The security forces fired tear gas on Sunday, June 20 in Tataouine in Tunisia to disperse demonstrators demanding jobs and the release of an activist who threw stones at them and blocked roads with burning tires.
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For weeks, a protest movement has been underway in the governorate of Tataouine (south), where protesters have erected tents in several regions and blocked the road to trucks belonging to oil and gas companies located on the El Kamour site, 160 kilometers further, in the middle of the desert.
More details on rising tension in El Kamour:
• The police was deployed yesterday night. They used tear gas massively, affecting non-protesters.
•> 10 arrests among protesters.
• MoI claim that the confrontations btw protesters and cops is a reaction to the arrest of 1 person. pic.twitter.com/WrNnqTyhSH
The demonstrators are demanding the application of an agreement, concluded after months of sit-ins and clashes in 2017, providing for the employment in these companies of thousands of unemployed people in this marginalized region.
It was the arrest on Saturday evening of an activist "wanted by the justice" which started the clashes on Sunday, said the governor of Tataouine, Adel Werghi, on a local radio. This is Tarek Haddad, spokesperson for sit-in coordination.
Protesters blocked roads with burning tires and threw stones at law enforcement who responded with tear gas in the town of Tataouine (500 km south of Tunis), AFP correspondent said. on the spot.
Call for a "general strike"
Interior group press release, group of people "attempted to attack police stations with Molotov cocktails, prompting law enforcement to defend their posts using all legal means ". Ten of these people were arrested, he added.
The 2017 agreement, favored by mediation by the powerful trade union center UGTT, also provides that the state invests 80 million dinars (some 27 million euros) each year in the Tataouine region. What has not been done.
The UGTT branch in Tataouine called in a statement for "a general strike" Monday in the region and said its "refusal to use excessive and unjustified force" against the demonstrators. On Saturday, the union said that "the government has once again broken its promises and lost the confidence" of the residents.
With AFP
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