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Tunisian President Sacks Trade Minister, Sfax Governor

Kais Saied receives Prime Minister Najla Bouden (Tunisian Presidency)
Kais Saied receives Prime Minister Najla Bouden (Tunisian Presidency)
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Tunisian President Sacks Trade Minister, Sfax Governor

Kais Saied receives Prime Minister Najla Bouden (Tunisian Presidency)
Kais Saied receives Prime Minister Najla Bouden (Tunisian Presidency)

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday dismissed the country's minister of trade and export development and the governor of Sfax.

Sfax is the second biggest city in Tunisia.

Without giving further details, the presidency announced in a terse the dismissal of Fadila Al-Rabhi, the minister of trade and export development.

Al-Rabhi was appointed in November 2021 and is the first member of Najla Bouden's government to be removed by Saied.

Saied also removed the governor of Sfax Fakher Fakhfakh from his duties, the statement added.

Fakhfakh was appointed in June 2022.

Sfax, a big industrial city with a one million population, has been witnessing protests since 2021 over the accumulation of garbage on the streets, jeopardizing public health.

The Ukrainian war also impacted Tunisia and led to a hike in the prices of wheat and oil, given that Tunisia imports them in huge quantities.

The political and financial crises during the past months have caused a shortage in basic products such as milk, sugar, rice, and coffee and a relapse in the Tunisians’ purchasing power due to accelerating inflation.

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IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
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IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)

Over 55,000 internally displaced Sudanese have returned to areas across the southeastern state of Sennar, more than a month after the army recaptured the state capital, the UN migration agency said Saturday.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its field teams "monitored the return of an estimated 55,466 displaced persons to locations across Sennar state" between December 18 and January 10.

Across the entire country, however, the United Nations says 21 months of war have created the world's worst internal displacement crisis, uprooting more than 12 million people, AFP reported.

Famine has been declared in parts of the country, but the risk is spreading for millions more people, including to areas north of Sennar, a UN-backed assessment said last month.

In November, the Sudanese army, battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, said it had regained control of Sinja, the Sennar state capital and a key link between army-controlled areas of central and eastern Sudan.

The RSF had controlled Sinja since late June when its attack on Sennar state forced nearly 726,000 people -- many displaced from other states -- to flee, according to the United Nations.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands.

On Thursday, the United States Treasury Department sanctioned army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

The move came just over a week after Washington also sanctioned RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, accusing his group of committing genocide.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Daglo had been designated for "gross violations of human rights" in Sudan's western Darfur region, "namely the mass rape of civilians by RSF soldiers under his control."