TUNIS: Tunisians returned to mosques and cafes on Thursday as the country ended most lockdown restrictions after largely containing the spread of the novel coronavirus for now.
Sitting with friends at the Brazil coffeeshop in the Ibn Khaldoun district of Tunis, schoolteacher Nizar Jamal said he was glad to resume his daily chats with friends.
“We are again breathing the air of life. We missed the smell of coffee a lot,” he said.
Tunisia in March closed its international borders, stopped all movement between towns and cities, shuttered mosques, shops, schools, cafes and restaurants, imposed a nightly curfew and stopped people leaving homes at day for most reasons.
It has recorded 1,048 cases of the coronavirus and 48 deaths, compared with nearly 10,000 cases in neighboring Algeria. The only recent cases came from people arriving into quarantine from abroad.
Schools will stay closed to most students until the start of the new academic year in September and the government still restricts social gatherings at homes and urges the wearing of masks. International borders will reopen fully in late June.
In another Tunis district, Menzah 9, a cafe owner who gave only his first name, Mahmoud, said he was relieved to have reopened.
“This cafe provides work for 20 families. We have suffered a lot from stopping work for three months and we hope to make up for it soon,” he said.
Tunisia’s government has announced compensation measures to help businesses and needy families with the economic effects of the lockdown and has agreed a package of financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
Tunisians emerge from lockdown into mosques and cafes
https://arab.news/nvga5
Tunisians emerge from lockdown into mosques and cafes
- Schools will stay closed to most students until the start of the new academic year in September
- The government still restricts social gatherings at homes and urges the wearing of masks
Syria’s anti-Daesh coalition role a ‘new chapter,’ US envoy says
- US Envoy Tom Barrack praises Syria’s first attendance at coalition meeting in Riyadh
- Syrian government joined the military alliance against the extremists in November
LONDON: Syria’s involvement in the international coalition against Daesh extremists marks a “new chapter” in global security, the US envoy to the country said Tuesday.
Syria’s foreign and intelligence ministers joined a coalition meeting for the first time in Riyadh on Monday, three months after the country’s new rulers announced it had joined the group.
Daesh emerged out of the chaos of the Syrian civil war, seizing a vast tract of territory in the country’s east and across large areas of Iraq in 2014.
The extremist group imposed brutal rule over the areas it controlled and plotted terrorist attacks around the world, before the US-led coalition helped defeat them.
President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who led opposition forces to victory against Bashar Assad more than a year ago, has offered his support to global efforts to counter the group.
“Regional solutions, shared responsibility. Syria’s participation in the D-ISIS Coalition meeting in Riyadh marks a new chapter in collective security,” US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said in a post on X, using an acronym to refer to Daesh.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani described the meeting of the Small Group of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh as “constructive and fruitful,” adding that supporting Syria was a “shared responsibility to enhance security and stability.”
In a statement after the Saudi-hosted meeting, the coalition said it noted Syria’s intention to “assume national leadership of counter-Daesh efforts.”
