Tunisia is rocked by popular protests over the deteriorating social and economic situation, lack of employment, growing poverty and failure to fulfil the goals of the Jasmine revolution, which toppled the authoritarian regime of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. The most violent protests took place in Kasserine, in west central Tunisia, where police used tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators. The self-immolation of a street vendor in Tunisia, late 2010, in protest at police harassment sparked Tunisia’s revolution and the Arab Spring uprisings across the rest of the region. Kasserine was one of the first cities to rise up after the death of the vendor Mohammed Bouazizi. Despite the country’s democratic transition since then, authorities are still struggling to improve poor living conditions in the face of rampant inflation and persistent unemployment.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 27, 2018 13:52 UTC