Region

ALGIERS — French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne arrived in Algeria on Sunday with a top-level delegation for a visit aimed at improving ties with the former French colony and major gas exporter.

Her two-day trip along with 16 ministers — over a third of her government — comes just six weeks after President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day visit that sought to end months of tensions with Algiers.

Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane welcomed the delegation at the capital's main airport.

Borne is expected to sign deals on economic cooperation, including energy — although deliveries of natural gas to France are "not on the table", according to her office.

She was set to lay a wreath Sunday at a monument to martyrs of Algeria's eight-year war for independence, and visit a cemetery for French nationals who lived in Algeria during France's 132-year rule, which ended in 1962.

Ties between the North African country and its former colonial ruler had seen months of tensions after Macron last year questioned Algeria's existence as a nation before the French occupation, accusing the government of fomenting "hatred towards France".

But during his visit in August, Macron and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune drew a line under the spat.

On Sunday, the two spoke on the phone and confirmed their "satisfaction with the positive direction" of ties, Tebboune's office said.

Borne is also set to meet Tebboune, and is expected to sign several agreements with premier Benabderrahmane.

In an interview with news website Tout Sur l'Algerie, she said the visit would focus on "education, culture, the ecological transition and the economy".

"More cooperation will be a source of growth for our two countries," Borne said.

The contentious subject of the two countries’ history, particularly during the war, will not feature prominently on her agenda.

During Macron’s visit, the president had announced the creation of a joint commission of historians to examine the colonial period, including the war. France says the panel is still being set up.

Macron has ruled out a state apology for acts committed during the colonial period.

Borne and her cohort are the latest in a string of top European officials to visit Algeria, Africa’s top natural gas exporter, in search of alternatives to Russian energy supplies since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Algeria’s Sonatrach signed a $4 billion oil and gas production deal with Italian, French and US majors in July, but experts have cast doubt over Algeria’s ability to ramp up capacity in the short term.

In her interview with TSA, Borne noted that France does not depend heavily on natural gas.

But she said Paris wants to develop joint projects in the sector with Algeria “to increase the efficiency of its gas production capacity, which will increase its export capacity to Europe”.

The European Union’s energy commissioner Kadri Simson is also expected in Algiers on Monday and Tuesday.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli forces on Sunday hunted a Palestinian suspected of killing an 18-year-old military policewoman in occupied East Jerusalem, an attack that left another Israeli in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the head.

The Saturday shooting at a checkpoint by the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem came amid spiralling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hours earlier, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in an Israeli raid in the West Bank, as the United Nations warned of “mounting violence” in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Police said the alleged Shuafat gunman, a 22-year-old Palestinian resident of occupied East Jerusalem, was driven to the checkpoint by an accomplice. He got out of the car, opened fire and ran into the camp as the driver sped away.

Another Israeli, a 30-year-old man, was taken to Hadassah hospital in serious condition after being shot in the head, the medical centre said in a statement.

Israeli police said shrapnel lightly wounded two additional border officers.

Israeli forces chief Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi visited the checkpoint on Sunday.

A court meanwhile extended the detention by a week of four people arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack, police said.

Camp entrances shut 

As the pursuit of the gunman got underway, Israeli forces shut the entrances to the refugee camp.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics were prevented from reaching the area, while the Israeli rights group HaMoked pressed officials to reopen access for thousands of residents “who need to get to their homes, work, school, and to hospitals”.

Police on Sunday said officers were using “riot control weapons” in the camp, as dozens of people hurled stones at the force.

Smoke billowed from the densely populated neighbourhood.

Earlier on Saturday, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in an operation by Israeli forces in Jenin, the northern West Bank flashpoint city.

The Palestinian health ministry announced the killing of “two citizens by occupation [Israeli] bullets in Jenin”, while 11 others were wounded.

The ministry identified those killed as Ahmad Daraghmeh, 16, and Mahmud as-Sous, 18. The Islamic Jihad militant group praised the teenagers as “its martyrs”.

Israel’s military said troops had entered Jenin to detain a 25-year-old Palestinian it said was a member of Islamic Jihad and suspected of shooting at troops in the area.

“Dozens of Palestinians hurled explosive devices and Molotov cocktails at IDF [Israeli military] soldiers and shots were fired at them,” an army statement said.

‘Deteriorating situation’ 

Following the latest deaths in Jenin, the Palestinian presidency said Israeli action could “push matters towards an explosion”.

“A point of no return, which will have devastating consequences for all”, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for president Mahmud Abbas, in a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The agency also reported Israeli forces had fired directly at journalists during the Jenin raid.

Two reporters were wounded on Wednesday while covering a military operation witnessed by an AFP journalist near the West Bank city of Nablus, in which one Palestinian was killed.

