Merkel heads to Egypt, Tunisia to reduce migrant flowsGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel starts a two-day trip to Egypt and Tunisia on Thursday, part of her push to limit migrant flows to Europe through North Africa, especially chaos-torn Libya. Merkel first heads to Egypt, where she will meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, before holding talks on Friday with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi. "Egypt, as a regional institution, as a regional power, plays a major role here, as do Algeria and Tunisia." But as with the Turkey deal, the negotiations with the North African countries have been clouded by human rights concerns. Anger had previously been fanned on New Year's Eve of 2015-16, when large groups of mostly North African men sexually assaulted and robbed hundreds of women in the western city of Cologne.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 02, 2017 04:00 UTC