Tunisia Records Highest Covid Deaths in Two Months

Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
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Tunisia Records Highest Covid Deaths in Two Months

Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui
Medical staff members work at a department for patients suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis, Tunisia July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui

Tunisia reported the highest number of Covid deaths in two months, reporting 20 new deaths in the last 24 hours.

The death toll reached 26,271, the Health Ministry said, adding that the total number of hospitalized cases reached 1,042. According to the ministry, 191 patients are in intensive care and 52 under life support.

Night curfew has been effective in Tunisia since Jan. 13 to counter the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

Deaths spiked in the past few weeks from 3-4 cases per day to more than 13 deaths daily.

Moez Hammami, a specialist in quantitative risk assessment, expected Tunisia to record up to 40 death cases per day, noting that the country is currently witnessing its sixth wave.

Hammami further said that the next ten days will represent the peak in critical and death cases.



Erdogan: Kurdish Militia in Syria Will Be Buried If They Do Not Lay Down Arms

A Syrian Kurd waves the flag of YPG (People's Protection Units) near Qamishli's airport in northeastern Syria on December 8, 2024, following the fall of the capital Damascus to anti-government fighters. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)
A Syrian Kurd waves the flag of YPG (People's Protection Units) near Qamishli's airport in northeastern Syria on December 8, 2024, following the fall of the capital Damascus to anti-government fighters. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)
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Erdogan: Kurdish Militia in Syria Will Be Buried If They Do Not Lay Down Arms

A Syrian Kurd waves the flag of YPG (People's Protection Units) near Qamishli's airport in northeastern Syria on December 8, 2024, following the fall of the capital Damascus to anti-government fighters. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)
A Syrian Kurd waves the flag of YPG (People's Protection Units) near Qamishli's airport in northeastern Syria on December 8, 2024, following the fall of the capital Damascus to anti-government fighters. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish fighters in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried", amid hostilities between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month.
Following Assad's departure, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG group must disband, asserting that the group has no place in Syria's future. The change in Syria's leadership has left the country's main Kurdish factions on the back foot.
"The separatist murderers will either bid farewell to their weapons, or they will be buried in Syrian lands along with their weapons," Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament.
"We will eradicate the terrorist organization that is trying to weave a wall of blood between us and our Kurdish siblings," he added.
Türkiye views the Kurdish YPG group- the main component of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union. Ankara has repeatedly called on its NATO ally Washington and others to stop supporting the YPG.
Earlier, Türkiye's defense ministry said the armed forces had killed 21 YPG-PKK militants in northern Syria and Iraq.
In a Reuters interview last week, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped battle ISIS and would return home if a total ceasefire was agreed with Türkiye, a core demand from Ankara.
He denied any organizational ties with the PKK.
Erdogan also said Türkiye would soon open its consulate in Aleppo, and added Ankara expected an increase in traffic at its borders in the summer of next year, as some of the millions of Syrian migrants it hosts begin returning.