TUNIS — Tunisian
police fired tear gas on protesters on Tuesday after hundreds tried to storm a
government headquarters in the southern city of Tataouine to protest against
the government’s failure to provide jobs, witnesses said.
اضافة اعلان
Protesters are
calling on the government to implement a 2017 deal to create jobs in oil
companies and infrastructure projects to reduce unemployment now running at 30
percent in the region, one of the highest rates in Tunisia.
The protests
increase pressure on the government, which is suffering a political crisis from
a power struggle between Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and President Kais
Saied. Tunisia saw violent protests in January and February but had been
comparatively quiet in March.
Tuesday’s
protesters tried to enter to the government building to stage a sit-in and
demand the resignation of the governor, but police blocked them, used tear gas
to disburse them, and pursued them in the streets.
Witnesses reached
by telephone said protesters threw stones at police and burned tires.
Tunisia was the
only country to emerge with a democracy from the “Arab Spring” revolts that
swept North Africa and the Middle East in 2011. But a decade after a popular
revolution ended Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s autocratic rule, the country is
still struggling to deliver economic opportunities to young people,
particularly in deprived regions such as Tataouine.
In 2017, protests
over a lack of jobs in Tataouine and Kebili provinces hit oil and natural gas
production in a region where French firm Perenco and Austria’s OMV operate.
That led to a deal promising jobs in oil and development projects, but
protesters say it has not been implemented.
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