TUNIS, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Around 2,500 Tunisians marched through the coastal city of Gabes on Wednesday, reviving protests over pollution from a state-owned phosphate complex amid rising anger over perceived failures to protect public health.
People chanted mainly “Gabes wants to live”, on the 15th anniversary of the start of the 2011 pro-democracy uprising that sparked the Arab Spring movement against autocracy.
The protest added to the pressure on President Kais Saied’s government, which is grappling with a deep financial crisis and growing street unrest, protests by doctors, journalists, banks and public transport systems.
The powerful UGTT union has called for a nationwide strike next month, signalling great tension in the country. The recent protests are widely seen as one of the biggest challenges facing Saied since he began ruling by decree in 2021.
Protesters chanted slogans such as “We want to live” and “People want to dismantle polluting units”, as they marched toward Chatt Essalam, a coastal suburb north of the city where the Chemical Group’s industrial units are located.
“The chemical plant is a fully fledged crime… We refuse to pass on an environmental disaster to our children, and we are determined to stick to our demand,” said Safouan Kbibieh, a local environmental activist.
Residents say toxic emissions from the phosphate complex have led to higher rates of respiratory illnesses, osteoporosis and cancer, while industrial waste continues to be discharged into the sea, damaging marine life and livelihoods.
The protests in Gabes were reignited after hundreds of schoolchildren suffered breathing difficulties in recent months, allegedly caused by toxic fumes from a plant converting phosphates into phosphoric acid and fertilisers.
In October, Saied described the situation in Gabes as an “environmental assassination”, blaming policy choices made by previous governments, and has called for urgent maintenance to prevent toxic leaks.
The protesters reject the temporary measures and are demanding the permanent closure and relocation of the plant.
TUNIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Tunisian police arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa on Saturday to enforce 20-year prison sentence, detaining her at a protest in the capital, lawyers said.
An appeals court on Friday handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the president, in what critics said was a sign of President Kais Saied’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Toby Chopra)
A Tunisian court has handed jail terms to dozens of opposition leaders, lawyers and businessmen accused of attempting to overthrow the nation’s president.
Forty people including opposition leader Jawahar Ben Mbarek were handed sentences ranging from four to 45 years over the alleged conspiracy to oust President Kais Saied.
Twenty of those charged have fled abroad and were sentenced in absentia, while others have been held in detention since 2023.
Human rights groups have criticised the trial as politically motivated, characterising the prosecutions as an escalation of Saied’s crackdown on dissent since he suspended Tunisia’s parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree.
Tunisian authorities argue the defendants, who include former head of intelligence Kamel Guizani, attemtpted to destabilise the country and topple Saied.
Ben Mbarek and party leaders Issam Chebbi and Ghazi Chaouachi received jail terms of 20 years. All three have been detained since the 2023 crackdown.
The maximum sentence, 45 years, was given to businessman Kamel Ltaif, while opposition politician Khyam Turki received a 35-year term.
Ben Mbarek has been on hunger strike for over a month and was at risk of dying, news agency AFP reports, citing his sister and lawyer Dalila Ben Mbarek.
Among those sentenced in absentia was politician and feminist Bochra Belhaj Hmida, as well as French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, human rights groups say.
The final sentences were issued by an appeals court after the opposition figures were initially sentenced in April. Saied had branded them “terrorists”.
A lawyer for the defendants was quoted by Reuters as describing the trial as a “farce” that had the “clear intent to eliminate political opponents”.
Human rights groups have also been critical of the prosecutions.
Sara Hashash, deputy regional director at Amnesty International, described the sentences as “unjust” and “an appalling indictment of the Tunisian justice system”.
She said that while three defendants were acquitted by the appeals court, it had increased others’ sentences.
“The Court of Appeal has thereby also rubber stamped the government’s use of the justice system to eliminate political dissent.”
After the initial ruling in April, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said the trial had raised “serious concerns about political motivations”, and urged the Tunisian government to “refrain from using broad national security and counter terrorism legislation to silence dissent”.
On Saturday, thousands of Tunisians marched through the capital, Tunis, in an anti-government protest, accusing Saied of cementing a one-man rule through the judiciary and police.
Saied was elected in 2019 after Tunisia emerged from the Arab Spring democracy movement.
But the north African nation has since seen democratic backsliding and the re-imposition of aspects of authoritarian rule.
TUNIS (Reuters) -A Tunisian appeals court on Friday sentenced 40 opposition leaders, business and media figures to jail terms ranging from five to 45 years on charges of conspiring against state security, the state news agency TAP said.
The case was one of the largest prosecutions for security offences in the North African country’s recent history. The defendants had been on trial since March, while more than 20 others had fled abroad, authorities said.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Mark Heinrich)
TUNIS (Reuters) -Thousands of Tunisians marched in the capital on Saturday in a protest against “injustice and repression”, accusing President Kais Saied of cementing one-man rule by using the judiciary and police.
The protest was the latest in a wave that has swept Tunisia involving journalists, doctors, banks and public transport systems. Thousands have also demanded the closure of a chemical plant on environmental grounds.
The protesters dressed in black to express anger and grief over what they called Tunisia’s transformation into an “open-air prison”. They raised banners reading “Enough repression”, “No fear, no terror, the streets belong to the people”.
The rally brought together activists, NGOs and fragmented parties from across the spectrum in a rare display of unity in opposition to Saied.
It underscores Tunisia’s severe political and economic crisis and poses a major challenge to Saied, who seized power in 2021 and started ruling by decree.
The protesters chanted slogans saying “We are suffocating!”, “Enough of tyranny!” and “The people want the fall of the regime!”.
“Saied has turned the country into an open prison, we will never give up,” Ezzedine Hazgui, father of jailed politician Jawhar Ben Mbark, told Reuters.
Opposition parties, civil society groups and journalists all accuse Saied of using the judiciary and police to stifle criticism.
Last month, three prominent civil rights groups announced that the authorities had suspended their activities over alleged foreign funding.
Amnesty International has said the crackdown on rights groups has reached critical levels with arbitrary arrests, detentions, asset freezes, banking restrictions and suspensions targeting 14 NGOs.
Opponents say Saied has destroyed the independence of the judiciary. In 2022 he dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges — moves that opposition groups and rights advocates condemned as a coup.
Most opposition leaders and dozens of critics are in prison.
Saied denies having become a dictator or using the judiciary against opponents, saying he is cleansing Tunisia of “traitors”.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
TUNIS (Reuters) -Thousands of young doctors went on strike across Tunisia on Wednesday to demand higher pay and warn of an impending collapse of the health system, part of a broader wave of social unrest convulsing the country.
A spate of environmental and anti-government protests prompted by a worsening economic crisis and disruptions in public services has posed the biggest challenge to President Kais Saied since he seized all power in 2021.
“We are exhausted, underpaid and working in a system that is breaking down,” said Marwa, who declined to give her surname, while attending a protest rally in the capital Tunis with hundreds of other doctors.
“If nothing changes, more doctors will leave and the crisis will only deepen,” she added.
The protesters, wearing white coats, brandished placards that read “Dignity for doctors” and “Save our hospitals” as they gathered near Tunisia’s parliament.
As well as low wages, the protesters complained of outdated equipment and shortages of essential medical supplies, factors which they said were fuelling a growing exodus of young health professionals to Europe and the Gulf.
“As long as the authorities ignore our demands, we will continue to escalate, resist and lead the social movement in the country,” Wajih Dhakkar, head of the Young Doctors’ Organisation, told Reuters.
The Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Saied has accused what he describes as conspirators and infiltrators of fabricating crises in various sectors in order to undermine the state.
Tunisia has seen strikes over pay by transport workers and bank employees in recent months, while the southern city of Gabes has been a focal point of protests over a pollution crisis blamed on a state-owned chemical plant.
TUNIS (Reuters) -Jailed Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, 84, began a hunger strike, joining two prominent politicians who are protesting what they call “unjust imprisonment,” lawyers said on Saturday, marking the latest escalation in a standoff with President Kais Saied.
Most of the country’s opposition leaders are in jail and some parties have accused Saied of turning Tunisia into an “open-air prison” while using the judiciary to cement his authoritarian rule.
Ghannouchi follows opposition politician Jawhar Ben Mbarek who has been on a “wildcat” hunger strike since last week. And Republican Party leader Issam Chebbi started a hunger strike on Friday, demanding his release.
Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda party and a fierce critic of Saied, has been detained since 2023 and was sentenced to 37 years in prison across multiple cases, including illicit foreign financing and conspiracy against the state. He has refused to appear in court, saying he won’t face judges who only follow Saied’s orders.
Lawyers, family, and rights groups say Ben Mbarek’s health has sharply deteriorated, he is refusing treatment and is at risk of dying.
The Tunisian Prisons Authority denied that the prisoners’ health had deteriorated due to the hunger strikes, saying medical examinations showed conditions were “normal and stable,” without giving additional details.
This year, courts handed prison sentences ranging from five to 66 years to opposition leaders including Ben Mbarek and Chebbi on charges including “conspiracy against state security.” Human rights groups say these prosecutions targeted political opponents.
Lawyer Dalila Ben Mbarek said Jawhar informed her that he would soon leave the prison “either free or dead.” His father said Saied was responsible for any harm that came to his son, calling him a dictator.
The opposition says Saied’s sudden closure of the elected parliament in 2021 and his move to rule by decree was a coup.
Saied denied this, saying his actions were necessary to save Tunisia from years of chaos; he has called jailed opposition leaders criminals, traitors and terrorists.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
TUNIS (Reuters) -Tunisian authorities on Friday ordered the suspension of the Nawaat journalists’ group, which runs one of the country’s leading independent investigative media outlets, in a widening crackdown on free speech and civil society.
The one-month suspension follows similar actions against prominent civil society groups such as the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights and the Association of Democratic Women, both known for defending civil liberties.
Authorities cited financial audits linked to foreign funding as justification, but rights advocates said the real aim was to silence dissenting voices.
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists condemned the suspension as “a dangerous escalation in efforts to muzzle independent journalism under an administrative guise”.
Some of the gains in press freedom that followed the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have been eroded since President Kais Saied started ruling by decree in 2021.
Founded in 2004, Nawaat carried out investigations on corruption and human rights abuses before and after the revolution.
In a statement, Nawaat said it would not be “intimidated by the current political climate or campaigns of defamation.”
At least a dozen Tunisian political activists have been imprisoned, several NGOs have reported frozen bank accounts, and at least five journalists jailed under Saied’s rule.
State media have excluded unions and opposition voices from the airwaves, functioning mainly as platforms for the authorities, the union said.
Saied rejects the criticism, insisting that freedoms are protected and that he will not become a dictator.
TUNIS (Reuters) -Thousands took to the streets of the Tunisian coastal city of Gabes in a huge march on Wednesday, in an escalation of protests that began last week over pollution from the state Chemical Group’s (CGT) phosphate complex.
The large-scale protests heighten pressure on President Kais Saied’s government, which fears the unrest may spread to other regions of the country.
The government, already pressured by a deep financial crisis, needs to balance public health demands with the production of phosphate, Tunisia’s most valuable natural resource.
The protesters chanted slogans such as “we want to live” and “Gabes is crying out for help”.
The protesters marched towards Chatt Essalam, a coastal suburb to the north of the city, where the chemical group is located. There, witnesses said that police fired tear gas to disperse them as they approached the headquarters.
In the capital, Tunis, crowds also gathered in support of Gabes, highlighting growing national concern over the environmental crisis and the call for urgent government action.
Residents of Gabes say they are suffering from increased respiratory illnesses, osteoporosis and an increased incidence of cancer due to the toxic gases emitted by the factory’s units.
The latest wave of protests was triggered earlier this month after dozens of schoolchildren suffered breathing difficulties caused by toxic fumes from a plant that converts phosphates into phosphoric acid and fertilizers.
CGT did not reply to Reuters’ attempts to seek comment on the situation in Gabes.
Khaireddine Diba, one of the protesters, said: “Today, our voice will be loud and resounding until this crime stops immediately.”
Saied said this month that Gabes was suffering an “environmental assassination” due to what he called criminal policy choices by a previous government.
He called on ministries to maintain the units to stop leaks as a first step.
However, the protesters reject temporary solutions and demand the permanent closure and relocation of the units.
Tons of industrial waste are discharged into the sea at Chatt Essalam daily.
Environmental groups warn that marine life has been severely affected, with local fishermen reporting a dramatic decline in fish stocks over the past decade, hitting a vital source of income for many in the region.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Alex Richardson)
TUNIS (Reuters) -A Tunisian court released a man on Tuesday who had been sentenced to death just last week for Facebook posts criticising the president, following a wave of public criticism and human rights concerns over the case.
Last week’s ruling was unprecedented in Tunisia, where restrictions on free speech have been tightened since President Kais Saied seized almost all powers in 2021.
Lawyer Oussama Bouthelja confirmed the release of his client, 56-year-old Saber Chouchane. Saber’s brother, Jamal Chouchane, also said he was free, without giving details.
Chouchane was arrested last year.
Civil society groups and activists described last week’s ruling as a shock, and it sparked a wave of criticism and ridicule on social media among activists and ordinary Tunisians.
Since Saied dissolved the elected parliament four years ago and started ruling by decree, Tunisia has faced growing criticism by rights groups over the erosion of judicial independence.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
An international convoy of boats, the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), has set sail from Tunisia, aiming to defy Israel’s siege on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid.
The GSF, which departed Bizerte Port on Saturday, includes more than 40 vessels carrying between 500 and 700 activists from more than 40 countries, according to Anadolu.
Participants say they are determined to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Among those joining is Franco-Palestinian lawmaker Rima Hassan, a member of the French National Assembly, who announced her participation after boarding in Tunisia.
“Our governments are responsible for the continuation of the genocide in Gaza,” Hassan wrote on X, accusing European leaders of silence in the face of Israeli attacks on aid convoys. In June, she joined another Gaza-bound boat that Israeli forces seized in international waters.
he flotilla is supported by prominent activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who has long been vilified by Israeli officials for her solidarity with Palestinians.
The flotilla reported this week that two of its ships – the Family, which had members of the steering committee on board, and the Alma – were attacked while anchored near Tunis.
Activists suspect Israeli involvement, noting that one of the vessels was struck by a drone.
Tunisia’s Ministry of the Interior confirmed a “premeditated aggression” and said an investigation had been launched.
Despite the attacks, flotilla organisers insist they will press ahead. “Faced with this inaction, I am joining this citizens’ initiative, which is the largest humanitarian maritime convoy ever undertaken,” Hassan said.
History of intervention
This is not the first time Israel has moved to stop such missions.
In early June, Israeli naval forces intercepted the Madleen ship in international waters, seizing its aid supplies and detaining the crew of 12 activists. Another vessel, the Conscience, was struck by drones in May near Maltese waters, leaving it unable to continue its journey.
Organisers say the GSF – named after the Arabic word for resilience – represents one of the boldest challenges yet to Israel’s control of Gaza’s coastline.
The attempt comes as the United Nations warns of famine in Gaza, with more than half a million people facing catastrophic hunger.
International aid group Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) says one of its vessels, the Family Boat, was hit by a drone at Tunisia’s Sidi Bou Said port—the second alleged strike in two days—and released video on social media showing flames bursting from the deck. All passengers and crew escaped unharmed, and the vessel sustained no structural damage.
The flotilla, carrying humanitarian aid along with activists including Greta Thunberg and Irish actor Liam Cunningham, is seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza using civilian boats.
Newsweek has contacted the GSF, Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
Why It Matters
The reported attacks highlight mounting tensions around international efforts to challenge Israel’s control over the flow of aid into Gaza. Israel has enforced a blockade since 2007, citing security concerns, while humanitarian agencies warn of worsening famine conditions inside the territory during the ongoing war.
The GSF’s mission recalls earlier high-profile confrontations, including Israel’s deadly raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in 2010 and its June seizure of another aid vessel carrying Thunberg. The latest incidents raise fresh concerns about the risks faced by international activists challenging the blockade.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, right, is seen onboard a vessel carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza in Barcelona on September 1, 2025. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, right, is seen onboard a vessel carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza in Barcelona on September 1, 2025. Lluis Gene/Getty Images
What to Know
The GSF released a video on Instagram showing a luminous object hitting one of its boats on Wednesday, followed by fire erupting onboard. The footage has not been independently verified. The group’s statement described the incident as a deliberate strike, though it did not assign blame.