In May, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin.

Saturday’s violence in Jenin came a day after Israeli forces shot dead two other Palestinian teenagers in the West Bank.

The UN envoy for Middle East Peace, Tor Wennesland, voiced alarm at “the deteriorating security situation”, saying at least 100 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank this year.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 June War and around 475,000 Israelis now live in settlements across the territory, which are considered illegal by most of the international community.

They live alongside some 2.8 million Palestinians, who in different areas of the West Bank are subject to Israeli military rule or live under limited Palestinian governance.

PARIS — Schoolgirls chanted slogans, workers went on strike and protesters clashed violently with security forces across Iran on Saturday, as demonstrations over the death of Mahsa Amini entered a fourth week.

Anger flared after the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd's death on September 16, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the notorious morality police for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Iran said on Friday an investigation found Amini had died of a longstanding illness rather than "blows" to the head, despite her family reportedly saying she had previously been healthy.

But the women-led protests continued even as ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi posed for a group photograph with students at Tehran's all-female Al Zahra University to mark the new academic year.

Young women on the same campus were seen shouting "Death to the oppressor", said the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).

In Amini's hometown Saqez, in Kurdistan province, schoolgirls chanted "Woman, life, freedom" and marched down a street swinging headscarves in the air, in videos the Hengaw rights group said were recorded on Saturday.

Gruesome videos were widely shared online of a man who was shot dead while sitting at the wheel of his car in Sanandaj, Kurdistan's capital.

The province's police chief, Ali Azadi, said he was "killed by anti-revolutionary forces".

Angry men appeared to take revenge on a member of the feared Basij militia in Sanandaj, swarming around him and beating him badly, in a widely shared video.

Another shocking video shows a young woman said to have been shot dead in Mashhad, in what many on social media compared to footage of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman who became an enduring symbol of the opposition after being shot dead at protests in 2009.

'We will fight' 

Despite Internet restrictions designed to impede gatherings and stop images of the crackdown getting out, protesters have adopted new tactics to get their message across.

“We are not afraid anymore. We will fight,” said a large banner placed on an overpass of Tehran’s Modares highway, according to online images verified by AFP.

In other footage, a man is seen altering the wording of a large government billboard on the same highway from “The police are the servants of the people” to “The police are the murderers of the people”.

Hengaw, a Norway-based Kurdish rights group, said “widespread strikes” took place in Saqez, Sanandaj and Divandarreh, in Kurdistan province, as well as Mahabad in West Azerbaijan.

Street protests were also reported in many neighbourhoods of Tehran — where bazaar shops were shuttered — as well as in Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz and Tabriz, among other cities.

IHR says at least 92 protesters have been killed in the crackdown, which has fuelled tensions between Iran and the West, especially its arch-enemy the United States.

Raisi — who in July called for the mobilisation of all state institutions to enforce hijab rules — appealed for unity.

“Despite all the efforts of ill-wishers, the strong and hardworking people of Islamic Iran will overcome the problems ahead with unity and cohesion,” he was quoted as saying on Saturday on the presidency’s website.

Local media quoted a municipal official as saying pictures published on Friday of fountains in Tehran appearing to pour blood, after an artist turned the water red to reflect the crackdown, were false and there was “no change in colour”.

‘Blind eye’ 

Iran has repeatedly accused outside forces of stirring up the protests, and last week announced that nine foreign nationals — including from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and The Netherlands — had been arrested.

On Friday, France advised its nationals visiting Iran to “leave the country as soon as possible”, citing the risk of arbitrary detention.

The Netherlands advised its citizens to avoid travelling to Iran or to leave when they can do so safely.

“There may be demonstrations which can turn violent. The police sometimes act harshly... authorities can also arbitrarily detain people with a foreign nationality,” it said.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker who was held in Tehran for six years until her release in March, called on the UK government to act over Iran’s rights abuses.

“I want the [UK government] to observe what is happening, not to turn a blind eye. I want them to protect us. We cannot be indifferent about what is happening in Iran,” she told Sky News.

“And if we talk about protecting rights of our citizens, we have to do something about it. And I think we have to hold Iran accountable.”

ALGIERS — Algerian primary schools have scrambled to introduce English lessons, in a move critics say was rushed but others hope could be a coup de grace against the language of former occupier France.

Language is a sensitive topic in the North African country, where French is still widely spoken six decades after independence that followed 132 years of colonial rule and a gruelling eight-year war.

“The French language is war booty, but English is the international language,” President Abdelmadjid Tebboune told journalists in July.

Only weeks earlier, he had ordered the education ministry to introduce English into primary school curricula by the new term, which started on September 21.

This was the first stage in a broader plan to boost English tuition in the coming years.

