Today in Tunis

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January 19, 2021 Still tension in Tunis and throughout the country.

Along Avenue Habib Bourguiba, in the center of the capital, a symbolic place of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution, the security forces dispersed a demonstration called on social media with tear gas and in which hundreds of young people took part who asked for the release of the arrested people during the riots of the last few nights.



And not only that, scuffles were experienced when the group tried to approach the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior where the police * massively deployed - had forbidden to approach the procession of the families of martyrs and wounded of the revolution who are asking for a long time the publication in the official gazette of the list of martyrs. 



Last night - the fourth in a row - was again the scene of clashes and unrest between young demonstrators and security forces throughout the country: in Citè Ettadhamen, Mnihla, La Manouba, the popular suburbs of the capital, Kram but also Beja, Kasserine, Biserta , Sfax, Sousse and Monastir, Kef.

Violence, looting, tire fires, stone-throwing by young and very young people who saw the intervention of the police and extensive use of tear gas: 632 arrests, mainly young people, many of them minors, on charges of vandalism.



The Ministry of the Interior has in fact ruled out political motivations in the behavior of these young and very young people, declaring that their main purpose is the looting of other people's property and assets.  



"The acts of vandalism and looting of public goods have no relation to the protest movements or the constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully", said the Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi on the sidelines of a meeting with the leaders of internal security, specifying that the executive "only dialogues with peaceful demonstrators in coordination with civil society partners in order to find solutions capable of responding to citizens' claims".

The premier also lashed out against the calls for chaos launched in recent days on social media by announcing sanctions for such behavior.

"These nocturnal incidents are not innocent," Mechichi said again.