On Tuesday, the GSF said another of its ships, the British-flagged Alma, was hit by a drone in Tunisian waters. Tunisia’s Interior Ministry denied those claims, saying there was “no basis in truth” and attributing the blaze to a fire onboard. The group later posted an image of what it described as a “charred electronic device” recovered from the Alma‘s deck, calling it evidence of a targeted attack.
UN Rapporteur’s Assessment
Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, circulated video of the Alma burning and argued it supported the drone-attack theory. Several ambulances and coast guard vessels were seen rushing to the scene in Tunisia, according to local reports.
Mission Continues
Despite the incidents, the flotilla said it would proceed with its “peaceful voyage.” The GSF, supported by delegations from 44 countries, framed the reported strikes as attempts to derail its mission, but vowed to press forward.
Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, center, attends a press conference by international activists seeking to deliver aid to Gaza on a flotilla, in Tunis, Tunisia, on September 9,… Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, center, attends a press conference by international activists seeking to deliver aid to Gaza on a flotilla, in Tunis, Tunisia, on September 9, 2025.
AP Photo
What People Are Saying
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur: “Video evidence suggests a drone—with no light so it could not be seen—dropped a device that set the deck of the Alma boat on fire.”
Global Sumud Flotilla statement: “The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred. Our peaceful voyage to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza and stand in unwavering solidarity with its people presses forward with determination and resolve.”
What Happens Next
The flotilla plans to continue sailing toward Gaza despite the risks. Its journey will likely remain under close international scrutiny, testing the limits of Israel’s blockade and the determination of activists challenging it.
The Gaza humanitarian crisis loomed large at the Venice Film Festival closing ceremony as multiple winners called for an end to the Israeli military campaign in the Palestinian territory.
The situation there has been a hot button topic throughout the 82nd edition of the festival, which unfolded just six weeks shy of the second anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks on Southern Israel on October 7 2023, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the taking of 251 hostages.
At least 61,000 people living in the Gaza Strip have died in Israel’s subsequent military campaign aimed at wiping out Hamas and recovering the hostages, while aid agencies have warned of a looming “a man-made” famine, with at least 132,000 children under five-years-old expected to suffer from acute malnutrition.
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania was the most outspoken as she received the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize for The Voice of Hind Rajab.
The film about the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was in a car with family members which was fired on by Israeli forces at they tried to flee Gaza City in early 2024, rocked the festival earlier in the week, receiving a record-breaking 23 minutes and 40 second ovations.
“I dedicate this world to the Palestinian Red Crescent and to all those who have risked everything to save lives in Gaza. They are real heroes. The voice of Hind is the voice of Gaza itself, a cry for rescue the entire world could hear, yet no one answered,” said Ben Hania.
“Her voice will continue to echo until accountability is real until justice is served. We all believe in the force of cinema. It’s what gathers us here tonight and what gives us the courage to tell stories that might otherwise be buried. Cinema cannot bring Hind back. Nor can it erase the atrocity committed against her. Nothing can ever restore what was taken,” she continued.
“But cinema can preserve her voice, make it resonate across borders, because her story is not hers alone. It is tragically the story of an entire people enduring genocide inflicted by a criminal Israeli regime that acts with impunity,” she added.
Ben Hania raised the plight of Hind Rajab’s mother Wissam Hamada and brother Eiyad, who remain in Gaza.
“This story is not only about memory it’s about urgency. Their lives remain in danger, as do the lives of countless mothers, fathers and children who wake up every day under the same sky of fear, hunger and bombardment. I urge the leaders of the world to save them. Their survival is not a matter of charity. It is a matter of justice, of humanity, of the minimum that the world owes to them. I also call for an end of this unbearable situation. Enough is enough.”
A number of other winners made similar appeals across the night including Italy’s Toni Servillo, who won Best Actor for his performance in La Grazia; Silent Friend co-star Luna Wedler, who won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor, and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani who won the Audience Award for Calle Malaga.
“The joy I feel is profound but so is the pain I feel as I receive this award today,” said Touzani. “I feel pain because like many others I cannot forget the horror inflicted with such impunity and every second on the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine.”
“As a mother today, I consider myself even more fortunate to simply be able to look at my child as I speak,” continued the director, whose son was in the auditorium.
“For how many mothers have been made childless, how many children have been motherless, fatherless, have lost everything. How many more until this horror is brought to an end. Yes, we wipe our tears and keep going, but we refuse to lose our humanity. I must say I am proud and honored to be part of a festival that has been so engaged.”
In a break with tradition, the ceremony ended with an address from the Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The Roman Catholic cardinal visited Gaza in July following an Israeli strike on the compound of the parish of the Holy Family, which killed three people and injured nine others, including the parish priest.
He spoke to the auditorium via live-video link from Jerusalem.
“A greeting from Jerusalem, the Holy Land, where we are living such a such a dramatic, difficult and divisive moment. You know the news so I don’t need to go into that, it’s dramatic as are the images of destruction, death and so much pain. One of the problems is that there is so much pain that there is no longer space for the pain of the other,” he said
What I want to say is that we’re living in a climate of deep hate, which is increasingly radical within both the Israeli and Palestinian populations… we see it in the violence, but also in the language… which is having a dehumanizing effect. The war needs to stop and we hope it will end soon… we all need to work to create a different dialogue, different outcomes,” he said.
He called on the world of culture and cinema to also play its part.
“I hope that also from Venice there will be a positive contribution in this sense to help us think in a different way.”
HE used to claim he was the “Hardest Geezer” in the Sussex seaside town of Worthing.
Now Russ Cook has proved he is the hardest geezer in the world — by becoming the first man in history to run the entire length of Africa.
11
Russ Cook has become the first man in history to run the entire length of Africa – and vowed not to cut his hair or beard until he was finishedCredit: Reuters
11
The ‘hardest geezer’ of Worthing made it from South Africa to Tunisia after 352 dysCredit: Instagram / hardestgeezer
11
Russ set off from Cape Africa’s southernmost point, Cape Agulhas, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet
His 9,891-mile trek from Cape Town to Tunisia, where he crossed the finish line today, spanned 352 days and was the equivalent of 377 marathons.
Russ, 27, battled injuries, food poisoning, extreme heat and cold, a kidnapping and robbery.
It took 19million steps and 20 pairs of trainers to complete the epic feat through 16 countries.
He set off from Cape Africa’s southernmost point, Cape Agulhas, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet, on April 22, 2023, vowing not to cut his hair or beard until he crossed the finish line in Bizerte in Tunisia.
The huge red beard and ponytail he grew during the trek earned him the nickname “Africa’s Forrest Gump”, in a nod to the Tom Hanks blockbuster.
A former big boozer and gambler, Russ turned his life around at 19 after a pal challenged him to run the Brighton half marathon.
He says: “I was in a bad place and my mate knew it. I was unfit and drinking and blowing money in the bookies, so I agreed to run it.
“After that, I did the Brighton marathon. Through training, I learnt the values of running and discipline and self-belief, which empowered me, and I applied it to other things in life.”
Realising he would never win marathons, the ex-cleaner decided to set himself endurance challenges. In 2019, he ran 71 marathons through 11 countries between Asia and London, with little more than a backpack and a hammock. It took him just 66 days.
‘It’s been the toughest days of my life’
In 2020, he broke the world record for the fastest marathon while pulling a car.
He ran 26 miles along Worthing seafront with a 730kg Suzuki Alto attached to a rope around his waist in 9hr and 56min, knocking 9hr 40min off the record of 19hrs.
Kelvin Kiptum wins London Marathon with second fastest ever time
11
Russ has been compared to beloved Tom Hanks character Forrest GumpCredit: Alamy
11
An exhausted Russ rehydrates with power drinksCredit: Instagram / hardestgeezer
Then, in 2021, Russ was buried alive for a week in a box with just 20 litres of water and a ventilation tube.
He also became the first to complete a marathon on crutches and crossed the finish line of another 26-mile race drunk because he stopped every mile to sink a beer.
Russ came up with the idea of running across Africa during Covid, in a bid to raise £1million for charities supporting refugees and rough sleepers.
Incredibly, he had raised over £700,000 earlier tonight.
He says: “People reckon I’m nuts but, if I want to do something, I will do it regardless of how outlandish it seems.
