Geography of Africa

Athens on Wednesday reacted strongly to the submission last week to the United Nations by Turkey's permanent representative to the UN, Feridun Sinirlioglu, of a letter that contained geographical coordinates based on the contentious maritime boundaries accord signed between Ankara and Libya's Tripoli-based government in November, ignoring the existence of Greek islands.

More than 1,500 passengers, mostly from Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan, who have been stranded at Istanbul Airport, have been transferred to an emptied student dormitory in the northern province of Karabük.

Those passengers have been stuck at the airport for days after their countries closed airspace and flights were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The President of the country has already signed an amnesty decree.

Ethiopia Attorney General Adanech Abebe said more than 4,000 prisoners are to be released in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in prisons in the country.

Sixty-four people believed to be migrants from Ethiopia have been found dead in a container attached to a truck in Mozambique, provincial migration authorities and the police said on March 24.

In Sudan's capital Khartoum, a hip-hop producer who had his equipment seized during anti-government protests last year is now free to mix tracks in his studio.

Across town, an all-female troupe in pink T-shirts and white jeans practice rhythmic dance routines late in the evening in a dimly-lit car park.

Turkey on March 9 condemned the attempted assassination of Sudan's prime minister in the capital Khartoum.

"We strongly condemn the heinous assassination attempt that targeted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok today in Sudan," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A court in Istanbul ruled on Sunday to arrest Murat Agırel, a columnist with Yenicag Daily newspaper, and Yeni Yasam managing editor Ferhat Celik and editor-in-chief Aydın Keser over news reports on the funeral of a high-ranking intelligence officer who was killed in Libya.

A committee formed by Libya's renegade commander Khalifa Haftar visited Syria to meet officials of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The agreement on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea signed between Turkey and Libya's Tripoli-based government is in violation of international law and poses a threat to other states in the region, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said.

The regimented police state that renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar is attempting to build is both "more puritanical and more lawless than" that of the country's deposed longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi, according to a recently published investigation.