North Africa

Turkey’s state-run aid agency has started to renovate historic sites on the island of Suakin in northeastern Sudan, the agency stated on Jan. 23.

The detonators seized from the Tanzania-flagged freighter Andromeda in the Cretan port of Iraklio are seen in this handout photo made available Saturday by the Hellenic Coast Guard. Authorities said the vessel was sailing from Turkey to Libya with 29 crates of explosives and other materials that could be used to construct bombs. The eight crew members are to face a prosecutor in Piraeus today.

A representative of the shipping firm that owns the Tanzania-flagged Andromeda, which was stopped on Sunday by the Greek coast guard, leading to the discovery of 29 containers full of explosives and detonators on board, said on Thursday that there was nothing illegal about the shipment.

Greek authorities have seized a Tanzanian-flagged ship heading for Libya and carrying materials used to make explosives, the coastguard said on Wednesday.

The vessel was detected sailing near the Greek island of Crete on Saturday. Authorities found 29 containers carrying materials including ammonium nitrate, non-electric detonators and 11 empty liquefied petroleum gas tanks.

Egypt recognized Kosovo only verbally - without any paper - in June 2013, three days before the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This represents "a very weak recognition" that even the (Egyptian) Ministry of Foreign Affairs was opposed to, Belgrade-based daily Politika writes, citing a source from diplomatic circles.

Slightly fewer than half as many migrants reached Europe by sea in 2017 than 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, with curbs finally cutting traffic on the deadly route from Libya to Italy. 

EU member-states are "knowingly complicit in the torture and abuse of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants detained by Libyan immigration authorities."

This is stated in a new report published by Amnesty International (AI), titled, "Libya's dark web of collusion: Abuses against Europe-bound refugees and migrants."

This is stated in a new report published by Amnesty International (AI), titled, "Libyas dark web of collusion: Abuses against Europe-bound refugees and migrants."

The report accuses the EU of turning a blind eye "to allegedly brutal tactics of the Libyan coast guard and dangerous detention facilities," Tanjug is reporting, citing AP.

The African Union has upped its goal to repatriate stranded migrants from Libya, saying in a statement that it aims to bring 20,000 Africans home in the next six weeks.

Pressure has grown on the continental body and individual African states to get their citizens out of Libya after CNN broadcast a report showing black Africans being sold as slaves in the north African country.

More than 33,000 migrants have died at sea trying to reach European shores this century, making the Mediterranean "by far the world's deadliest border", the United Nations migration agency said on Friday.