I have passed blood for six days and suffered awful food poisoning, a bad back that only painkillers could cure, had visa nightmares, dehydration and suffered exhaustion
Russ Cook
“Quitting never even came into it. Not even thought of it.
“I decided to run Africa for my personal achievement and have some mad stories to tell — and I bloody well did it.
“I did it first and that makes me so proud. This was all about how far I could push my limits. It is more than just running across a whole continent.
“When I started running, I didn’t like long distances, but I taught my body to get to the point where it could quite comfortably run all day long without much difficulty.
“Then came Africa. The blazing heat in the day and the freezing cold at night.
“Running on sand, through jungles, through sandstorms and snow storms and torrential downpours.
“I have passed blood for six days and suffered awful food poisoning, a bad back that only painkillers could cure, had visa nightmares, dehydration and suffered exhaustion.”
In November, Russ was forced to visit medics in Nigeria for scans as his back pain became “excruciating”.
11
Russ being scanned after his back pain became ‘excruciating’Credit: Instagram / hardestgeezer
He says: “It got very bloody hard at times, but I would tell myself to stop moaning like a little weasel and get on the road and get that zombie stomp going.”
Recalling the simple things that inspired him to keep going, Russ adds: “These 352 days have been the toughest of my life, but also such an immense honour.
“I have met incredible people every single day in every single country who welcomed us.
“Seeing all the kids running out to jog with us has been wonderful.
“But, in some remote areas, being white with a big red beard and red hair, I did terrify a few kids!”
As his epic trek neared an end, Russ focused on his home comforts. He says: “My body was starting to break down. Everything hurt. My legs felt like they were about to fall off. Just a few more days, I said.
“Now it’s time to party and the daiquiris will be flowing. It will be good to get into a real crisp bed and have a long hot soak in a bath.”
During his African epic, Russ would sleep in a support vehicle driven by his pals Harry Gallimore and Stan Gaskell.
It also carried their video gear, to record the world record attempt, and was their link to his social media channels on YouTube, X and Instagram.
Russ ran an average of 30 miles a day, including 90 days through the Sahara Desert.
As it was 50C in the day, he ran at night, though it was sometimes still 25C.
My body was starting to break down. Everything hurt. My legs felt like they were about to fall off
Russ Cook
He endured snow storms in Algeria and monsoons in rainforests.
In the Congo, tribal natives wielding machetes kidnapped him on day 102 last August.
Russ — who feared they could be cannibals — had been separated from his support vehicle due to the terrain.
He stumbled into a rural settlement as he headed for their rendezvous point.
He recalls: “There was a chief there who told me I must give him money. I told him I had none.
“Pretty soon I found myself surrounded by lots of blokes with machetes, who escorted me into the bush.
“I didn’t know what they were going to do, so I emptied my bag to show I had nothing but a biscuit, and gave it to them.
“Then I ran for it, bushwhacking through jungle paths. I kept off any tracks until I was far away.
“Then, suddenly, two men pulled up on a motorbike and took me on a seven-hour ride into the jungle and I was thinking, ‘Is this it?’.
“I thought, ‘Here is the self-proclaimed Hardest Geezer being held in a Congo gulag before being ripped apart limb by limb by these people and eaten’.”
Russ was able to negotiate with his kidnappers during a two day ordeal, and his team paid a ransom.
It came weeks after Russ — who also suffered a week of food poisoning and bouts of diarrhoea — was help up by armed maniacs in Angola on day 64 last June.
I thought, ‘Here is the self-proclaimed Hardest Geezer being held in a Congo gulag before being ripped apart limb by limb by these people and eaten’
Russ Cook
He had jumped into the support van for lunch at the roadside unaware they were being watched by gunmen planning to rob them.
He posted on X: “Nothing like a gun being pointed in your face to let you know you are alive.
“It was like any other day when a couple of lads pop open the side door and demanded everything we have.
“None of us got killed or injured. We did lose a lot of our gear. Losing our passports was the big blow as it had our visas to move onwards with.
“It was a nightmare trying to get it sorted in Angola so we had to halt the challenge for two weeks and drive back to Namibia to get new passports and visas.
“That was 1,281 miles back to Windhoek to sort the paperwork and 1,281 miles back to the start.”
Russ admits the terrifying experiences were a real eye-opener.
He says: “One of the reasons I wanted to run the length of Africa is because no one has ever done it before.
“After the robbery and kidnapping, I was starting to find out why.
“But 99 per cent of the time people were so good to us, giving us food and help and donating by going to ATMs and giving us cash.”
From South Africa, Russ ran along the west coast up through Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, and Algeria, before finishing in Tunisia just under a year later.
11
Supporters joined Russ for the final leg of the challengeCredit: AFP – Getty
11
Other fans waited for him while wearing red beardsCredit: Reuters
11
Russ pictured at the finish lineCredit: Reuters
But a problem securing a visa to cross the border into Algeria almost scuppered his challenge on day 278.
After a four day stalemate and pleas on social media, the UK’s Algerian embassy offered courtesy visas.
For his final 29.3-mile stretch — in which he completed in 4hr 47min — Russ had invited social media followers to run with him or wait at the finishing line. Some turned up wearing fake red beards.
And he revealed he couldn’t wait to be reunited with his girlfriend.
He says: “I warned the girls and boys to get the daiquiris set up.
“Nothing was going to stop me, even if I had to crawl my way over broken glass to get to the very end.
“Not too bad for a former fat lad with booze and gambling issues.”
Paying tribute to his partner on X, he added: “My girl is an absolute diamond. Put her through the emotional wringer daily. Deserves the world and everything in it.
“Can’t wait to share a strawberry daiquiri with her on a Tunisian beach and tell her how beautiful she is.
“Would be in a mental asylum in Congo without her.”
11
Russ takes a dip after finishing the trekCredit: sky News
11
Russ’ journey in full
RUSS’S Project Africa challenge will bring a massive funding boost to two amazing causes – and it is easy for you to pledge your support.
One beneficiary, The Running Charity, works to transform the lives of young people affected by homelessness and multiple or complex needs.
The other, Sandblast, helps Sahrawi refugees. To donate, visit: givestar.io/gs/projectafrica
AT least 61 people, including children, have been killed in a “tragic shipwreck” after a boat carrying 86 migrants left Libya.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Libya made the announcement on social media on Saturday.
1
At least 61 people are thought to have died in the tragedy. Image shows an overcrowded wooden boat off the coast of Libya in November 2021 (file photo)Credit: AP
The organisation quoted survivors as saying the boat, carrying around 86 people, departed the Libyan city of Zwara.
The tragedy comes after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that illegal migration to Europe could “overwhelm” the continent.
He suggested a change was needed in international law to tackle the issue.
At a meeting with Italian conservatives in Rome, Mr Sunak said “enemies” could use immigration as a “weapon” by “deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilise our society”.
During the day-long trip to Rome, Mr Sunak met Italian Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni, with whom he has developed a strong partnership.
They also held talks with Albania‘s prime minister Edi Rama, another ally in their efforts to crack down on illegal migration.
Number 10 said that after the talks Mr Sunak and Ms Meloni had agreed to co-fund a project that would see the two countries “promote and assist the voluntary return” of migrants currently stuck in Tunisia.
Mr Sunak said: “If we do not tackle this problem, the numbers will only grow. It will overwhelm our countries and our capacity to help those who actually need our help the most.
“If that requires us to update our laws and lead an international conversation to amend the post-war frameworks around asylum, then we must do that.
“Because if we don’t fix this problem now, the boats will keep coming and more lives will be lost at sea.”
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk was among those at the Atreju event, which has been attended by former Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban in the past.
A migrant died in the Channel yesterday, with Downing Street calling it a “stark reminder” of just how dangerous the crossings are.
A second migrant was left in a critical condition when a boat sank in the English Channel just after midnight yesterday with 66 rescued and taken to safety.
The Home Secretary James Cleverly said the incident which took place five miles off the northern coast “horrific reminder of the people smugglers’ brutality”.
More than 29,000 migrants have arrived in the UK this year after crossing the Channel.
BRUSSELS — Western leaders are grappling with how to handle two era-defining wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine. But there’s another issue, one far closer to home, that’s derailing governments in Europe and America: migration.
