Region

TUNIS — Retail shops and supermarkets reopened Friday in Tunisia after the government announced zero coronavirus cases for the fifth consecutive day.

In a statement published overnight, the health ministry also said that 217 patients still carry the COVID-17 virus, three of whom are being treated in hospital.

But for the fifth consecutive day no new cases were registered in the North African country which has declared 1,032 cases of coronavirus, including 45 deaths, since March 2.

With infections slowing, retail stores, open-air markets and supermarkets have reopened, but authorities are urging citizens to stay vigilant and respect hygiene measures.

On Wednesday, President Kais Saied shortened an overnight curfew that has been in place since March 22.

Tunisia started easing strict confinement measures last week.

CAPE TOWN — The Libyan education department said on Thursday that classes will resume on June 13, reported online daily newspaper the Libya Observer.

The education department says learners preparing for the preparatory and secondary certificates will be the first to return to school.

All schools were closed in mid-March in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

According to the undersecretary of education, Adel Jumaa, schools only managed to cover 41% of the curriculum before the government decided to close them as a preventive measure to stall the spread of the virus, reported the Libya Observer.

The undersecretary said the decision to reopen schools in mid-June was taken by the scientific advisory committee for managing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The committee further said that the safety of pupils is a priority and educational institutions will be receiving the necessary hygiene and sterilising supplies, reported the Libya Observer.

Because of the ongoing conflict in the oil-rich nation, around 200 schools in the conflict zones were closed prior to the pandemic, with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) saying schools in safer areas have become more overcrowded, Al Jazeera reported.

Furthermore, infections have been relatively low in the north African country, with only 64 people infected with the virus, and only three deaths reported to date.

Libya reported its first case of Covid-19 on March 24 and has managed to conduct 3,253 tests so far.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Covid-19 Supreme Committee has said that there needs to be a zero-tolerance approach with respect to the curfew put in place by the government to contain the virus.

The committee further stated that if municipalities ease restrictions that are not based on health criteria, they could be putting citizens' lives at risk, reported the Libya Observer.

Meanwhile, UN agencies have called for a ceasefire in Libya so that the country can focus on the pandemic, the North Africa Post reported.

The UN agencies say the ongoing fighting in the region combined with the pandemic poses a great threat to the people of Libya.

TEHRAN — Iran sentenced French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah to five years in prison on national security charges on Saturday, her lawyer said, adding that she plans to appeal.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced a "political" verdict and demanded Adelkhah's immediate release.

The case of Adelkhah and her French colleague and partner Roland Marchal, who were arrested together in June last year, has been a thorn in relations between Tehran and Paris for months.

Marchal was released in an apparent prisoner swap in March that drew strong criticism from the United States.

The 61-year-old Adelkhah has remained in custody ever since her arrest.

A research director at Sciences Po University in Paris, she is a dual French-Iranian citizen, a status Iran does not recognise.

The academic was "sentenced to five years for gathering and conspiring against national security, and one year for propaganda against the Islamic republic",  her lawyer Said Dehghan told AFP.

The sentences were to be served concurrently, he said, adding that his client intended to appeal against her conviction.

The punishment caused dismay in France.

"I strongly condemn [this verdict]. This sentence is not based on any serious element... it has a political nature," Le Drian said in a statement.

Iranian authorities must "immediately free" Adelkhah and grant her a visit by French consular officials, he added.

Her trial opened on March 3 with the final hearing held on April 19 at branch 15 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court.

Adelkhah has been severely weakened by a 49-day hunger strike she mounted between late December and February, her lawyer said.

Argument for appeal 

Her French colleague Marchal, who was detained while visiting her in Tehran, is also a researcher at the Centre for International Research (CERI) at Sciences Po.

He is a specialist in sub-Saharan Africa, while she is a specialist in Shiite Islam.

Marchal was freed after France released Iranian engineer Jallal Rohollahnejad, who faced extradition to the United States over accusations he violated US sanctions against Iran.

Washington has said that it "deeply regrets" that decision.

Dehghan said Marchal's release gives grounds for appeal against the charge of "gathering and conspiring against national security".

"At least two people must be involved for this charge to stand," he said.

Adelkhah's defence team also plans to argue that her personal academic opinion regarding the Islamic dress code enforced in Iran cannot amount to "propaganda against a political system".

Following Adelkhah's hunger strike, her support committee expressed concern over her vulnerability to any outbreak of the coronavirus in the prison where she has been held.

Iran is battling the Middle East's deadliest COVID-19 epidemic, which has claimed more than 6,900 lives.

Dehghan had recently indicated that Adelkhah continued to "suffer from kidney disease as a consequence of her hunger strike".

