Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid pleaded on Saturday, January 23, for people to be “patient” after a wave of protests against poverty and unemployment in the worst social unrest since the 2011 revolution.
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The unrest spread around the country, including to Tunis, where shops were burnt and looted in one suburb, prompting the interior ministry on Friday to impose a 8:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew.
The previous night police stations came under attack and security officers used tear gas to repel protesters armed with stones and Molotov cocktails.
Unemployment rates in Tunisia are estimated to have reached around 15 per cent against 12 per cent in 2010. “We’ve been warning that the social situation was explosive”, said Abderrahman Hedhili of the Tunisian Forum For Economic and Social Rights.
“I’ve been out of work for 13 years and I am a qualified technician”.
“We want work, nothing less, nothing more”, said one of the unemployed youths, Rafik Nasri.
Tunisia’s 2011 “Arab Spring” uprising was sparked when a struggling young market vendor committed suicide, unleashing a tide of anger among the young unemployed that eventually forced Ben Ali to step down and flee the country.
Ridha Yahyaoui, 28, was protesting because his name was removed from a list of potential recruits for coveted public sector jobs.
France is offering 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in aid to Tunisia, including aid to regions where young people are struggling.
The protests were concentrated in Kasserine governorate, particularly in Kasserine city, Thala, and Hidra, although demonstrations were also reported in Sidi Bouzid and Tunis.
At least one policeman has been killed in four days of riots over jobs and economic conditions that amount to one of the most sustained tests to Tunisia’s stability since the revolt that toppled autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
In the face of the unrest, Prime Minister Habib Essid cut short a European tour to return home on Thursday. But multiple terror attacks in 2015, claimed by the Islamic State group, have caused incalculable damage to a North African economy heavily dependent upon tourism.
“We stand with peaceful protesters, but other acts – violence against public and private property – will be severely punished”, Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman Walid Louguini said, adding that those looting the banks and businesses were “criminals trying to take advantage of the situation”.
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And in Kasserine, protesters said the government needed to do far more to win their trust. “We don’t have a magic wand”. “We have a hard job and we are aware of the difficulty”.