In recent days, U.S. President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak all hit trouble amid intense domestic pressure to tackle immigration; all three emerged weakened as a result. The stakes are high as American, British and European voters head to the polls in 2024.
“There is a temptation to hunt for quick fixes,” said Rashmin Sagoo, director of the international law program at the Chatham House think tank in London. “But irregular migration is a hugely challenging issue. And solving it requires long-term policy thinking beyond national boundaries.”
With election campaigning already under way, long-term plans may be hard to find. Far-right, anti-migrant populists promising sharp answers are gaining support in many Western democracies, leaving mainstream parties to count the costs. Less than a month ago in the Netherlands, pragmatic Dutch centrists lost to an anti-migrant radical.
Who will be next?
Rishi Sunak, United Kingdom
In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure from members of his own ruling Conservative party who fear voters will punish them over the government’s failure to get a grip on migration.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference in Dover on June 5, 2023 in Dover, England | Pool photo by Yui Mok/WPA via Getty Images
Seven years ago, voters backed Brexit because euroskeptic campaigners promised to “Take Back Control” of the U.K.’s borders. Instead, the picture is now more chaotic than ever. The U.K. chalked up record net migration figures last month, and the government has failed so far to stop small boats packed with asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
Sunak is now in the firing line. He made a pledge to “Stop the Boats” central to his premiership. In the process, he ignited a war in his already divided party about just how far Britain should go.
Under Sunak’s deal with Rwanda, the central African nation agreed to resettle asylum seekers who arrived on British shores in small boats. The PM says the policy will deter migrants from making sea crossings to the U.K. in the first place. But the plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in London, and Sunak’s Tories now can’t agree on what to do next.
Having survived what threatened to be a catastrophic rebellion in parliament on Tuesday, the British premier still faces a brutal battle in the legislature over his proposed Rwanda law early next year.
Time is running out for Sunak to find a fix. An election is expected next fall.
Emmanuel Macron, France
The French president suffered an unexpected body blow when the lower house of parliament rejected his flagship immigration bill this week.
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on June 21, 2023 | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
After losing parliamentary elections last year, getting legislation through the National Assembly has been a fraught process for Macron. He has been forced to rely on votes from the right-wing Les Républicains party on more than one occasion.
Macron’s draft law on immigration was meant to please both the conservatives and the center-left with a carefully designed mix of repressive and liberal measures. But in a dramatic upset, the National Assembly, which is split between centrists, the left and the far right, voted against the legislation on day one of debates.
Now Macron is searching for a compromise. The government has tasked a joint committee of senators and MPs with seeking a deal. But it’s likely their text will be harsher than the initial draft, given that the Senate is dominated by the centre right — and this will be a problem for Macron’s left-leaning lawmakers.
If a compromise is not found, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally will be able to capitalize on Macron’s failure ahead of the European Parliament elections next June.
But even if the French president does manage to muddle through, the episode is likely to mark the end of his “neither left nor right” political offer. It also raises serious doubts about his ability to legislate on controversial topics.
Joe Biden, United States
The immigration crisis is one of the most vexing and longest-running domestic challenges for President Joe Biden. He came into office vowing to reverse the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump, and build a “fair and humane” system, only to see Congress sit on his plan for comprehensive immigration reform.
U.S. President Joe Biden pauses as he gives a speech in Des Moines, Iowa on July 15, 2019 | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The White House has seen a deluge of migrants at the nation’s southern border, strained by a decades-old system unable to handle modern migration patterns.
Ahead of next year’s presidential election, Republicans have seized on the issue. GOP state leaders have filed lawsuits against the administration and sent busloads of migrants to Democrat-led cities, while in Washington, Republicans in Congress have tied foreign aid to sweeping changes to border policy, putting the White House in a tight spot as Biden officials now consider a slate of policies they once forcefully rejected.
The political pressure has spilled into the other aisle. States and cities, particularly ones led by Democrats, are pressuring Washington leaders to do more in terms of providing additional federal aid and revamping southern border policies to limit the flow of asylum seekers into the United States.
New York City has had more than 150,000 new arrivals over the past year and a half — forcing cuts to new police recruits, cutting library hours and limiting sanitation duties. Similar problems are playing out in cities like Chicago, which had migrants sleeping in buses or police stations.
The pressure from Democrats is straining their relationship with the White House. New York City Mayor Eric Adams runs the largest city in the nation, but hasn’t spoken with Biden in nearly a year. “We just need help, and we’re not getting that help,” Adams told reporters Tuesday.
Olaf Scholz, Germany
Migration has been at the top of the political agenda in Germany for months, with asylum applications rising to their highest levels since the 2015 refugee crisis triggered by Syria’s civil war.
The latest influx has posed a daunting challenge to national and local governments alike, which have struggled to find housing and other services for the migrants, not to mention the necessary funds.
The inability to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure | Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
The inability — in a country that ranks among the most coveted destinations for asylum seekers — to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure. In the hope of stemming the flow, Germany recently reinstated border checks with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, hoping to turn back the refugees before they hit German soil.
Even with border controls, refugee numbers remain high, which has been a boon to the far right. Germany’s anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party has reached record support in national polls.
Since overtaking Scholz’s Social Democrats in June, the AfD has widened its lead further, recording 22 percent in recent polls, second only to the center-right Christian Democrats.
The AfD is expected to sweep three state elections next September in eastern Germany, where support for the party and its reactionary anti-foreigner policies is particularly strong.
The center-right, meanwhile, is hardening its position on migration and turning its back on the open-border policies championed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among the new priorities is a plan to follow the U.K.’s Rwanda model for processing refugees in third countries.
Karl Nehammer, Austria
Like Scholz, the Austrian leader’s approval ratings have taken a nosedive thanks to concerns over migration. Austria has taken steps to tighten controls at its southern and eastern borders.
Though the tactic has led to a drop in arrivals by asylum seekers, it also means Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades.
Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades | Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images
The far-right Freedom Party has had a commanding lead for more than a year, topping the ruling center-right in polls by 10 points. That puts the party in a position to win national elections scheduled for next fall, which would mark an unprecedented rightward tilt in a country whose politics have been dominated by the center since World War II.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made her name in opposition, campaigning on a radical far-right agenda. Since winning power in last year’s election, she has shifted to more moderate positions on Ukraine and Europe.
Meloni now needs to appease her base on migration, a topic that has dominated Italian debate for years. Instead, however, she has been forced to grant visas to hundreds of thousands of legal migrants to cover labor shortages. Complicating matters, boat landings in Italy are up by about 50 per cent year-on-year despite some headline-grabbling policies and deals to stop arrivals.
While Meloni has ordered the construction of detention centers where migrants will be held pending repatriation, in reality local conditions in African countries and a lack of repatriation agreements present serious impediments.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni at a press conference on March 9, 2023 | Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
Although she won the support of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her cause, a potential EU naval mission to block departures from Africa would risk breaching international law.
Meloni has tried other options, including a deal with Tunisia to help stop migrant smuggling, but the plan fell apart before it began. A deal with Albania to offshore some migrant detention centers also ran into trouble.
Now Meloni is in a bind. The migration issue has brought her into conflict with France and Germany as she attempts to create a reputation as a moderate conservative.
If she fails to get to grips with the issue, she is likely to lose political ground. Her coalition partner Matteo Salvini is known as a hardliner on migration, and while they’re officially allies for now, they will be rivals again later.
Geert Wilders, the Netherlands
The government of long-serving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was toppled over migration talks in July, after which he announced his exit from politics. In subsequent elections, in which different parties vied to fill Rutte’s void, far-right firebrand Geert Wilders secured a shock win. On election night he promised to curb the “asylum tsunami.”
Wilders is now seeking to prop up a center-right coalition with three other parties that have urged getting migration under control. One of them is Rutte’s old group, now led by Dilan Yeşilgöz.
Geert Wilders attends a meeting in the Dutch parliament with party leaders to discuss the formation of a coalition government, on November 24, 2023 | Carl Court/Getty Images
A former refugee, Yeşilgöz turned migration into one of the main topics of her campaign. She was criticized after the elections for paving the way for Wilders to win — not only by focusing on migration, but also by opening the door to potentially governing with Wilders.
