difficulty of tracing the provenance of looted items.
🌍🇫🇷🇮🇹 Giorgia Meloni, a right-wing politician who has become Italy's new Prime Minister, has accused France of using a "colonial currency" to "exploit the resources" of African countries. The video of her remarks has been widely shared on social media.
🇫🇷 The number of prisoners in France has reached a new record high in November, surpassing the level recorded just before the lockdown in mid-March 2020. Fifty-six French prisons have a density greater than 150%.