All posts tagged: Morocco

Sub-Saharan migrants revive Christianity in Morocco

Sub-Saharan migrants revive Christianity in Morocco

Published by skeptic

Eyes closed, hands clasped, bodies swaying to the rhythm of the choir’s pleas –”God, don’t let us down!” – the faithful were immersed in intense emotion. Here and there, a finger wiped away a tear. On Sunday, January 28, the Assembly of the Missionaries of Jesus Christ celebrated its weekly service in a basement apartment in Riad El-Oulfa, a working-class neighborhood of Riad El-Oulfa. “Amen!” “Alleluia!” “God be praised!” Biblical acclaims rang out as four young choristers, dressed in a caftan emblazoned with the hand of Fatima, fervently sang hymns and swayed their hips in an incandescent gospel atmosphere. Sunday worship in a “house church” set up in a disused parking lot in Salé, Morocco, on February 11, 2024. MYRIAM MELONI FOR LE MONDE After the hymns of praise, Ferdinand Kouassi, the pastoral assistant, hands raised above his lectern, called out to his flock in their Sunday best: “We’re all in Jesus’s boat. But when the wind blows, will you be able to keep your faith? When the storm breaks, will you remain faithful to …

Turkey, Iran and Morocco joust for influence in Africa’s Sahel

Turkey, Iran and Morocco joust for influence in Africa’s Sahel

Published by Sam

Turkey, Iran and Morocco are vying for a greater economic and military role in Africa’s Sahel after former colonial ruler France’s forced withdrawal from the volatile region. Issued on: 12/03/2024 – 11:29Modified: 12/03/2024 – 11:27 3 min Turkish military equipment and Moroccan and Iranian development and infrastructure projects are tempting for cash-strapped Sahelian military regimes grappling with jihadist violence. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have undergone coups since 2020, against a backdrop of a bloody jihadist insurgency. Their military rulers have since exited a wider Western African bloc and created a joint defence pact to fight the jihadists. Under-equipped Sahelian armies want “to develop endogenous capabilities to reduce our dependence”, Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean Marie Traore said. French troops, which had been deployed across the Sahel for more than a decade, were reluctant to deliver military equipment to armies accused of perpetrating abuses against civilians. France was forced to withdraw troops from Mali in 2022 and from Niger and Burkina last year after coups saw relations nosedive and ushered in growing Russian military …

Marseille drug gang leader arrested in Morocco, French authorities say

Marseille drug gang leader arrested in Morocco, French authorities say

Published by Sam

The alleged leader of a major drug gang from the southern French port city of Marseille has been arrested in Morocco, French authorities announced on Saturday. Issued on: 09/03/2024 – 16:54 1 min Marseille, France’s second-largest city but also one of its poorest metropoles, has been hit by drug-related violence. “One of Marseille’s biggest drug traffickers was arrested in Morocco. Bravo to the police officers who tirelessly continue the fight against drug trafficking,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.  Un des plus grand narcotrafiquant marseillais a été arrêté au Maroc. Bravo aux policiers qui poursuivent sans relâche le combat contre le trafic de drogue. Un grand coup est porté aujourd’hui au narcobanditisme grâce à notre coopération avec les autorités marocaines que je… https://t.co/C4PuohBt9j — Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) March 9, 2024 He thanked the authorities of Morocco, saying “a big blow” had been dealt to drug trafficking. Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone told AFP that Felix Bingui, 33, had been detained in the port city of Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city. Bingui is believed …

Algeria inaugurates Africa’s largest mosque after years of political delays and cost overruns

Algeria inaugurates Africa’s largest mosque after years of political delays and cost overruns

Published by Sam

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria inaugurated a gigantic mosque on its Mediterranean coastline Sunday after years of political upheaval transformed the project from a symbol of state-sponsored strength and religiosity to one of delays and cost overruns. Built by a Chinese construction firm throughout the 2010s, the Great Mosque of Algiers features the world’s tallest minaret, measuring at 869 feet (265 meters). The third largest mosque in the world and largest outside Islam’s holiest cities, its prayer room accommodates 120,000 people. Its modernist design contains Arab and North African flourishes to honor Algerian tradition and culture as well as a helicopter landing pad and a library that can house up to 1 million books. The inauguration would guide Muslims “toward goodness and moderation,” said Ali Mohamed Salabi, the General Secretary of world union of Muslim Ulemas. Propagating a moderate brand of Islam has been a key priority in Algeria since government forces subdued an Islamist-led rebellion throughout the 1990s when a bloody civil war swept the country. Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune inaugurated the mosque, fulfilling …

Long winter for Morocco quake survivors | Earthquakes News

Long winter for Morocco quake survivors | Earthquakes News

Published by Sam

Long, cold months have passed since an earthquake levelled Abdallah Oubelaid’s impoverished village in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains. Every day, he or other villagers come to inspect the debris. They hope to find pieces of wood for heating and cooking or even to recover objects of value that have so far escaped their searching, and all the while, a bitter Oubelaid wonders when he will get the government aid that he applied for. “Every time I ask, they tell me it’s going to happen,” Oubelaid, 35, said. “But I have children to feed and to clothe.” Moroccan authorities said about 3,000 people died during the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck on September 8, damaging more than 60,000 houses. From Oubelaid’s village of Douzrou, about 80km (50 miles) southeast of Marrakesh, residents give a death toll of about 80. A pink and white mosque minaret stands out among the rubble of the village that clung to the mountainside. The survivors, 150 families, found refuge a few kilometres away on rocky ground beside a road with a …