'Kafkaesque' 

Arrests of foreign citizens have increased since the United States unilaterally withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and major powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.

Those detained, who have included a number of dual nationals, have mostly been accused of spying or of acting against Iran's national security.

A support committee, which was set up to campaign for their release, condemned Adelkhah's conviction and jail sentence as "Kafkaesque".

"It was not a proper legal process. There was clearly no open debate," said committee member Jean-Francois Bayart, a Geneva based academic.

The support committee also called on scientific institutions to "suspend all scientific co-operation with Iran".

Bayart said Adelkhah had been caught up in wider political issues over which she had no control.

Iran has been increasingly critical of European governments, particularly France, over their failure to do more to save the 2015 nuclear deal by enabling companies to get round renewed US sanctions.

"The intensity of this arm-wrestling contest does not surprise us," Bayart said.

"It's an opaque and arbitrary process and an utterly asymmetric bargaining situation because one of the protagonists is in jail."

But Bayart added that despite the after-effects of her hunger strike, Adelkhah remained "extremely combative, lucid and determined".

Marchal is not the only Western national to have been freed by Iran in a prisoner swap in recent months.

In February, Iran released an unidentified German in exchange for Iranian Ahmad Khalili, who was in custody for circumventing US sanctions.

In December, it freed US academic Xiyue Wang in exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps.

ADEN — In a desolate camp for Yemenis displaced by war, Nasima Ahmed wonders how she and her four children can possibly protect themselves as the novel coronavirus stalks the country.

The five-year-old conflict between the government and the Iran-backed Huthi rebels has pushed millions to the brink of famine in a country ill-prepared to face the new health threat.

"We are not ready for the coronavirus because we have nothing," Ahmed told AFP at her tent, which is practically empty except for two ragged foam mattresses.

"We need to be able to store food in case a quarantine is imposed," she said. "I am afraid. I am scared for my children since this virus may lead to our deaths."

Squalid camps for internally displaced people like the one where Ahmed lives in Khokha, outside the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, are ideal breeding grounds for disease, with little chance of proper sanitation or social distancing.

Since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Yemen last month, anxiety has grown among those living in tents -- fashioned from canvas, branches and scraps of plastic -- who are among the worst-off in the Arab world's poorest nation.

Yemen's health system has all but collapsed since the conflict broke out in 2014, with some 20 million people -- more than two thirds of the population -- needing aid to survive, according to the United Nations.

 'No way to tell' 

The government has so far reported 65 coronavirus cases, including 10 deaths.

The Houthi rebels, who control much of the north including the capital Sanaa, have announced two infections, including one death.

However, an official in the government's interim capital of Aden said the number of cases could be much higher.

"Seventy people died of various diseases in Aden in the 24 hours between Sunday and Monday," the official, who works in the government's crisis response unit, told AFP.

"It could be from the coronavirus... but in the absence of international organisations and testing, there is no way to tell," said the official, who asked to remain nameless.

The government has accused the Houthis of covering up cases, as Yemenis increasingly clamour for the two parties to set aside the conflict and focus on combatting the pandemic.

Around 3.3 million people have been displaced, forced to live in abandoned schools or camps where diseases such as cholera run rampant due to the scarcity of clean water and medication.

Aden resident Saddam Bijash complained he had not seen "any tangible measures" to curb the disease.

"We expect the virus to spread and for a disaster that no one will be able to control," he told AFP.

 'Like wildfire' 

Caroline Seguin from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned the coronavirus could spread "very quickly" in overcrowded cities and camps.

"People there often live with many family members in a small space, and camps mostly lack adequate hygiene measures, making it difficult for them to isolate themselves or to wash their hands," said Seguin, MSF's head of programmes in Yemen, Iraq and Jordan.

"Displaced people are also often poor, making it impossible for them just to stay at home while the virus is circulating -- they need to go out to earn or collect the basic necessities of life."

In Khokha, the authorities are trying to alert people about how to stem the spread of the virus, especially in camps like the one where Ahmed and her children live with around 600 other families.

"Many organisations are trying to raise awareness by using loudspeakers and going around in cars," Abdullah Dawbala, director of the health department in Khokha, told AFP.

Hodeida governor Hasan Taher said the authorities were trying to establish a health unit in each of the camps in the province, and for suspected cases to be taken to more advanced clinics.

As children played in the dust outside the rows of makeshift tents at the camp in Khokha, Salah Darwish, one of the displaced, said he was fearful for the young and the elderly.

"The virus will spread like wildfire -- we are afraid and anxious," he said.

