Tunisia parliament votes to sack PM Habib Essid

Tunisia's parliament has passed a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Habib Essid, effectively dismissing the government of the US-trained economist.

A total of 188 MPs voted to sack Mr Essid, with only three supporting him.

Mr Essid, who has been in office less than two years, has faced criticism for what his opponents say is his failure to push through economic reforms.

President Beji Caid Essebsi last month called for a national unity government to break months of economic turmoil.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionMore than a third of young people in Tunisia are without work

Unemployment has worsened since the 2011 revolution, when President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. More than a third of young people in Tunisia are without work.

Tunisia's uprising was the first of the Arab Spring, and often hailed as the most successful with the country now functioning as a parliamentary democracy.

---

Analysis: BBC's Rana Jawad in Tunis

The confidence vote came after a month of wrangling over the fate of the prime minister, following pressure on him from the country's president to resign. Mr Essid refused to step down, citing respect for the constitutional process and instead called on the Tunisian parliament to decide his fate.

In the end, an overwhelming majority of MPs voted to oust him from office. Most lawmakers accused him of failing to deliver on economic reforms needed to ease the country's high unemployment rates.

In June, the Tunisian president proposed the formation of a new unity government, arguing that the country needed a leadership that could carry out bold reforms.

But some observers believe that the vote is also a consequence of the prime minister's detachment from party politics. Mr Essid recently accused leading parties of trying to pressure him into making changes to the cabinet, which he says he refused to comply with. It is not clear who will succeed him at this time, but parliament will start negotiations over the matter on Monday.

BBC Report

Four Egypt soldiers killed in Sinai bombing

Four Egyptian soldiers where killed by a roadside bomb on Thursday in the Sinai Peninsula, where the army is battling an Islamist insurgency, the military said.

One officer and three soldiers died in the attack on their vehicle near the border town of Rafah, a military spokesman said on his Facebook page.

The attack came a few days after seven soldiers died in a jihadist attack on a checkpoint.
Militants loyal to the Islamic State group have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The military says it has killed more than 1,000 militants in Sinai, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

- Guardian

Tunisia beach attack: State of emergency declared

Tunisia has declared a state of emergency, just over a week after 38 tourists, mainly Britons, died in an attack in the resort city of Sousse.

The state of emergency gives security forces more powers and limits the right of public assembly.
Authorities had already tightened security in the wake of the attack on 26 June, deploying more than 1,400 armed officers at hotels and beaches.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi is due to address the nation later.

Security forces were criticised for not responding more quickly to the attack in Sousse, when a gunman opened fire on tourists on a beach and in a hotel before being shot dead by police.

Those killed included 30 Britons.

The gunman has been identified as student Seifeddine Rezgui, who authorities say had trained in Libya.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid conceded in a BBC interview on Friday that the slow response of the police was a key problem.

He said Rezgui had probably trained with the Ansar al-Sharia group, though Islamic State (IS) earlier said it was behind the attack.

Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Rezgui, and the government says it has uncovered the network behind the Sousse attack.

Authorities have also pledged to close some 80 mosques that were operating outside government control and accused of spreading extremism.

Analysts say Tunisia has been put at risk by the chaotic situation in neighbouring Libya, and by the threat posed by Tunisians who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq returning home.

The last time Tunisia declared a state of emergency was in 2011, in the uprising which overthrew President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. It was lifted in March 2014.

Officials are expected to pass a counter-terrorism bill that has been in parliament since early 2014 in the coming weeks.

The Sousse attack represented the second blow in three months to Tunisia's tourism industry, an important sector for the country.

In March, two gunmen killed 22 people at the renowned Bardo museum in Tunisia's capital, Tunis.

READ MORE...

ISIS atrocity in Libya demonstrates its growing reach in North Africa

(CNN)ISIS is under pressure in parts of Iraq and battling a variety of adversaries in Syria, but it's metastasizing at warp speed elsewhere, most dangerously in Egypt and Libya.

It also has support in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the leader of the group ravaging northern Nigeria, Boko Haram, has expressed his admiration of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The savage killing of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya -- all of them dressed in ISIS' trademark orange prison garb -- is another indication of ISIS' ability to take advantage of collapsed or collapsing states and of its growing presence in North Africa. Most significantly, the atrocity took place in Sirte, a long way from ISIS' first stronghold around Derna in the east of the country. 

ISIS' presence in Sirte, a town of 50,000, has been growing. The Egyptians were abducted in November, and more recently, the extremists strengthened their presence by taking over government buildings and a radio station.

In Libya since autumn

ISIS first announced itself in Libya in October. Amateur video showed a large crowd of militants in Derna affiliated with the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam chanting their allegiance to al-Baghdadi. Sources told CNN at the time that ISIS had up to 800 fighters in the area as well as training facilities in the nearby Green Mountains. They were bolstered by the return from Syria and Iraq of up to 300 Libyan jihadists.

A short while later, al-Baghdadi recognized three Libyan "provinces": Barqa (in the east), Tripolitania (west) and Fezzan (south) as being part of the "caliphate."

Since then, ISIS has stepped up its presence across Libya. Late last month, a suicide bombing and gun attack on a hotel in the capital, Tripoli, killed 10 people, including an American. The attack was swiftly claimed by Wilayat al-Tarabulus, ISIS' name for the province. Politicians in Tripoli disputed the claim.

ISIS has also been active in southern Libya, attacking a Libyan army checkpoint in Sokhna in January and killing 16 people.

While a growing presence, the Libyan affiliate is some ways from being able to mimic ISIS in Syria and Iraq, with its bureaucracy and governing structure. Geoff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting says that "even in the jihadi stronghold of Derna, (ISIS) does not rule independent of a broader coalition of like-minded, but ultimately distinct groups."

"While ISIS may prove to be an enduring terrorist threat in Libya, it is very unlikely to be able to develop to the point where it controls a meaningful amount of territory," Porter says.

But as in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has launched an effective social media campaign in Libya. It has also made a concerted effort to attract seasoned fighters from other groups, such as Ansar al Sharia.

ISIS Libyan affiliate has also started to exercise some forms of social control in areas where it is strong. "The group has publicized hisba activities such as burning cigarette cartons; destroying water pipes used for smoking; demolishing "polytheistic" statues and shrines," says Andrew Engel of the Washington Institute.

'A threat to international peace'

 

Hours after the Egyptian air force carried out retaliatory airstrikes Monday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry warned that "leaving the situation as it is in Libya without a firm intervention to curtail these terrorist organizations would be a threat to international peace and security."

The Italian government has suggested an international peacekeeping presence in Libya. Italy is acutely aware that it's the jumping-off point for a growing flow of migrants and a base camp for terrorism, just hours across the Mediterranean. 

Bernardino Leon, U.N. envoy to Libya, has floated the idea of international monitors when a peace agreement between rival factions is hammered out. But "when" seems a long way off, despite the beginning of talks between rival factions in Geneva. And U.S. and European officials fear that putting boots on the ground would be a bug light to ISIS supporters.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Leon admitted that "terrorism is becoming a problem beyond the east [of Libya.] It is growing into the west and now the south, and from the west they might go to Tunisia and Algeria."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/16/africa/isis-libya-north-africa/index.html