Maghreb
Major region of Northern Africa; western half of Arab world
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We include updates on Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Achaemenid Empire, Tunisia, Libya, Umayyad Caliphate, Berbers, Western Sahara, Abbasid Caliphate, Arab Spring, Alexandria, Fatimid Caliphate, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Ayyubid dynasty, Berber languages ... and more.
| 2025 |
Genetic history of North Africa
Nature publication revealed a previously unknown North African genetic lineage from the African humid period (7,000 years ago), uncovering unsuspected connections between prehistoric populations of the Sahara and the Maghreb through ancient genome analysis from Taforalt and Takarkori.
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| 2025 |
Morocco
Morocco will host the Africa Cup of Nations after the original host Guinea was stripped of hosting rights.
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| January 2025 | A third tripartite summit between Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria is held in Tripoli. |
| 2024 |
Moroccans
Population demographics show 49.7% female and 50.3% male composition.
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| 2024 |
Libya
Ministry of Education launched the Full-Day School Project, introducing longer school days in 12 schools across the country, aiming to provide 800 hours of instruction to 3,300 elementary school students.
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| 2024 |
Libya
Libya's Global Hunger Index score was 19.2, ranking 83rd out of 127 countries, indicating a moderate level of hunger.
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| 2024 |
Algeria
Algeria was ranked 115th in the Global Innovation Index.
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| 2024 |
Moroccans
Moroccan census conducted, revealing linguistic demographics: 92.7% speak Arabic, 24.8% speak Berber languages, 99.2% are literate in Arabic, and 1.5% are literate in Berber.
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| 2024 |
Mauritania
Filming of The Grand Tour took place in Mauritania.
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| 2024 |
Mauritania
Mauritania was ranked 126th out of 139 countries in the Global Innovation Index, indicating its current educational and innovation landscape.
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| 2024 |
Morocco
Census reported 99.2% literacy in Arabic, with 1.5% literacy in Berber languages, and language demographics showing 80.6% Arabic native speakers and 18.9% Berber native speakers.
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| 2024 |
Morocco
As part of the Connected Campus program, Cambium Networks deployed 18,000 Wi-Fi access points for public universities in Morocco.
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| 2024 |
Morocco
Morocco ranked 66th in the Global Innovation Index, an improvement from 75th in 2020.
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| 2024 |
Tunisia
Tunisia was ranked 81st in the Global Innovation Index.
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| December 8 2024 |
Arab Spring
The Assad regime collapses during a major offensive led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army. Bashar al-Assad flees to Russia and is granted asylum, marking the end of 54 years of Ba'athist rule and 13 years of civil war.
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| December 8 2024 |
2018–2024 Arab protests
Syria protests end with opposition offensives leading to fall of the Assad regime.
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| November 2024 | Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune invited leaders from Tunisia, Mauritania, Libya, and the Sahrawi Republic to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1 November 1954 Declaration, seen as a potential beginning of a new union without Morocco and Mauritania. |
| November 2024 |
Libya
The Government of National Unity plans to instate a morality police to enforce dress codes and social restrictions, including cracking down on 'weird haircuts' and requiring male guardians for women.
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| November 2024 |
Morocco
Morocco reached nearly 16 million tourists, contributing 7% to its GDP.
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| October 2024 | French President Emmanuel Macron backed Morocco's autonomy proposal in a speech to the Parliament of Morocco and announced a €25 million investment in Guelmim-Oued Noun, which includes part of Western Sahara. |
| October 6 2024 |
Tunisia
President Kais Saied won a second term with more than 90% of the vote in a presidential election with a 28.8% turnout, which five political parties urged people to boycott.
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| September 2024 |
Algeria
Tebboune won a second presidential term with 84.3 percent of the vote, though opponents claimed electoral fraud.
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| June 2024 |
Algeria
The World Bank's 2024 report marks Algeria's economic advancement, classifying it as an upper-middle-income country alongside emerging powers like China, Brazil, and Turkey.