Now, though, coalition talks are stuck, and it could take months to form a new cabinet. If Wilders, who clearly has a mandate from voters, can stitch a coalition together, the political trajectory of the Netherlands — generally known as a pragmatic nation — will shift significantly to the right. A crackdown on migration is as certain as anything can be.
Leo Varadkar, Ireland
Even in Ireland, an economically open country long used to exporting its own people worldwide, an immigration-friendly and pro-business government has been forced by rising anti-foreigner sentiment to introduce new migration deterrence measures that would have been unthinkable even a year ago.
Ireland’s hardening policies reflect both a chronic housing crisis and the growing reluctance of some property owners to keep providing state-funded emergency shelter in the wake of November riots in Dublin triggered by a North African immigrant’s stabbing of young schoolchildren.
A nation already housing more than 100,000 newcomers, mostly from Ukraine, Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia, according to the most recent Department of Integration statistics.
Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia | Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images
Even newly arrived families face an increasing risk of being kept in military-style tents despite winter temperatures.
Ukrainians, who since Russia’s 2022 invasion of their country have received much stronger welfare support than other refugees, will see that welcome mat partially retracted in draft legislation approved this week by the three-party coalition government of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Once enacted by parliament next month, the law will limit new Ukrainian arrivals to three months of state-paid housing, while welfare payments – currently among the most generous in Europe for people fleeing Russia’s war – will be slashed for all those in state-paid housing.
Justin Trudeau, Canada
A pessimistic public mood dragged down by cost-of-living woes has made immigration a multidimensional challenge for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
A housing crunch felt across the country has cooled support for immigration, with people looking for scapegoats for affordability pains. The situation has fueled antipathy for Trudeau and his re-election campaign.
Trudeau has treated immigration as a multipurpose solution for Canada’s aging population and slowing economy. And while today’s record-high population growth reflects well on Canada’s reputation as a desirable place to relocate, political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals.
Political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals | Andrej Ivanov/AFP
Since Trudeau came to power eight years ago, at least 1.3 million people have immigrated to Canada, mostly from India, the Philippines, China and Syria. Handling diaspora politics — and foreign interference — has become more consequential, as seen by Trudeau’s clash with India and Canada’s recent break with Israel.
Canada will double its 40 million population in 25 years if the current growth rate holds, enlarging the political challenges of leading what Trudeau calls the world’s “first postnational state”.
Pedro Sánchez, Spain
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe from the south: Once they make it across the land border, the Continent can easily be accessed by ferry.
Transit via the land border that separates the European territory from Morocco is normally kept in check with security measures like high, razor-topped fences, with border control officers from both countries working together to keep undocumented migrants out.
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe | Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP
But in recent years authorities in Morocco have expressed displeasure with their Spanish counterparts by standing down their officers and allowing hundreds of migrants to pass, overwhelming border stations and forcing Spanish officers to repel the migrants, with scores dying in the process.
The headaches caused by these incidents are believed to be a major factor in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to change the Spanish government’s position on the disputed Western Sahara territory and express support for Rabat’s plan to formalize its nearly 50-year occupation of the area.
The pivot angered Sánchez’s leftist allies and worsened Spain’s relationship with Algeria, a long-standing champion of Western Saharan independence. But the measures have stopped the flow of migrants — for now.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece
Greece has been at the forefront of Europe’s migration crisis since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people entered Europe via the Aegean islands. Migration and border security have been key issues in the country’s political debate.
Human rights organizations, as well as the European Parliament and the European Commission, have accused the Greek conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis of illegal “pushbacks” of migrants who have made it to Greek territory — and of deporting migrants without due process. Greece’s government denies those accusations, arguing that independent investigations haven’t found any proof.
Mitsotakis insists that Greece follows a “tough but fair” policy, but the numerous in-depth investigations belie the moderate profile the conservative leader wants to maintain.
In June, a migrant boat sank in what some called “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean Sea. Hundreds lost their lives, refocusing Europe’s attention on the issue. Official investigations have yet to discover whether failures by Greek authorities contributed to the shipwreck, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In the meantime, Greece is in desperate need of thousands of workers to buttress the country’s understaffed agriculture, tourism and construction sectors. Despite pledges by the migration and agriculture ministers of imminent legislation bringing migrants to tackle the labor shortage, the government was forced to retreat amid pressure from within its own ranks.
Nikos Christodoulides, Cyprus
Cyprus is braced for an increase in migrant arrivals on its shores amid renewed conflict in the Middle East. Earlier in December, Greece sent humanitarian aid to the island to deal with an anticipated increase in flows.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management, and is contending with a surge in violence against migrants in Cyprus. Analysts blame xenophobia, which has become mainstream in Cypriot politics and media, as well as state mismanagement of migration flows. Last year the country recorded the EU’s highest proportion of first-time asylum seekers relative to its population.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Legal and staffing challenges have delayed efforts to create a deputy ministry for migration, deemed an important step in helping Cyprus to deal with the surge in arrivals.
The island’s geography — it’s close to both Lebanon and Turkey — makes it a prime target for migrants wanting to enter EU territory from the Middle East. Its complex history as a divided country also makes it harder to regulate migrant inflows.
Tim Ross, Annabelle Dickson, Clea Caulcutt, Myah Ward, Matthew Karnitschnig, Hannah Roberts, Pieter Haeck, Shawn Pogatchnik, Zi-Ann Lum, Aitor Hernández-Morales and Nektaria Stamouli
“The Tunisian People deserve better and I announce my candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic of Tunisia,” says Hamdi.
TUNIS, Tunisia, November 13, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– In 2011, the Tunisian people proved themselves to be free people who, by rising up for their rights, rejected autocracy in all its forms and established their inherent right to choice. It is in accord with this freedom of choice that Olfa Hamdi is accepting the nomination of the National Council of the Third Republic Party to run in the upcoming presidential election of Tunisia. In 2011, the Tunisian people proved themselves to be free people who, by rising up for their rights, rejected autocracy in all its forms and established their inherent right to choice.
Today, Ms. Hamdi begins her candidacy for the presidential election of 2024. She will present the Tunisian People with an alternative political vision aiming to secure a better economic future for their families and to address their need for Hope, Safety, Prosperity, and Unity.
Ms. Hamdi is also beginning a national dialogue open to all Tunisians as well as with Tunisians abroad. This dialogue aims to build a broad coalition ensuring a successful peaceful political transformation in the framework of the upcoming presidential election.
Starting today, and as a presidential candidate, I am also beginning a national dialogue open to all Tunisians as well as with Tunisians abroad. This dialogue aims to build a broad coalition ensuring a successful peaceful political transformation in the framework of the upcoming presidential election.
“I humbly ask the Tunisian people to support me in conducting this dialogue, running this campaign, and ultimately, in achieving this vision of all of us uniting to bring our country into the 21st century. May Allah help me and May He bless our country,” said Hamdi in a statement.
Hamdi is the founder and leader of the Third Republic Party of Tunisia and former CEO and Chairwoman of the Tunisian National Airline Tunisair. She is an engineer, entrepreneur, FID auditor of industrial projects, and inventor of the Advanced Work Packaging Method (AWP) for delivering complex projects. She is the founder and CEO of Concord Project Technologies Inc., a California company specializing in supporting Owner energy and mining companies. Hamdi was born in Gafsa Tunisia, completed her early studies in Tunisia, then Ecole Centrale Lille in France, and at the University of Texas At Austin.
Source: Olfa Al-Hamidi for the Presidency of the Tunisian Republic 2024
SARCELLES, France — In the usually lively “Little Jerusalem” neighborhood of Sarcelles, the only people loitering are gun-toting French soldiers on patrol.
Since Hamas’ deadly assault against Israel on October 7, this largely Jewish enclave in the northern suburbs of Paris has gone eerily quiet, with locals keeping their movements to a minimum, and with restaurants and cafés bereft of their regular clientele — fearing an increasing number of antisemitic attacks across France.
“People are afraid, in a state of shock, they’ve lost their love for life” said Alexis Timsit, manager of a kosher pizzeria. “My business is down 50 percent, there’s no bustle in the street, nobody taking a stroll,” he said in front of a large screen broadcasting round-the-clock coverage of the war.
