Tunisia: social tension in the south of the country

In 2017, protesters blocked a road in the Tataouine region, obtaining promises to hire. Jobs still expected in 2020. REUTERS / Zoubeir Souissi

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Tataouine under tension. This city in the south of Tunisia has just experienced four days of demonstrations and clashes. Protesters demand the implementation of government job promises. The police used force and tear gas to disperse the movement.

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With our correspondent in Tunisia , Michel Picard

"  We want to work! “Chant the young demonstrators who have been gathering for several days in this big city at the gates of the desert. In this region where the unemployment rate exceeds 30%, Lamine, 20, claims a sharing of wealth: "  Tataouine has oil, it has gas, it has all the things, but they give nothing. Everyone here demands work, no more. If they don't give work, why do I live?  "

Broken recruitment promises

In 2017, to end a blockage of the oil fields a little further south, the executive committed to recruit more than 1,500 people in operating companies. Unfulfilled promises that are those of the former government and not of the team in place. An argument that annoys Mohamed Lassiret: "  All of them will say that " it was not I who promised you, it was the former government ". That's not the problem, we are a simple people who kindly ask for work.  "

"  Is that democracy?  "

The movement was, on the first day, strongly repressed. Tear gas and police charges that resulted in 49-year-old Nordine Derza, a double fracture in the leg: “  I am very ill. Is that democracy? Is that human rights? Is that the republican police we have? I’m really shocked, I’m shocked.  "

President Kaïs Saied has promised to receive representatives of the protest movement in the coming days.

► Read also: Maghreb: after the coronavirus, the fear of socio-economic ills

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  • Tunisia
  • Social issues

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