Photo : Carley Petesch, AP
NIAS Area Studies
AFRICA MONITOR
Photo : Carley Petesch, AP
IN BRIEF
by Apoorva Sudhakar
Ivory Coast: 11 sentenced to life in prison for Grand-Bassam attack in 2016
On 27 December, eleven people were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for an Islamist attack wherein 19 people were killed at the Grand-Bassam beach area in 2016; the attack was carried out by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Of the 19 victims, 11 were Ivorians, four were French, and the rest were German, Lebanese, Macedonian and Nigerian. The trial of the 18 defendants began in November and seven of them have been found guilty and the court awarded the families of the victims different compensations up to USD 81,000. Meanwhile, the suspected mastermind of the attack, Kounta Dallah, has not been found. (“Eleven sentenced to life in prison for 2016 Ivory Coast beach attack,” France24, 28 December 2022)
Tunisia: UGTT approves transport workers strike
On 25 December, the UGTT approved a land, air and sea transport workers’ strike to be held on 25 and 26 January against “the government's marginalisation of public companies." The two-day strike is aimed to pressure President Kais Saied after he took over executive powers in 2021. (“Tunisian union approves two-day strike by transport workers,” Reuters, 28 December 2022)