France has seen more antisemitic incidents in the last three weeks than over the past year: 501 offenses ranging from verbal abuse and antisemitic graffiti, to death threats and physical assaults have been reported. Antisemitic acts under investigation include groups gathering in front of synagogues shouting threats and graffiti such as the words “killing Jews is a duty” sprayed outside a stadium in Carcassonne in the southwest. The interior minister has deployed extra police and soldiers at Jewish schools, places of worship and community centers since the attacks, and in Sarcelles that means soldiers guard school pick-ups and drop-offs.
“I try not to show my daughter that I’m afraid,” said Suedu Avner, who hopes the conflict won’t last too long. But a certain panic has taken hold in the community in the wake of the Hamas attacks, in some cases spreading like wildfire on WhatsApp groups. On one particularly tense day, parents even pulled their children out of school.
France is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel and the U.S., estimated at about 500,000, and one of the largest Muslim communities in Europe. Safety concerns aren’t new to France’s Jewish community, as to some degree, it has remained on alert amid a string of terror attacks on French soil by Islamists over the last decade.
Israel’s war against Hamas is now threatening the fragile peace in places like Sarcelles, one of the poorest cities in France, where thousands of Jews live alongside mostly Muslim neighbors of North African origin, from immigrant backgrounds, and in low-income housing estates.
Authorities meanwhile are often torn by conflicting imperatives — between the Jews, who are fearful for their safety, and the Muslims, who feel an affinity for the Palestinian cause. During his visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, French President Emmanuel Macron himself struggled to strike a difficult balance between supporting Israel in its fight against Hamas, and calling for the preservation of Palestinian lives.
A community under threat
For Timsit, the threat is very real. His pizzeria was ransacked by rioters a couple of months ago, when the fatal shooting of a teenager by a police officer in a Paris suburb caused unrest in poor housing estates across France.
The attack was not antisemitic, he said, but was a violent reminder. In 2014, a pro-Palestinian demonstration protesting Israel’s ground offensive against Gaza degenerated into an antisemitic riot against Jewish shops. “All you need is a spark to set it off again,” said Timsit.
France’s Jews have seen an increase in antisemitic attacks since the early 2000s, a reality that cuts deep into the national psyche given the memories of France’s collaboration with Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
“The fear of violence [in France] appeared with the Second Intifada,” said Marc Hecker, a specialist on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with IFRI think tank, with reference to the uprising against Israeli occupation in Palestinian Territories.
Patrick Haddad, the mayor of Sarcelles, is working to keep the communities together | Clea Caulcutt/POLITICO
“Every time the situation in the Near East flares up, there’s an increase in antisemitic offenses in France,” he added. The threat of antisemitic attacks has led to increased security at Jewish schools and synagogues, and has discouraged many French Jews from wearing their kippahs in some areas, according to Jewish organizations.
In addition to low-level attacks, French Jews are also a prime target for Islamists as France battles a wave of terrorist attacks that have hit schools, bars and public buildings, among other targets, in the last decade. In 2012, three children and a rabbi were shot dead at a Jewish school in Toulouse at point-blank range by Mohamed Merah, a gunman who had claimed allegiance to al-Qaida. In 2015, four people were killed at a kosher supermarket near Paris.
While Hamas, al-Qaida and ISIS networks are separate, Hecker warned that the scale of Hamas’s attack against Israel has “galvanized” Islamists across the board, once again sparking deep fears among France’s Jews.
Delicate local balance
Many of Sarcelles’ Jews are Sephardic — that is, of Spanish descent — and ended up in North Africa when Spain expelled its Jewish population in the Middle Ages. Most came to France after having lived in the former French colonies of Algeria and Tunisia. Sarcelles’ Muslim population therefore shares a cultural and linguistic history with its Jewish community, and the two groups have lived together in relative harmony for decades.
In his office, the mayor of Sarcelles, Patrick Haddad, stands under the twin gazes of Nelson Mandela and Marianne, the symbol of French republicanism, with pictures of both adorning his wall, as he reflects on the thus-far peaceful coexistence among the local population.
“There’s been not a single antisemitic attack in Sarcelles since the attacks … It’s been over two weeks, and we are holding things together,” he said, smiling despite the noticeable strain. Relations between the city’s Muslims and Jews are amicable, said Haddad, and locals on the streets are proud of their friendship with people of a different religion.
Israel’s war on Hamas is testing relations in Sarcelles, one of France’s poorest cities | Clea Caulcutt/POLITICO and Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images
“Relations are easy, we share a similar culture, a lot of the Jews are originally from Tunisia, Algeria, they even speak some Arabic,” said Naima, a Muslim retiree who did not want to give her surname to protect her privacy. “My family, my husband and my children respect the Jews, but I know many who are angry with Israel,” said Naima, who moved to France from Algeria as a young adult.
“I’ve got Muslim friends, we get along fine, we don’t go around punching each other,” said Avner.
But for many, politics — and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — is off-limits, and communities live relatively separate lives, with most Jewish pupils enrolled in religious schools. Many Jews from Sarcelles have also chosen to emigrate to Israel in recent years.
But Israel’s image as the ultimate, secure sanctuary for Jews has been shattered after Hamas killed more than 1,400 Israelis in horrific attacks, said Haddad.
“Where are [Jews] going to go if they are not safe in Israel? People’s fears have been magnified, they fear what is happening here, and they are anguished about what is happening in the ‘sanctuary state’ for Jews,” he said.
In a twist of the many tragic reversals of Jewish history, several French families have returned from Israel since the Hamas attacks to find temporary shelter in the relative peace of Sarcelles.
Elisabeth Brawis a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and adviser at Gallos Technologies and a regular columnist for POLITICO.
In the 17th century, the Italian chess player Gioachino Greco created the world’s first chess handbook. One of the moves he recorded was the Queen’s Gambit, an ingenious opening in three parts.
Almost exactly 300 years later, his compatriot Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is about to launch a Queen’s Gambit of her own — in foreign policy. And much like Greco’s move, it involves several interlinked steps that, if executed successfully, could yield great dividends.
When Greco began his pioneering manuscript detailing entire chess matches, he was already considered one of the world’s best players. By contrast, Meloni was hardly a household name outside of Italy before leading her party to victory in the country’s parliamentary elections last year.
The world didn’t really know what to expect — especially when it came to foreign policy. Since then, however, Meloni has been surefooted on issues ranging from Ukraine to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. And when heads of state and government gather to address the world’s most pressing challenges at the United Nations General Assembly this week, the Italian prime minister will outline her Queen’s Gambit.
Meloni’s move involves several interconnected steps that deal with the national-security risks posed by climate change, strengthening the Euro-Atlantic alliance and helping African countries become more stable and secure. “Meloni has recently talked a great deal about the need to look at the entire global chessboard without losing sight of any area or piece,” her foreign policy advisor Ambassador Francesco Taló told me.
“For example, by moving the queen toward the East, we risk not noticing the bishop coming from Africa,” he added.
One could argue that the urgent issues we currently face are so interlinked, every head of government needs to develop a Queen’s Gambit. “In today’s situation, you can’t have vertical policy lines,” noted Taló, who previously served as Italy’s ambassador to NATO. “So many things are interconnected.”
But the need for such a strategy is particularly obvious in Italy, which sits at the nexus of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and is a key participant in the globalized economy — as well as a similarly crucial participant in the West’s defense against Russia and its support of Ukraine. Then add to that the serious disruption coming every country’s way as artificial intelligence and climate change inexorably advance.
These real-world challenges are clearly not as neat as a chessboard, and the foreign policy moves have to be executed simultaneously rather than sequentially — but the intricacy of the strategy is the same.
Take climate change: To protect its astonishing number of UNESCO World Heritage sites — not to mention its famous viniculture and agriculture — Italy needs carbon reductions not just at home but around the world. Of course, far more than Italy’s stunning sites and food hangs in the balance here — without a significant reduction in carbon emissions, sections of Africa risk becoming uninhabitable, which would force even more people to make their way to Europe via Italy.
During the first half of this year, over 73,000 boat migrants reached the country — more than double the number from all of 2021. And if the world exceeds the crucial 1.5-degree average temperature increase, the number of those having to flee their homes will be many times that.
Over 73,000 boat migrants reached the shores of Italy in the first half of 2023 | Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
Just last week, thousands of Libyans died and thousands of others were left homeless when Storm Daniel pounded the country and collapsed a pair of dams. Meloni had phone calls with Libya’s two rival prime ministers, one after the other, the day after the disaster struck, and committed to assisting the country.
The U.N. Climate Change Summit COP28, which will be held in Dubai this December, will face this intricate task of addressing climate change even as the global economy worsens. Ultimately, however, the West needs to slash its carbon emissions — as does China. And in order to get results, the two sides need to work together closely, even as geopolitical tensions increase.
But these are not the only issues the Queen’s Gambit must address.
Like many other countries, Italy needs to slash its commercial links with Russia and reduce its dependence on China too. Meloni has already decided that Italy will leave China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country has managed to more than halve its Russian gas imports. The new electricity connector that’s being built between Tunisia and Sicily represents the flipside of this strategy — a new focus on expanded and multilayered collaboration with countries in Italy’s neighborhood.
This EU-financed connector will create jobs in Tunisia, help Italy reduce its dependence on Russian gas, and any surplus will go to Europe. And in the meantime, Meloni — joined by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte — has also negotiated a migration agreement with Tunisia, which was signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July.
The Italian prime minister is, in fact, trying to create the kind of mutually beneficial relationship that has so often eluded European and African countries. That they would benefit from teaming up on climate change and better commercial links is clear — and Meloni believes Italy can also help make the case for Ukraine with some African leaders who might be best suited to propose ways out of the war.
“Italy is trying to engage not just with Ukraine’s traditional supporters but with other countries that are willing to propose solutions as well,” Taló said. “After all, any country can be assaulted by its neighbor, so every country should be able to understand Ukraine’s situation.”
In the Italian parliament, Meloni herself has dramatically dressed down legislators who have suggested supporting Ukraine is futile. That’s a world away from March 2020, when a COVID-stricken Italy asked its EU friends for help but received sluggish answers. Instead, the country had to turn to Russia and China, which made a big show of their rather limited assistance.
Greco helped the Queen’s Gambit become one of chess’s favorite opening moves, one that’s still used by grand masters today. It doesn’t always succeed, but it’s always worth trying because its rewards are considerable. There’s no guarantee that a Queen’s Gambit will work on the foreign policy stage either — but with so many crises and challenges pressing at the same time, trying to tackle them one by one is futile.
Tunis, Tunisia – Anoir Neffati is a big man. At 39, he gets by on casual work from the local market in Mellassine, a working-class district close to the centre of Tunis.
Ten days ago, he was one of the nearly 10,000 Tunisians to have attempted to land without papers in Italy. Seven days ago, he was deported.
“It took me nine hours to get there,” he jokes of his relatively comfortable journey by Zodiac from Tunisia to Pantelleria, Italy. “It took me nine minutes to get back.”
Much of the coverage of migration from Tunisia has been dominated by the appalling treatment meted out to Black refugees in Tunisia after a racially charged speech by the country’s President Kais Saied in February.
But Tunisians themselves remain one of the largest groups attempting the crossing to Italy, making up a significant chunk of what the Italian government has stated is a 103 percent increase in the number of arrivals.
Many are fleeing poverty, a tanking economy and a future without hope to a continent untroubled by the tumult of events that have engulfed Tunisia since its revolution of 2011.
In Mellassine, the departure of 20 people on Monday night appears to be common knowledge. Other groups left before it, and other groups will leave after it. It is no secret, Anoir says. “Everyone knows what the economy’s like,” he tells a translator.
‘If I go into the city centre, the police will see my tattoos,’ said a man who refused to give his name, reflecting a general fear Tunisians have when dealing with the security forces [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]
“When I was in Italy, I met this one guy, from [the resort town of] Sousse. He had a baby with him. I asked: ‘Why are you here? Why are you here with a baby?’ He said: ‘Either we die here, or we die in Tunisia.’”
Tunisia’s post-revolutionary history has been a troubled one. Over 12 years, a succession of governments failed to address the economic decline that, ironically, catapulted the majority to power.
All the while laying the groundwork for Kais Saied’s dramatic power grab of 2021 – labelled a coup by his opponents – that, despite granting him extraordinary powers, has failed to arrest the country’s economic slide.
The Tunisian dinar has continued to tank, while unemployment, one of the principal causes of the revolution, has remained entrenched.
In June, international credit rating agency Fitch, downgraded the country to CCC-, suggesting that the odds of a default on its international loans was high.
As the country hovers on the brink of bankruptcy, what international credit it has secured, from soft loans and aid packages from the EU intended to prop up the economy and fund its border security, has struggled to cover the growing cracks in the government’s finances.
All the while, negotiations over an IMF loan of up to $1.9bn remain stalled, and other credits conditional on the IMF loan remain out of reach.
The impact has become a way of life. In Mellassine, as in much of Tunisia, staple goods like vegetable oil, coffee and bread, all subsidised by the government since the 1970s, are in short supply.
“You can’t get anything here. All you can buy is drugs; weed, cocaine – that’s all here. Nothing else,” a man in his mid-20s who gives his name as Mahmouda, says. He continues, describing life at the bottom of the economic order.
“I left school at 12, we couldn’t afford it,” he says.
“Now, I can’t even leave Mellassine. If I go into the city centre, the police will see my tattoos,” he says, pointing to his heavily inked arms, “and ask me where I’m from. They find out I’m from here and that’s it,” he says, shrugging.
He points to one tattoo, of a man appearing to chase a policeman with a chair. “You see that one?” he tells a translator. “That’s one year in prison, right there,” he says, referring to Tunisia’s strict laws on insulting public officials.
However, for Mahmouda and others trapped within the subsistence cycle of day labour, food and rent, the cost of migrating remains prohibitive.
“It’s 5,000 Tunisian dinars (about $1,600) to go to Europe,” Mahmouda says, sucking on a cannabis cigarette, “Where am I going to get that?”
Mohamed Jebali is hopeful he can get to Europe, like his friend who’s in Germany [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]
Further along the street, electronics student Mohammed Jebali, 23, has clear plans for the future. Once he graduates, he leaves.
“My best friend left for Europe during Ramadan,” he says. “He’s in Germany now. He’s looking for work, but he’s getting by in the city centres,” he says.
While many in Mellassine are reluctant to discuss departure points, they are not hard to identify. Following an explosion in migration after the country’s revolution, irregular migration returned to Tunisia in 2017, when shifting migrant routes and security operations in Libya brought the migration crisis to Tunisia’s door, where it has taken root and spread along the bulk of its 713 miles of Mediterranean coast.
The surge in arrivals of Black migrants from across sub-Saharan Africa has only lent a further layer to the trade. Rather than leave together, the bulk of clandestine migration remains firmly segregated along lines of race and economy. While Tunisians, for the most part, can afford to travel in wooden fishing boats, or for the lucky few, Zodiacs, when the seas are calmer, Black migrants must make do in crude steel boats, welded together in a matter of hours.
“I have hardly ever seen Tunisians aboard the dangerous small metal boats, badly made by improvised welders, which depart from Sfax and which often sink,” Salvatore Vella, the head prosecutor in Agrigento, Sicily, said in Italian.
For Mohammed, neither capsising nor being flooded at sea, is much of a threat. “The crossings are very well organised,” he tells a translator. “It’s much safer than the sub-Saharan ones,” he says of his eventual passage.
Over 12 years, a succession of governments failed to address Tunisia’s economic decline [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]
Unlike others, such as Mahmouda, who blamed the presence of Black migrants for drawing increased police attention to the trade, Mohammed is sympathetic, “You can’t blame them,” he says, “They’re escaping desperate circumstances. Sometimes, they’ve walked for miles.”
Nevertheless, as numbers have grown, demographics have shifted.
Middle-class refugees are now no longer the exception. Women and unaccompanied minors are now a fixed part of any passenger list, suggesting a more permanent move from the economic opportunism of the young men, who historically leave Tunisia for relatively short periods, before returning with money, cars and dubious stories of success overseas.
Forty-nine-year-old Jalel Alouni’s son, 27-year-old Mahrez, has been living in Serbia for nearly a year and a half.
“His life isn’t exactly stable there,” Jalel says from the shade of a recycling centre, where plastic collectors bring the city’s detritus to be weighed and paid. “Still, he’s living better and earning more than he would here,” his father, another day labourer says “I tell him not to come back. It’s useless here.”
Nevertheless, Mahrez’s loss lingers. “I miss him. I always carry his picture,” the father says, “Sometimes, I drink and I just look at it.”
