BRUSSELS: EU leaders agreed yesterday to send a civilian border assistance mission to Libya which should begin operations next month.
The mission, dubbed EUBAM Libya, will help the country re-establish effective controls at its land, sea and air borders.
“EUBAM Libya is an important mission for Libya and the entire region but also for the security of EU borders,” EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said.
“The mission responds to a direct request from our Libyan partners,” Ashton said in a statement.
The mission was first suggested after the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, and aims to help the new government police land borders some 4,300 kilometres long which often cross remote and inhospitable desert regions.
The country’s maritime border is nearly 2,000 km long, with illegal immigration to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa a major problem.
The mission, costing some 30 million euros ($ 39 million), will help advise and train Libyan officials for border duties and administration.
EU approves Libya border support mission
EU approves Libya border support mission
Two Tunisia columnists handed over three years in prison
- Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies have already been in detention for almost two years
- They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering
TUNIS: Two prominent Tunisian columnists were sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in prison each for money laundering and tax evasion, according to a relative and local media.
The two men, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, have already been in detention for almost two years for statements considered critical of President Kais Saied’s government, made on radio, television programs and social media.
They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
“Three and a half years for Mourad and Borhen,” Zeghidi’s sister, Meriem Zeghidi Adda, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Since Saied’s power grab, which granted him sweeping powers on July 25, 2021, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Dozens of opposition figures and civil society activists are being prosecuted under a presidential decree officially aimed at combatting “fake news” but subject to a very broad interpretation denounced by human rights defenders.
Others, including opposition leaders, have been sentenced to heavy prison terms in a mega-trial of “conspiracy against state security.”
In 2025, Tunisia fell 11 places in media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 118th to 129th out of 180 countries.
