Latest Tunisia government News

A French student who was arrested and detained in Tunisia returns to Paris

Nov. 15, 2024 08:22 AM EST

PARIS (AP) — A French student detained for weeks in Tunisia returned to Paris on Friday after weeks of top-level diplomatic discussions. Victor Dupont, a 27-year-old completing a Ph.D. at Aix-Marseille University’s Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds,...

Tunisia's Kais Saied wins landslide reelection, entrenching his power in Arab Spring's birthplace

Oct. 07, 2024 19:53 PM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — President Kais Saied won a landslide victory in Tunisia's election Monday, keeping his grip on power after a first term in which opponents were imprisoned and the country's institutions overhauled to give him more authority. The North African country's...

Tunisia's President Saied wins second term after cracking down on the opposition

Oct. 07, 2024 14:24 PM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s President Kais Saied won re-election in landslide victory after a campaign season saw his opponents jailed alongside journalists, activists and attorneys. The North African country’s Independent High Authority for Elections said on Monday evening...

Tunisia votes Sunday in its third presidential election since the Arab Spring

Oct. 06, 2024 08:46 AM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisians voted Sunday in an election expected to grant President Kais Saied a second term, as his most prominent detractors, including one of the candidates challenging him, are in prison. The 66-year-old president faces few obstacles to winning reelection,...

12 migrants die off Tunisia's Mediterranean coast after their boat sinks

Sep. 30, 2024 11:05 AM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia's coast guard on Monday found 12 bodies of migrants, including three young children, off the Mediterranean coast, as authorities struggle to stem unauthorized boat crossings from North Africa to Europe. The bodies were recovered after a boat carrying...

Tunisia passes law to strip courts of power over election authority appointed by president

Sep. 27, 2024 14:12 PM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s parliament amended a law on Friday, stripping power from courts over decisions made by an embattled election authority whose members are appointed by President Kais Saied. Nine days before the presidential election, a majority of members of...

Tunisia's coast guard finds bodies of 13 migrants washed up on its shores

Sep. 26, 2024 10:23 AM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The bodies of 13 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were found washed up on Tunisia's Mediterranean coast this week as authorities struggle to stem unauthorized boat crossings from North Africa to Europe. Tunisia's Coast Guard said the bodies were recovered on...

A Tunisian presidential candidate sentenced to 20 months vows to campaign from prison

Sep. 19, 2024 13:08 PM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — One of the candidates challenging Tunisian President Kais Saied in the country's presidential election next month has been sentenced to prison on fraud charges that his attorney decried as politically motivated. Two weeks after his arrest, a court in the city...

The presidential campaign season in Tunisia is officially underway a day after protests

Sep. 14, 2024 16:13 PM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The official start of the presidential campaign season in Tunisia began on Saturday, a day after Tunisians took their anger to the streets of the capital to decry what protesters say is the deteriorating state of the country. In what appeared to be the largest...

Tunisian authorities escalate pre-election crackdown and arrest Islamists en masse

Sep. 13, 2024 18:45 PM EDT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Dozens of members of Tunisia’s largest opposition party were arrested this week ahead of the formal start of campaign season for the country’s presidential election, attorneys and officials from the party said Friday. Ennahda, the Islamist party that rose...