Day: July 1, 2023

Angolan president João Lourenço left Luanda Saturday for Libreville, Gabon, to participate in the XXIII Summit of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

At “4 de Fevereiro” International airport, the Angolan Head of State received farewell greetings from the Vice President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa, and members of the Executive.

The summit of Heads of State and Government will discuss, among other issues, security and peace issues. The agenda was approved Friday by the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Ministers of ECCAS.

The regional organisation brings together, Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe

Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)

Most of the delegations in the Zaghouan governorate are in the grip of a disastrous environmental situation due to the blockage of the project to set up domestic waste processing centres.

These projects, which have been held up in the design phase, are part of the programme of the National Agency for Waste Management (ANGED), implemented through Tunisian-Italian cooperation, which began in 2013.

They include the construction of a landfill for waste recycling in the “Kistani” region and 5 processing centres in the delegations of El Fahs, Zriba, Bir Mcherga, Ennadhour and Saouaf.

Italy’s contribution was limited to the construction of the 20-hectare landfill, at a cost of around 4 million dinars, and it did not finance the processing centre project.

This meant that ANGED had to build temporary centres and entrust the management of the landfill to a private company, which disposed of the waste by burying it in the ground, without any recycling process.

Walid Ben Omar, the owner of the operating company, told TAP only three municipalities take care of the transport of their waste from the temporary centre to the landfill, while the municipalities of Bir Mcherga, El Fahs, Ennadhour and Saouaf are experiencing a deplorable environmental situation due to the accumulation of domestic waste.

He noted that the operating period of the landfill will end on December 31, 2023, according to the contractual agreement with ANGED.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Fourteen nests of loggerhead sea turtles, known as “Caretta Caretta”, were discovered on Saturday on the beaches of El Ghadabna, El Manakaa and El Khamara in the Mahdia region (central-eastern Tunisia).

President of the association “Notre Grand Bleu”, Ahmed Ghedira, said this discovery is of great ecological importance. “The main nesting and hatching sites for these turtles were the Kuriat Islands in Monastir. This proves that the beaches of Mahdia are also becoming popular nesting and hatching sites for this species,” said Ghedira.

Ghedira emphasised the need to launch a media and awareness campaign aimed at the general public and the local authorities concerned in order to preserve the beaches and nesting and hatching sites of these turtles.

He pointed out that these beaches are already heavily polluted by waste, especially plastic.

He added that after the hatching process (50 days after the eggs are laid), an event should be held to release the baby turtles back into the sea.

The loggerhead turtle Caretta Caretta, the most common turtle in the Mediterranean, nests mainly on the beaches of Greece, Turkey, Libya and Cyprus.

Currently, studies based on the monitoring of various Mediterranean nesting sites estimate that approximately 7200 loggerhead nests and 1500 green turtle nests are deposited each year during the nesting season (Casale and Margaritoulis, 2010), according to a 2013 monitoring study by APAL and UNEP on “Nesting of the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta Caretta on the Kuriat Islands in Tunisia”. However, this figure is not definitive as many beaches are not monitored or even known.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunisia is planning to set up a higher authority for ecological transition within the Prime Ministry. This structure, the creation of which is one of the guidelines of the new Environment Code, will be responsible for developing a forward-looking vision for the environment sector in general and for ecological transition strategies and plans, according to the Ministry of the Environment.

Based on an initial version drawn up in 2013, the draft of Tunisia’s first Environment Code brings together all the legislative, regulatory and institutional texts that have governed the environment for more than 30 years.

The aim is to put an end to the scattering of laws and make them more effective,” Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui had indicated at a press conference to present the code to the media.

The aim is also to guarantee coherent management of the sector throughout the country, and access to a posteriori control against hazards and disasters.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Participants in a meeting organised on Friday in Paris by the Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia (CRLDHT) affirmed that freedoms are more than ever under threat in Tunisia.

This situation calls on human rights activists and members of civil society to stand together to block the return of the despotic regime, they recommended.

Tunisian and French civil society activists took part in the meeting, which was broadcast live on social networks.

The speakers considered that the law in Tunisia can no longer establish justice and guarantee freedoms, but is rather a tool in the hands of the dictatorship.

In a remote remarks, lawyer and activist Ayachi Hammami pointed out that the President of the Republic had managed to destroy all the achievements of the revolution in two years, namely the foundations of the democratic system.

He called on NGO’s, political parties and human rights defenders to join forces to fight repression.

He added that President Kais Saied is not the cause of the crisis facing the country. This crisis had been instigated by the elite and the political powers that had governed for the past decade.

Hammami deemed it necessary to be self-critical before drawing up a programme based on development and economic and social growth.

CRLDHT President Mohieddine Cherbib, who considers that freedoms in Tunisia are currently under threat, underlined the need to pool all efforts to resume the process of democratic transition.

President of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) Bassem Trifi pointed out that all attempts to unite the democratic forces have so far been doomed to failure.

He warned that the revision of the law on NGO’s with a view to banning their foreign funding is “another serious step towards further restrictions on civil society.”

Trifi announced that a rally will be organised on July 25, two years after the July 25 measures, as an opportunity to find ways of harmonising views and visions regarding what is happening in the country.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Faced with the increasing number of road accidents and the resulting collisions and misfortunes, the Ministry of the Interior has decided to take action through education and training in order to reduce the number of road victims as much as possible.

In the Bizerte governorate, on the A4 motorway in Utique, Minister of the Interior, Kamel Fekih, announced the launch of the “Safe Holidays” programme.

It was also an opportunity to unveil a series of initiatives and practical measures to implement the multi-sectoral national road safety strategy, which will come into force on July 15.

Speaking at the event, the Minister announced the launch of a university masters’ programme to teach road safety from next year.

He also announced the publication of a guide to road safety education in early childhood institutions, in cooperation with associations.

The measures also include the introduction of sophisticated equipment and intelligent applications for recording traffic offences.

The aim is to reduce road accidents as much as possible and improve public safety on the roads.

He called on insurance companies to actively contribute to this national effort by improving road infrastructure, especially in view of the increase in irresponsible driving on the roads.

The Tunisian National Observatory for Road Safety, on June 27, published its report, revealing some shocking figures on the number of road accident victims.

More than 548 people have died on the roads and 3553 have been injured, since the beginning of 2023.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse