Tunisia
UGTT, the bar association and seven other unions and rights groups signed a joint declaration on Tuesday calling a national march in Tunis on 17 October under the slogan 'Tunisia first, and the people above all else.' The declaration cites falling purchasing power, rising unemployment and concern over press and assembly freedoms and judicial independence. It is the broadest joint civil-society call of its kind this year, bringing together the labour union, the bar, the journalists' and students' unions, and human-rights groups.
Tunisia's Court of Cassation rejected appeals on Tuesday against two convictions of Free Destourian Party leader Abir Moussi, upholding a ten-year sentence in a case over her party's registry office and a two-year sentence in a case linked to the electoral authority ISIE. With earlier convictions already final, Moussi, in detention since October 2023, now faces a combined twelve years and six months in prison, with no further appeal available.
A Tunisian court postponed to 16 October the examination of the case against journalist Zied El-Heni, who faces charges including forming a terrorist group over a recording attributed to a former Ennahda official. El-Heni says he contacted people connected to the recording only to verify its authenticity before possible use in his reporting. He was first questioned as a witness in the case in 2024 before being made a defendant.
The union at Tunisia's national tourism office, ONTT, said this week it is considering legal action after management cut a set of long-standing bonuses and benefits, including allowances for staff posted abroad, following recommendations from state oversight bodies. The union argues the benefits are rights anchored in rules dating to 1975, 1988 and 1999, and says it had favoured dialogue over protest until now.
A decree published in Wednesday's Official Gazette rewrites article 24 of Decree-Law 54, Tunisia's contested disinformation and cybercrime law, replacing a first-offense prison term of up to five years with a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 dinars. A repeat offense still carries six months in prison and a 50,000-dinar fine, doubled when the target is a public official. The Council of Ministers, chaired by President Kais Saied, approved the change on Tuesday.
Source:
La Presse · Wednesday, 30 September 2026
The NGO Sea Watch's ship Aurora rescued 23 survivors who had reached the Hasdrubal gas platform, 100 kilometres off the Tunisian coast, after their boat began sinking, and found five more survivors and two bodies, one of them a child's, still aboard the near-deflated dinghy itself, 28 people in total. Survivors told rescuers at least six people are still missing, among them three children from the same family. The migrants, from Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Pakistan and Nigeria, were disembarked in Lampedusa.
Source:
Kapitalis · Wednesday, 30 September 2026
Geopolitics
King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, mayor of Marrakesh, as Morocco's prime minister on Tuesday, after her centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party won the most seats in this month's parliamentary election. She is the second woman to lead a government in the Arab world, after Tunisia's Najla Bouden in 2021, and must now build a coalition to reach a governing majority in parliament.
The US-led coalition's combat mission in Iraq ended on Tuesday under the terms of a 2024 US-Iraq agreement, closing more than two decades of American military presence that began with the 2003 invasion and continued through the campaign against the Islamic State group after 2014, at a total cost of more than 4,500 American lives. Iraq's government marked the withdrawal with three days of public holidays under the banner of restored sovereignty, but Kurdish and Sunni leaders warned it is premature: the disarmament of Iran-aligned militias has been pushed back to June 2027, and some armed groups still refuse to disarm.
Saudi-backed airstrikes hit a market on the outskirts of Taiz, southwest Yemen, early on Sunday, killing dozens; Houthi officials gave death tolls ranging from seven to about thirty, with total casualties, including wounded, put at near fifty. The Yemeni government side has not confirmed a toll and access to the site is contested. Separately, a World Health Organization report said more than 800 people have been killed in Yemen's war since it reignited in July; the report also recorded 809 new casualties, dead and wounded combined, in the single week ending 26 September.
Rapid Support Forces drones struck a fuel depot near Abu Haraz, close to Wad Madani in Sudan's Al Jazirah state, early on Sunday, setting fuel and diesel tanks on fire before civil defence teams contained the blaze. It is reportedly the first attack on the area since the Sudanese army recaptured Wad Madani from the RSF in early 2025. A UN report this week said foreign recruitment, including Colombian mercenaries fighting for the RSF in Darfur, is fuelling a civil war that has displaced more than 11.8 million people.
Europe
Estonia's government said on Tuesday it has concluded with certainty that an arson attack in August on Milrem Robotics, a Tallinn firm that supplies unmanned vehicles to Ukraine, was sabotage ordered by Russia's special services. Three suspects, including two Latvian nationals arrested in Latvia and extradited last month, are now in Estonian custody, and Tallinn has summoned Russia's ambassador. NATO chief Mark Rutte said the same day that Russia's wider sabotage campaign across Europe is failing to weaken support for Ukraine.
Source:
Euronews · Tuesday, 29 September 2026
The European Commission presented a five-point plan on Tuesday to prevent and respond to sudden mass arrivals at the EU's external borders, including new 'gateway offices' for legal migration, an emergency response framework, an expanded Frontex mandate, sanctions on smuggling networks and wider return cooperation with non-EU countries. The Commission says irregular border crossings are now at their lowest level since 2021. EU interior ministers will discuss the plan on 1 and 2 October.
French civil servants went on strike and students blockaded about 330 high schools on Tuesday, ahead of Thursday's formal presentation of the government's 2027 budget bill, which is expected to detail the previously announced 54 billion euro savings package, including a fourth consecutive freeze on civil servants' base pay. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez reported 440 arrests nationwide amid roughly 170 rallies. The unrest comes seven months before France's next presidential election.
Two members of the European Parliament called on Monday for the European Commission to invoke the EU's blocking statute to stop European banks automatically cutting off International Criminal Court judges and prosecutors sanctioned by the United States over the court's investigation into Israeli war crimes. Nine ICC judges and four prosecutors are currently under US sanctions, and European banks have been pre-emptively denying them services for fear of secondary sanctions even though the US measures do not legally bind EU entities. The Netherlands, which hosts the court, made the same request to the Commission on 23 September.