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Ministries next to the presidential palace have also been blocked off, according to Reuters news agency.

The West African bloc is to discuss strengthening a regional standby force to tackle insecurity and threats of coups.

Blinken, who is in Tonga to dedicate a new embassy, is the first US Secretary of State to visit the Pacific nation.

ALGIERS: Algerian firefighters were on Tuesday battling blazes that have killed 34 people across the tinder-dry north, destroyed homes and coastal resorts and turned vast forest areas into blackened wastelands. Witnesses described fleeing walls of flames that raged “like a blowtorch” as TV footage showed charred cars, burnt-out shops and smoldering fields and scrubland. Severe fires have raged through the mountain forests of the Kabylia region on the Mediterranean coast, fanned by winds amid blistering summer heat that peaked at 48 degrees Celsius on Monday.

A complaint earlier this month triggered the investigation, which will consider whether the practice is discriminatory.

TUNIS: Around 300 protesters rallied in Tunis Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of President Kais Saied’s adoption of sweeping powers, and to demand the release of about 20 detained opposition figures. “Down with the coup, freedom for all the prisoners,” the protesters chanted. Addressing the crowd that gathered in the heart of the capital, braving temperatures that topped 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), veteran politician Ahmed Nejib Chebbi denounced a “total failure” of Saied in managing the state.

An independent investigatory panel says security forces obstructed their efforts to investigate human rights scandal.