Widespread food and fuel shortages are driving anger on the streets as President Saïed focuses on his authoritarian political project, As police clashed with protestors in Tunis over the weekend of 15-16 October, the IMF announced that it had reached provisional agreement with President Kaïs Saïed s government for a lending programme of US$1.8 billion over four years. But no money will be released until a final accord is put to the IMF board in Washington DC in December. Other lenders are waiting for the IMF deal before they move ahead.
, Patterns in migration from Tunisia have been changing over the past year as part of a surge in informal migration, according to recent research. Previously informal migration was mainly by low-skilled young men, but now it is increasingly middle-class people and families who are eschewing traffickers in favour of other ways to reach Europe, including flying to Serbia, which has no visa requirements for Tunisians.
The Arusha-based African Court rules against President Kaïs Saïed s draconian power grab, Tunisia s opposition leaders have been encouraged by a ruling by the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, the African Union s top court, which stated that President Kaïs Saïed s presidential decrees were illegal and should be immediately nullified.
Opposition parties are touring Europe trying to rally support against the President’s deepening authoritarianism, Having won a referendum, albeit on a low turnout of 30%, for his constitutional reform proposals, President Kaïs Saïed is now planning to consolidate his grip on power in legislative elections due on 17 December.
At their continental summit in Tunis, Japanese diplomats stepped up the financial and rhetorical rivalry with China, Japan s pledge to direct US$30 billion to Africa in aid, loans and investments over the next three years is part of its plan to boost flows to the continent by 40%, its officials said in Tunisia. The $30bn promise was made by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the opening of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) on 27 August as part of a wider bid to win over Africa to the western alliance.