Tunisia imposes nationwide curfew
Violence erupts in some cities after growing unrest over unemployment
KASSERINE, TUNISIA— Tunisia imposed a nationwide overnight curfew Friday in response to growing unrest as protests over unemployment across the country descended into violence in some cities.
A curfew from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. has been put into place because the attacks on public and private property “represent a danger to the country and its citizens,” the Interior Ministry said.
On Thursday night, police stations came under attack and security offi- cers used tear gas to repel protesters armed with stones and Molotov cocktails. In a housing project on the outskirts of the capital, Tunis, roving groups of young people pillaged a bank and looted stores and warehouses.
Tunisia’s Prime Minister, Habib Essid, cut 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.
“Are we not Tunisians too? It’s been four years I’ve been struggling. We’re not asking for much, but we’re fighting for our youth. We’ve struggled so much for them,” said Leila Omri, the mother of an unemployed graduate in Kasserine.
Tunisia has been under a state of emergency since a suicide bombing in November killed 12 members of the presidential guard in the heart of Tunis — an attack that capped an unusually violent year for Tunisia. That bombing, as well as deadly attacks earlier in the year against the Bardo museum in Tunis and the tourist beach town of Sousse, were claimed by the Islamic State group.
The suicide five years ago of another unemployed youth set off a popular uprising that overthrew Tunisia’s longtime ruler and eventually gave rise to the “Arab Spring” uprisings across North Africa.
In an interview in Paris just before his government imposed the curfew, Essid denied that the two deaths had a comparable context.
“Tunisia has completely changed from a dictatorship to a young democracy. You know during youth there are periods of adolescence that you have to get through,” he told France 24 television. “We have a difficult job and we are aware of the difficulty.”
Tourism, the main driver of Tunisia’s economy, plummeted after last year’s attacks, leaving even the relatively prosperous coastal areas struggling.