BEIRUT — A record 9.3 million people are now food insecure in Syria as spiralling prices and the coronavirus pandemic compound the damage of a nine-year war, the World Food Programme(WFP) said on Thursday.

"Record high food prices & now COVID-19 have pushed families in Syria beyond their limits," the WFP wrote on Twitter.

"WFP estimates that a record 9.3 million people are now food insecure," it said.

That figure has leapt from 7.9 million six months ago, a WFP spokeswoman said.

Syria's war has devastated the country's economy since 2011, plunging 80 percent of its people into poverty, according to the United Nations.

Despite relative quiet in the country's remaining battlefields, early 2020 has only seen the situation worsen.

Much of the economy in government-held areas shuttered in March to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Last month, the WFP said food prices had doubled in a year to an all-time high across Syria.

It blamed a slowing of dollar inflows due to the financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon, along with the coronavirus lockdown.

Damascus has announced 48 cases of the novel coronavirus, including three deaths in government-held areas.

In the Kurdish-held northeast, six cases have been recorded, including one death, according to the UN.

The rebel stronghold of Idlib in northwest Syria, where hundreds of thousands lived in overcrowded camps or makeshift shelters, has still not recorded any cases.

Government-held areas have started easing restrictions since the start of the month.

President Bashar Assad warned last week of catastrophe if that was mishandled, as "citizens from different segments of society have been forced to choose between hunger and poverty... or illness."

Over the past year, Syrians in government-held areas have faced a fuel crisis, a plummeting Syrian pound on the black market, and steep price hikes.

Damascus has blamed Western sanctions for its struggling economy.

The conflict has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions more from their homes since starting .

KHARTOUM — Sudan on Tuesday rejected an Ethiopian proposal to sign an initial agreement greenlighting the filling of a controversial mega-dam it is building.

"I cannot accept the signing of a draft agreement to the first phase [filling the dam] because it poses legal and technical problems that must be addressed," Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in a statement.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had urged him to sign the agreement.

Both Khartoum and Cairo fear the dam will trap their essential water supplies once the giant reservoir starts being filled in July as planned by Addis Ababa.

Hamed Saleh, Sudan's chief negotiator in talks on the dam facilitated by the US administration, said "most of the issues at play... cannot be separated... including long-term environmental and social impacts".

Tensions have been high in the Nile basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.

Addis Ababa says the dam is crucial for its economy, while Egypt fears it will disrupt the river that provides almost all its water.

Sudan hopes the dam will provide much-needed electricity and help regulate flooding.

The US Treasury Department and the World Bank stepped in as observers last year to facilitate talks between the three countries after negotiations repeatedly failed.

"The only way to reach a comprehensive agreement is for all parties to go back to the negotiating table immediately," Hamdok added.

The 6,600-kilometre-long Nile is a lifeline supplying both water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses.

Its main tributaries, the White and Blue Niles, converge in the Sudanese capital Khartoum before flowing north through Egypt to drain into the Mediterranean Sea.

BAGHDAD — Every year, Maher Al Rubaye would marvel at the gold-leaf walls of Iraq's Imam Ali mausoleum. He still visits the shrine today -- through a screen from his living room.

The spread of the new coronavirus in Iraq has prompted the closure of major mosques to visitors, including the ornate burial place of Ali, the fourth Islamic caliph and relative of the Prophet Mohammed, in the shrine city Najaf.

Just a few hundred meters from the mausoleum, Rubaye -- at home because of lockdown measures -- extends one hand towards the sky in prayer and holds his mobile phone with the other.

On the screen flash images of the shrine: its large plaza, the marble floors and intricate calligraphy -- and finally, the glittering mausoleum itself.

"I visit you, Commander of the Faithful," Rubaye recites, adding a COVID-19-mandated amendment: "...from a distance."

Iraq has reported over 3,000 coronavirus infections and more than 110 deaths since its first case was recorded nearly three months ago in Najaf.

Authorities have since imposed a nationwide lockdown that has shut airports, restaurants and schools and prohibited travel between provinces.

 'Valid' visit 

The pandemic has battered Iraq's religious tourism sector, which constitutes around half of its non-oil economy.

A normal year would see millions of Shiite pilgrims visit shrines in Najaf and nearby Karbala, travelling from neighbouring Iran or even India.

The billions of dollars generated from pilgrims annually creates jobs for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis -- constituting almost the only form of tourism in a country ravaged by decades of conflict.

But the narrow alleyways radiating out from the shrines, typically bustling with locals and tourists en route to prayer, are now eerily empty.

Wooden stalls where religious trinkets and other souvenirs are usually laid out have been shrouded in plastic for weeks.

