Tunisia's Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced Thursday he would stand in presidential elections next month.

Tunisia has less than two months to organise snap elections following the death of president Beji Caid Essebsi, amid uncertainty over who could step forward to run the North African country.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed decided Friday to ban the niqab Muslim face covering for women in Tunisian government offices "for security reasons", his office said.

Tunisia is not at risk of a power vacuum despite the sudden hospitalisation of President Beji Caid Essebsi, one of his advisors said Friday, describing veteran leader's condition as stable.

Around 60 migrants most of them from Bangladesh have died after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea after it left Libya for Italy, the Tunisian Red Crescent said Saturday.

Tunisia's health minister has resigned after the sudden deaths of 11 newborn babies at a state maternity hospital sparked an outcry in the country, the government said.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed accepted Abderraouf Cherif's resignation, the premier's office said on Facebook late on Saturday.

Militiamen have kidnapped a group of Tunisian workers near the Libyan capital Tripoli, demanding Tunis release a comrade, the foreign ministry and a rights activist said.

A Tunisian court has sentenced seven jihadists to life in prison over attacks at a museum and on a beach in 2015 that killed 60 people, many of them tourists, prosecutors said Saturday.

Syria's "natural place" is within the Arab League, Tunisia's foreign minister said Saturday, ahead of the organisation's annual summit in Tunis in March.

Tunisian divorcee Latifa counts herself lucky -- she has a modest home that boasts a neat vegetable garden, a fig tree, and a pomegranate tree, along with a panoramic view of neighbouring farmland.