Reader-watchdog-community member-contributor-content co-creator Colin77 has a good catch in a Times dispatch from Tunis. The Times article says, "Tunisia — the smallest country of North Africa, with a population of 11 million — failed to contain the spread of violence in the months after its revolution."
This makes it sound like Tunisia has the smallest population in North Africa. What the Times is trying to communicate, I think, is that Tunisia has the smallest land area of any North African country, and it has a population of 11 million. Colin77 points out that Libya has a smaller population.