The sounds of an occasional tweeting bird and the call to prayer five times daily -- followed by an addendum to do so at home to avoid crowds -- have replaced the din of bartering, clinking coffee cups and shuffling feet.

"In these current circumstances, with the confinement imposed by governments across the world, virtual pilgrimages are as valid as the normal ones," said Ali Al Atabi, a sheikh in Najaf's Old City.

Religious tourism had already seen a dip since October, when anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad and across the country's Shiite-majority south.

 Old rites, new tech 

The closures are particularly jarring as most shrines remained open during the bloodiest years of Iraq's sectarian violence, which saw suicide bombers target religious sites and densely populated neighbourhoods.

But over time, some shrines have developed new ways for the faithful to experience a centuries-old tradition.

TV channels air round-the-clock images from the mausoleums, and in Najaf, a hotline provides a free audio guide to visit the site.

"Salam aleikum" -- peace be upon you -- a male voice says in a recorded message, reciting the typical Muslim greeting in Arabic.

"Welcome to a pilgrimage of Imam Ali," it continues, pausing for the caller to recite the prayer intoned upon entering the shrine in real life.

Still, for Iraqis marking the holy month of Ramadan this year without their pilgrimage traditions, it's an unaccustomed change.

"I'm dreaming of visiting the Imam Ali shrine, which we Shiites normally pray at every single night in Ramadan," lamented Numan Al Saadi, another resident of Najaf.

"Today, I can only see it from a distance through my phone."

TEHRAN — Iran warned of a possible coronavirus cluster hitting another province on Thursday as it announced 71 new deaths and more than 1,800 infections nationwide.

"We are in situation similar to previous days [in most provinces] save for Khuzestan, which is still in a critical condition, and it seems that North Khorasan may be critical as well," said Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour.

"If this trend continues, North Khorasan will require more serious measures, too," he added in televised remarks.

North Khorasan province lies in northeastern Iran on the border with Turkmenistan. Khuzestan province in the southwest borders Iraq.

The ministry had on Monday signalled a setback in its efforts to contain the virus in Khuzestan where authorities shut state bodies, banks and non-essential businesses again in around a third of its counties.

Iran stopped publishing provincial figures for the coronavirus last month.

Authorities in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, have also warned of a fresh spike in infections.

"We had not seen such an increase in coronavirus infections since" late February, said Ghasem Miri, deputy head of provincial capital Zahedan's medical university.

The total number of people infected in the province had hit 909, of whom 821 had recovered and 59 died, Miri told ILNA news agency on Tuesday.

Miri said the jump was due to the failure of people to observe "social distancing and health protocols".

Iran has deemed more than 150 counties across the country as low-risk from the virus and has allowed them to reopen mosques.

Since April 11, it has allowed a phased reopening of its economy and lifted restrictions on intercity travel.

Iran's deputy health minister also announced on Thursday that athletes in 29 sports -- including track and field, tennis and weightlifting -- could resume training.

Iraj Harirchi also told ISNA news agency that a decision about Iran's top flight football league would be made on Saturday.

According to health ministry spokesman Jahanpour, the latest deaths brought the official toll to 6,854.

He said 1,808 new cases of COVID-19 infection had been detected, raising the total to 114,533.

Of those hospitalised, 90,539 had recovered and been discharged, while 2,758 were in critical condition.

Iran has struggled to contain its outbreak of the novel coronavirus since announcing its first cases in the Shiite holy city of Qom on February 19.

Experts inside and outside the country have voiced scepticism about the official figures, saying the real toll could be much higher.

MANAMA — The tradition of musaharati -- Ramadan drummers who awaken the faithful for their pre-dawn meal -- may be dying out across the Muslim world, but Yasser Al Samak has become a social media hit by adapting age-old songs for the time of coronavirus.

The silence of the darkened streets of Bilad Al Qadeem, a village outside the capital Manama, has been broken during the holy month by the voice of the 50-year-old and the pounding of the drummer who accompanies him.

In a distinctive Bahraini accent he sings of life in the pandemic, extols the benefits of social distancing, and gives thanks to medics and first responders for their sacrifices on the front line.

"Oh quickly the time of suhoor arrives, but this time it is different from all the years before," Samak sings of the meal which fortifies observant Muslims for their day of fasting ahead.

"Stay home with your family, and blend your suhoor meal with hope, because those who rely on God, he will protect them," he sings.

"Make yourself strong with prayer and wear the mask as a shield against the pandemic," go the lyrics, which mix religious blessings with standard health advice.

Samak also humorously plays on the word "corona" urging people to still eat "macarona" -- macaroni -- rhyming in Arabic to say that life must go on and that the faithful should not lose their resolve in the face of the crisis.