Ivory Coast’s 2023 AFCON defeat of Nigeria caps ‘a story for the ages’ | Sports News

Ivory Coast’s 2023 AFCON defeat of Nigeria caps ‘a story for the ages’ | Sports News

Published by Sam

As Ivory Coast came from a goal down to beat Nigeria and complete the most remarkable of sporting redemptions, it also encapsulated not only their own journey but that of a tournament, a continent and a man. The 2-1 victory in the final for the Elephants was a huge achievement against the Super Eagles, who were heavy favourites and led by the African Footballer of the Year, Victor Osimhen. Yet this was a tournament that sparked into life and never let go of a flame that burned with the dreams in every corner of Africa, producing upsets and stories that will live long in the memory of all and not just the Elephants. To be capped by a winning goal scored by Sebastian Haller, diagnosed with testicular cancer in July 2022, was poetic to a wider audience, yet it is impossible to put into words what it must mean to the player and his family. As the sport’s governing body on the continent, the Confederation of African Football, dubbed it: “Haller’s story is one for …

‘The only option is to be patient’: Sudanese refugee waits on Spanish asylum claim filed from Morocco | Spain

‘The only option is to be patient’: Sudanese refugee waits on Spanish asylum claim filed from Morocco | Spain

Published by skeptic

For 25-year-old Basir, it was a ray of hope after fleeing Sudan more than a decade ago. For his lawyers, the asylum request he made from Morocco was the ultimate test of whether Spain – and more broadly the EU – was willing to provide safe migration routes to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Thirteen months later, the answer is a resounding no. Little has changed for Basir, a Christian, who was left for dead at 15 in an attack that killed his father and brother. He continues to live rough on the streets of Morocco, scrambling to land odd jobs so he can buy food. He asked that his real name not be used for safety reasons. It is a far cry from the protection he had been hoping for. “I feel we Africans are not treated the same way as other nations,” he said. Basir arrived in Morocco in mid-2021 after crossing through Egypt, Libya and Algeria on a harrowing journey that he began after the attack in Sudan’s conflict-ridden South …

Art of Africa: Marrakech showcases artists from across the continent | Global development

Art of Africa: Marrakech showcases artists from across the continent | Global development

Published by skeptic

Et La Sève Fut … 002 by Ghizlane Sahli The Moroccan artist, who lives and works in Marrakech, used embroidery, wire covered with silk thread and paint to create this work. After studying architecture in Paris, Sahli returned to Morocco and in 2012 co-founded the Zbel Manifesto collective, which is dedicated to working with waste and repurposed materials. Photograph: Courtesy of Christophe Person Source link

What 100,000-year-old footprints in Morocco tell us about early humans | Science and Technology News

What 100,000-year-old footprints in Morocco tell us about early humans | Science and Technology News

Published by Sam

What can indentations in the ground from ages ago tell us about our early ancestors? A lot, it turns out. In January, an international team of scientists from Morocco, France, Germany and Spain published details of a fascinating discovery: a set of well-preserved human footprints believed to be 100,000 years old. The footprints are thought to be from a group of five individuals and were found on a rocky beach in a northern Moroccan town. The research, published in the science journal Nature, adds to a growing body of work that’s helping scientists piece together the evasive, true origins of the human race. But while their discovery is an archaeological feat, coastal erosion threatens the existence of these ancient tracks. Here’s what we know about this latest find and about other ancient human traces that scientists have discovered so far. A team of Moroccan and European scientists found a set of about 85 footprints made by five ancestors of human beings [Fadel Senna/AFP] What did scientists find in Morocco? In June 2022, archaeologist Mouncef Sedrati …

Qatargate corruption inquiry widens as police question new suspect MEP Maria Arena – POLITICO

Qatargate corruption inquiry widens as police question new suspect MEP Maria Arena – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

Until now the police had not questioned her, despite compiling information about her ties to Pier Antonio Panzeri, a former MEP who struck a plea bargain with prosecutors and admitted taking money from Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania in exchange for political favors in the EU’s Parliament. Neither Arena nor her lawyer immediately responded to a request for comment on Friday. The news about Arena was first reported by Belgian daily Le Soir and RTBF. “Don’t put yourself out of the game,” Panzeri told Arena in August 2022 during a meal at the now-defunct Salvarino pizzeria in Brussels, according to police files seen by POLITICO. “Because if you are in the game, then I am going to amass more money,” he told her. Police raided Arena’s properties in Brussels last summer in the presence of European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, finding a large sum of money at the apartment of one of her sons — though that has not been directly linked to the Qatargate probe. Arena is a member of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) faction in …