Published date: 21 January 2021 16:45 UTC | Last update: 2 months ago
Exactly ten years after the 2011 revolution, Tunisia has seen the resurgence of mass protests in working class areas
Since Friday evening, clashes between the police and young people in working-class areas of Tunis have spread like wildfire (AFP)
The working-class areas were invited to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the day former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled, on 14 January, only to ignite the social unrest which had for months been billed as inevitable.
The government may have hoped to avoid the commemoration of the 2011 events becoming a spark in a powder keg by imposing a four-day, nationwide lockdown, of dubious public health efficacy, to run from Thursday 14 through Monday 18 January – wryly renamed the
Daytime protests in Tunis and other cities have followed night clashes between youth and security forces
Tunisian protesters lift placards and chant during an anti-government demonstration in coastal city of Sfax on 19 January 2021 (AFP) By Published date: 19 January 2021 22:57 UTC | Last update: 2 months 1 week ago
Protesters rallied in Tunisia s capital and other cities on Tuesday against unemployment and corruption, and revived the chant the people want the fall of the regime that rang out a decade ago and led to the ouster of longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Hundreds of people gathered on Bourguiba Avenue in central Tunis while demonstrations took place in towns near Sidi Bouzid, where the 2011 revolution began, after four nights of clashes between stone-throwing youth and security forces.
A growing groundswell of youth unrest, tapping into a well of economic frustration, is sweeping Tunisia and worrying its leadership all the way to the top. It is, after all, the country that triggered the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions.
A third of the North African nation’s young people are unemployed – and many are angry about their stagnant fortunes. For the fifth consecutive day, they took to the streets in violent demonstrations across the country of 11.7 million – from the capital of Tunis, to the cities of Kasserine, Gafsa, Sousse and Monastir.
The protests have led to a muscular response from authorities who fear a repeat of the unrest that led to the removal of strongman President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 10 years ago.
Hundreds arrested on 5th night of violent clashes in Tunisia 2 minutes read
Tunisia, Jan 20 (efe-epa).- Tunisian security forces on Tuesday arrested 432 people across the country after the fifth consecutive night of clashes between youth protesters and police amid a political crisis and anti-coronavirus restrictions that are stifling the economy.
In Ettadhamen, one of the capital’s most populated and marginalized neighborhoods, young people put up barricades and threw stones at the police and the National Guards, who fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.
As a 10-hour curfew began at 8 pm, Prime Minister Hichem Michichi delivered a speech to the nation, in a bid to ease the protests.