Tunisia has become the first country in North Africa to launch a locally made satellite.

Challenge One - owned by Tunisian telecom company TelNet - was launched into space Monday on board a Russian Soyuz-2 carrier rocket in Kazakhstan.

The project has been started in 2018 by a group of young Tunisian engineers supported by Tunisian experts based abroad, including a member of the latest Perseverance Nasa mission to Mars.

Tunisia's President Kais Saied hailed the occasion as a source of pride.

"The Tunisian people are ascending to the skies, to great heights... away from their contradictions and struggles, to set off, free, everywhere," he said.