Tunisia seeks to stem wave of night-time riots
TUNIS: Tunisia saw angry daytime protests against the government on Tuesday, following four nights of confrontations between police and disaffected youths that has lead to hundreds of arrests.
Defying movement restrictions aimed at reining in spiralling novel coronavirus infections, students and activists flocked to a key boulevard in Tunis, shouting slogans against poverty, corruption and police repression.
“There’s despair everywhere. The virus comes on top of poverty and unemployment. Ten years (since the revolution), our demands still haven’t been met,” said Donia Mejri, a 21-year-old student.
Protests in Tunis and the coastal city of Sfax, organised via social media, came after nights of rioting with young people lobbing rocks at police in exchange for teargas, and more than 600 people arrested by Monday.
“The crisis is real and the anger is legitimate and so are the protests, but the violence is unacceptable and we will confront it with the force of law,” Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said in a televised speech on Tuesday night, after protests appeared to have died down.
Much of the unrest has hit working class neighbourhoods, where anger is boiling over soaring unemployment and a political class accused of having failed to deliver good governance a decade on from the 2011 revolution.
President Kais Saied urged young Tunisians to refrain from further violence even as social media posts called for new rallies.
Tunisia’s divided political leadership has stayed largely silent on the protests by youths dismissed by many commentators as “delinquents”.
Messages posted online Tuesday called for protests to keep going, and activists warned demonstrations were likely to continue until major action was taken to address the root cause of anger.