KASSERINE, Tunisia: Tunisia imposed a nationwide overnight curfew Friday in response to growing unrest over unemployment as protests across the country descended into vandalism in several cities.
The curfew from 8pm until 5am would begin Friday because the attacks on public and private property “represent a danger to the country and its citizens,” the Interior Ministry said. The previous night, police stations came under attack and security officers used tear gas to repel protesters armed with stones and Molotov cocktails.
A young Tunisian who tried to commit suicide is carried by a member of the Tunisian armyIn housing projects on the outskirts of the capital, Tunis, roving groups of young people pillaged a bank and looted stores and warehouses. Picture: AFP
Tunisia’s prime minister, Habib Essid, was cutting short a visit to France to deal with the protests, which were triggered Sunday when a young man who lost out on a government job climbed a transmission tower in protest and was electrocuted. Tunisia’s unemployment stands around 15 per cent, but is 30 per cent among young people.
The father of the unemployed protester whose death has sparked a new wave of unrest says his son was a victim of corruption and “broken promises” five years after the revolution.
An army soldier tries to disperse protesters as he stands guard with his comrades outside the local government office during a protest in Kasserine, Tunisia January 22, 2016. Picture: Reuters
Demonstrators are once again taking to the streets of impoverished central Tunisia, the birthplace of the “Arab Spring”, triggering clashes with security forces in which hundreds have been injured.
The unrest has echoes of the public anger unleashed by the death of a street vendor who set himself on fire in a nearby town in December 2010 in protest at unemployment and police harassment.
That desperate act of defiance provided the spark for the uprising that overthrew longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and inspired revolutions around the region.
Tunisia has been hailed as a beacon of hope compared with other chaos-hit countries like Libya and Egypt, where popular revolts also toppled veteran autocrats.
But its transition has been tested by social unrest over poverty and joblessness as well as by a growing jihadist threat.
‘Prime target for terrorists’
In recent days security forces have used tear gas and water cannon against crowds of hundreds of demonstrators, some of whom burned tyres and threw stones.
The unrest has spread to other parts of the country - including the capital where authorities reported “sacking and pillaging” in one suburb - prompting them to declare a nationwide nighttime curfew.
In the town of Feriana, a policeman died Wednesday during an operation to disperse protesters, the interior ministry said, apparently when his vehicle overturned although the circumstances were unclear.
Yahyaoui wants his son, a graduate in electromechanics, to be recognised by the authorities as a “martyr”, like the 338 victims of a bloody crackdown on the uprising that led to the overthrow of Ben Ali.
“If I don’t get the recognition of my son’s rights, I am ready to sacrifice other members of my family,” said the father of six other boys and two girls.
Since Saturday, Yahyaoui has joined hundreds of others protesting each day in front of the heavily guarded government headquarters in Kasserine, a town of more than 80,000 near the border with Algeria.
One of his other sons, Mehrez, also came holding a picture of his brother, whose death he blamed on “the state’s lack of interest in this region that has been marginalised for decades”.
“The social situation is very difficult,” said the unemployed 36-year-old.
He warned the authorities were driving youths “to the drug trade and terrorism,” alluding to the thousands of Tunisians who have joined jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq and neighbouring Libya.
Such sentiment is widely shared among the youth of Kasserine, where poverty stalks the poorly maintained streets, crowded neighbourhoods and decrepit housing.
“We are a prime target for terrorist groups. We are in such a state of pessimism, disgust and despair that we might even follow the devil to leave this misery,” joked Ibrahim, 24, wearing worn-out shoes.
Tunisia is confronted with rising radical violence that saw a string of attacks last year including at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and the Mediterranean resort of Sousse.
Claimed by the Daesh militant group, those two attacks killed a total of 60 people, all but one of them foreign tourists.
Tunisia has held two general elections since the revolution, and staged its first free presidential polls in December 2014, won by Beji Caid Essebsi.
But Slim, his face half-covered with a scarf as he and dozens of others blocked a road in the city with burning tyres, said Tunisian politicians “have not understood”.
“It’s time to make them understand,” the 27-year-old said.