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| June 29 2024 |
Mauritania
Presidential election held, with incumbent President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani winning re-election.
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| April 2024 | Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya discuss establishing a new North African entity to replace the Arab Maghreb Union, focusing on border security, joint investment projects, and free movement of goods and people. |
| March 2024 |
Libya
Libya actively promotes business development and encourages domestic and foreign investment, focusing on diversifying the economy and exploring green industries.
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| March 2024 |
Mauritania
Ursula von der Leyen and Pedro Sánchez visited Mauritania, and the EU made a €210 million deal to reduce African migrants' passage towards the Canary Islands.
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| January 2024 |
Mauritania
Sudden increase of refugees from 2,000 to 12,000 arrived on the Canary Islands by boat.
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| 2023 | The single currency project in the Arab Maghreb region remains technically feasible but politically infeasible. |
| 2023 |
Libya
Libyan health ministry launched the National Strategy for Primary Healthcare 2023–2028 to improve healthcare services and implement a unique health number for citizens.
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| 2023 |
Algeria
The national unemployment rate was recorded at 11.8%, with persistently high unemployment among youth and women.
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| 2023 |
Mauritania
Mauritania defeated Sudan in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 qualifiers, generating international attention for the national football team.
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| 2023 |
Morocco
Morocco set an all-time high in tourism with 14.5 million international tourist arrivals and MAD 104.7 billion in tourism receipts.
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| December 2023 |
Mauritania
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was sentenced to 5 years in prison for corruption.
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| October 2023 |
Tunisia
Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Party, was detained or imprisoned.
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| October 2 2023 |
2018–2024 Arab protests
A Nation's Future Party rally in Mersa Matruh transformed into anti-Sisi protests, with demonstrators burning photos of the president and chanting anti-Sisi slogans during the lead-up to the Egyptian presidential election.
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| September 10 2023 |
Libya
Catastrophic floods caused by Storm Daniel devastated the port city of Derna, resulting in more than 5,900 deaths (possibly up to 24,000), marking the worst natural disaster in Libya's modern history.
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| September 8 2023 |
Morocco
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Morocco, killing more than 2,800 people and injuring thousands.
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| August 2023 |
Morocco
A Moroccan resident of Qatar is sentenced to five years' imprisonment for criticising the King's policy decisions on Facebook, demonstrating the country's strict laws against undermining the monarchy.
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| July 2023 |
2018–2024 Arab protests
Protesters against the Hamas government rose up again in late July, though the scale of demonstrations was unknown due to the inaccessibility of the Gaza Strip and subsequent government crackdown.
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| June 2023 |
Tunisia
The World Bank Group lent Tunisia $268.4 million to finance the ELMED electrical interconnection project with Italy for importing renewable energy via an undersea cable.
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| April 2023 |
Tunisia
Tunisian government closed the headquarters of the Ennahda party and arrested its leader Rached Ghannouchi.
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| March 2023 |
Arab Spring
Some prisoners from the UAE-94 case completed their sentences, yet continued to be imprisoned without legal basis.
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| 2022 |
Giado concentration camp
Shlomo Abramovich, the diary's editor, won the Israeli Prime Minister's Prize for Encouraging and Empowering Research about Jewish Communities in Arab Countries and Iran.
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| 2022 |
Casbah of Algiers
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report identified the Casbah of Algiers as one of the African cultural sites potentially threatened by flooding and coastal erosion due to climate change under the high-emission RCP 8.5 scenario.
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| 2022 |
Moroccans
Jewish population in Morocco had dramatically reduced to around 3,500 from its historical peak.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Algeria, 2018–2024 Arab protests, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Maghrebis, Arab Maghreb Union, Casbah of Algiers, Mauritania, Touat, Barbary Coast, Giado concentration camp, Morocco, Moroccans, Libya, Arab Spring & Genetic history of North Africa, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.