The status of French has been a hotly debated issue for decades in Algeria, which has only Arabic and the Berbers’ Tamazight as official languages.

French infuses public life, is used for teaching science and business, and is spoken by millions of diaspora Algerians, particularly in France.

Yet, it also evokes memories of colonial rule.

“I want to drop the language of the coloniser and adopt the language used worldwide,” said Hacene, the father of a primary pupil in the capital Algiers.

Race against time 

“Teaching English in primary school is sensible,” said Farouk Lazizi, whose two children are at primary school in Algiers.

But he said he has mixed feelings on the president’s decision, which had set up a race against the clock.

In less than two months, 5,000 new teachers were recruited and put on a fast-track training programme, while a new manual had been written and distributed to schools in record time.

“We need to prepare things well, because most Algerian parents aren’t ready to teach English to their kids,” Lazizi said.

The education ministry said some 60,000 people applied for the new jobs, which require an undergraduate degree in English or translation.

Officials have argued that moves to bolster English tuition are motivated by practical concerns rather than ideology but haven’t offered an explanation for the tight schedule afforded for the change.

The process was so rushed that the state hired translators who “aren’t even trained to teach” to make up the shortfall in English-speaking teachers, said linguist Abderzak Dourari.

On top of Arabic and French, some schools in the country also teach Tamazight, which is spoken by millions of Algerians.

Some education specialists worry that even if the glitches are ironed out, the addition of yet another language to classrooms would still be challenging.

“Teaching four languages to primary school children will confuse them,” said Ahmed Tessa, a pedagogy expert and former English teacher.

Making French ‘disappear’ 

The decision on primary schools is the latest move in a bitter struggle that has pitted conservatives who want French scrapped altogether against supporters of the language, who tend to be more secular.

Sadek Dziri of UNPEF, a powerful teachers’ union, welcomed what he called an “overdue” decision to adopt English, “the language of science and technology”.

“Algeria will be able to drop French, which is the language of the coloniser and hasn’t brought good results,” said one parent in Algiers who asked to remain anonymous.

Another said that Francophone Algerians “don’t approve of this decision” and want to keep French in schools.

Abdelhamid Abed, who teaches English at an Algiers middle school, argued that “French has done its time”.

“We shouldn’t see this question in terms of rivalry between French and English, but from a practical standpoint.”

But linguist Dourari said it would be hard to simply replace French with English, given Algeria’s history and its cultural and economic ties with France — including tourism.

“There’s an Algerian diaspora of more than 8 million living in France,” he pointed out.

“There are mixed families, who come and go.”

Tessa insisted that President Tebboune’s “war booty” remark — made in the run-up to an August visit by France’s Emmanuel Macron — reflected the benefits Algeria has reaped from having French in its “institutional and socio-economic life”.

“Those who are hostile to French believed it would be dropped entirely from primary school curricula,” he said.

“They’re dreaming of seeing it disappear.”

HAMATA, Egypt — On Egypt’s Red Sea coast, fish swim among thousands of newly planted mangroves, part of a programme to boost biodiversity, protect coastlines and fight climate change and its impacts.

After decades of destruction that saw the mangroves cleared, all that remained were fragmented patches totalling some 500 hectares, the size of only a few hundred football pitches.

Sayed Khalifa, the head of Egypt’s agriculture syndicate who is leading mangrove replanting efforts, calls the unique plants a “treasure” because of their ability to grow in salt water where they face no problems of drought.

“It’s an entire ecosystem,” Khalifa said, knee-deep in the water. “When you plant mangroves, marine life, crustaceans and birds all flock in.”

Between the tentacle-like roots of months-old saplings, small fish and tiny crab larvae dart through the shallows — making the trees key nurseries of marine life.

Khalifa’s team are growing tens of thousands of seedlings in a nursery, which are then used to rehabilitate six key areas on the Red Sea and Sinai coast, aiming to replant some 210 hectares.

But Khalifa dreams of extending the mangroves as far “as possible”, pointing past a yacht marina some 6 kilometres to the south.

The about $50,000-a-year government-backed programme was launched five years ago.

‘Punch above 

their weight’ 

Mangroves also have a powerful impact in combating climate change.

The resilient trees “punch above their weight” absorbing five times more carbon than forests on land, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The stands of trees also help filter out water pollution and act as a natural barrier against rising seas and extreme weather, shielding coastal communities from destructive storms.

UNEP calculates that protecting mangroves is a thousand times cheaper than building seawalls over the same distance.

Despite their value, mangroves have been annihilated worldwide at rapid speed.

Over a third of mangroves globally have been lost globally, researchers estimate, with losses up to 80 per cent in some coastlines of the Indian Ocean.

Mangrove expert Niko Howai, from Britain’s University of Reading, said in the past many governments had not appreciated “the importance of mangroves”, eyeing instead lucrative “opportunities to earn revenue” including through coastal development.