Devout Muslims observe the holy fasting month of Ramadan by abstaining from food and drink from sunrise to set.

In a centuries-old tradition, the musaharati once provided the heartbeat to the ritual, but the practice has become rarer across the Muslim world now that people have alarms and smartphones to rouse them from their sleep.

 Raising hope

In the village streets where Samak roams from door to door, with a lockdown in force, only a few residents are out and about buying basic necessities. Traffic is light and the stray cats mostly have the pavements to themselves.

Video clips of Samak reciting his timely messages have circulated widely on WhatsApp and Instagram.

The veteran musaharati said he hopes to raise awareness while also spreading hope and maintaining a sense of continuity during the crisis.

"We had poems specifically written this year about coronavirus and they have been popular. I sing them alongside traditional ones," he told AFP as he walked the streets of Bilad Al Qadeem.

"I have been doing this for 30 years, but it's not like before when we had a lot of children taking part," he said of the youngsters that used to come out and trail behind him.

"Now because of the coronavirus situation we are limited to a maximum of five people," he said, as children came out of a house to listen, only to be quickly brought back in by their father.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel on Wednesday for talks with leaders on plans to annex swathes of the occupied West Bank, which has been rocked by two days of deadly violence.

Pompeo and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meeting in Jerusalem, also voiced fresh condemnation of their common foe Iran, accusing the Islamic republic of promoting terrorism during the coronavirus pandemic.

The visit by US President Donald Trump's top diplomat comes a day before Netanyahu's unity government with rival-turned ally Benny Gantz was to be sworn in, ending a year of political paralysis.

It also coincided with an upsurge in violence in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli troops shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian in a refugee camp near the flashpoint city of Hebron on Wednesday, a day after a Palestinian stone-thrower killed an Israeli soldier during an arrest operation near Jenin, the army's first fatality of the year.

Pompeo wore a red, white and blue face mask as he arrived on his first foreign trip in nearly two months.

He also met Gantz, the incoming defence minister, to discuss Trump's controversial Middle East peace plan, which gives a green light for Israel to annex Jewish settlements and strategic areas of the West Bank.

Pompeo not meeting Palestinians 

Netanyahu and Gantz are set to launch their government on Thursday, having faced off in three inconclusive elections in less than a year before agreeing to a three-year power-sharing administration.

Netanyahu, a right-winger in office since 2009, will serve as premier for 18 months with Gantz as his alternate. The two will swap posts midway through the deal.

Their coalition agreement says the government can from July 1 begin considering to implement Trump's plan.

The Palestinians have rejected Trump's proposals and cut ties with his administration in 2017 over its pro-Israel stance.

Their chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Pompeo's team had not reached out ahead of the visit.

"The Trump administration is collaborating with Israel in its annexation plan in what is both an attempt at burying the rights of the Palestinian people as well as a blatant attack on a rules-based international system," he said.

Israel has controlled the West Bank since seizing it in the Six-Day War of 1967.

Nearly 3 million Palestinians live in the territory alongside more than 400,000 Israelis residing in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.

For the Palestinians and much of the international community, Israeli annexations would sink any hope of a two-state solution to the conflict.

US presidential vote 

Former US president Barack Obama's ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, told AFP that he believes the "Trump administration very much wants this annexation to happen."

He said it was less concerned about the logistical complications but wanted to ensure its staunchly pro-Israel voters, including evangelical Christians and conservative Jews, were energised ahead of the November presidential election.

Netanyahu may be tempted to move quickly in order to help Trump in November and ensure annexation is a done deal before a possible unfavourable change in the White House, Shapiro noted.

But that would create risks internationally and could cause division within Netanyahu's government, the former ambassador added.

Netanyahu's previous coalition had hardline pro-annexation right-wingers in key posts, notably outgoing defence minister Naftali Bennett.

Gantz has praised the Trump plan but warned against moves that threaten regional stability.

Experts have said Jordan might back away from its historic 1994 peace deal with Israel if Israel annexes the Jordan Valley, a strategically crucial border region that accounts for roughly 30 per cent of the West Bank.

Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, Pompeo said the US and Israel needed to make progress on Trump's "Vision for Peace".

He then renewed his criticism of Iran, claiming that even as its people faced the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, Tehran was using "resources to foment terror across the world, even when the people of Iran are struggling so mightily".

"It tells you a lot about the soul of those people who lead that country."

Netanyahu praised Washington's continuing pressure on Iran, a country he claimed was persisting with its "aggressive designs and its aggressive actions against Americans, Israelis and everyone else in the region".