In Egypt’s case, “mass tourism activities and resorts, which cause pollution”, as well as boat activity and oil drilling wreaked havoc on mangroves, said Kamal Shaltout, a botany professor at Egypt’s Tanta University.

Shaltout warned that mangrove restoration efforts “will go to waste” if these threats are not addressed.

“The problem is that the mangroves we have are so limited in number that any damage causes total disruption,” he said.

Impact of mass tourism 

There is little reliable information to indicate how much has been lost, but Shaltout said “there are areas that have been completely destroyed”, particularly around the major resort town of Hurghada.

Red Sea tourism accounts for 65 per cent of Egypt’s vital tourism industry.

The scale of damage, a 2018 study by Shaltout and other researchers found, “probably far exceeds what could be replaced by any replanting programme for years to come”.

Efforts to link up replanted areas will be potentially blocked by barriers of marinas, resorts and coastal settlements.

“Mangroves are hardy, but they are also sensitive, especially as saplings,” Howai said.

“Intermingling mangrove reforestation with existing development projects is not impossible, but it is going to be more challenging.”

To be successful, Shaltout said that tourist operators must be involved, including by tasking resorts with replanting areas themselves.

“It could even come with certain tax benefits, to tell them that just like they have turned a profit, they should also play a role in protecting nature,” the botanist said.

PARIS — Iranian schoolgirls have come to the fore in protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, removing their hijabs and staging sporadic rallies in defiance of a lethal crackdown by the security forces.

Amini, 22, was pronounced dead days after the notorious morality police detained the Iranian Kurd last month for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Anger flared at her funeral and spread to become the biggest wave of protests to rock Iran in almost three years, despite the backlash by the security forces that has killed scores and seen hundreds arrested.

Students rallied at the weekend before being confronted by riot police who cornered them in an underground car park of Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology before hauling them away.

Schoolgirls have since taken up the baton around the country, removing their hijabs, shouting anti-regime slogans and defacing images of the clerical state's leaders.

"Death to the dictator," a group of bare-headed girls is seen chanting in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as they force a man, reportedly the principal, out of a school in Karaj, west of Tehran, on Monday in a video verified by AFP.

Another group of girls is seen chanting "Woman, life, freedom", as they march down a street of the Karaj neighbourhood of Gohardasht.

"These are really extraordinary scenes. If these protests are going to achieve anything, it will be because of the schoolgirls," Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of the Bourse & Bazaar news and analysis website tweeted in response.

Schoolgirls are also seen emptying classrooms and appearing at flash-mob protests to avoid detection, in other footage shared online.

A boisterous group of girls are seen yelling "Get lost, Basiji", in reference to the paramilitary force, at a man standing at a podium in the southern city of Shiraz, in a video shared by the 1500tasvir social media channel.

AFP has been unable to independently verify the footage.

As the women-led protests stretch into a fourth week, Iran has widened its crackdown, rounding up high profile supporters of the movement and imposing internet restrictions that limit access to social media.

On Tuesday night, Iranian pop singer Shirvin Hajipour, who was arrested after his song in support of the protests went viral and became an anthem for the movement, was released on bail.

"I'm here to say I'm okay. But I am sorry that some particular movements based outside of Iran — which I have had no relations with — made some improper political uses of this song," he told his 1.9 million Instagram followers shortly after his release.

Iran's judiciary meanwhile opened an investigation into the death of teenage girl Nika Shakrami who was reportedly killed during the protests.

BBC Persian and Iran Wire had reported that authorities had taken possession of her body and secretly buried her on Monday to avoid a funeral that could spark more protests.

At least 92 protesters have been killed so far in the unrest, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Amnesty International has confirmed 53 deaths, while Fars news agency put the death toll at "around 60" last week. At least 12 members of the security forces have been reported killed.

Another 63 people were killed last week when security forces "bloodily suppressed" a protest in Zahedan, near Iran's south-eastern border with Pakistan, said IHR.

The clashes erupted after Friday prayers during protests sparked by accusations a police chief in the region had raped a teenage girl of the Baluch Sunni minority, it said.

The crackdown has drawn global condemnation.

On Tuesday the European Union joined the United States in warning that it was looking to impose tough new sanctions on Iran over the bloody crackdown.

Proposed sanctions targeting senior Iranian officials include "freezing their assets and their right to travel", French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.

Iran has repeatedly accused outside forces of stoking the protests and last week said nine foreign nationals — including from France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Poland — had been arrested.

The unrest has overshadowed diplomatic efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers which had come close to a breakthrough in recent months before stalling again.

But the White House said the "problems with Iran's behaviour" are separate from efforts to revive the nuclear deal.