Tunisian police fire tear gas to disperse protests against economic conditions
Tunisian police have fired teargas canisters to disperse hundreds of people protesting against deteriorating economic conditions in two major cities in the North African country.
Violence erupted on Monday, after police clashed with Tunisian protesters who had flocked to streets in the central cities of Thala and Sidi Bouzid against unemployment, high prices and new taxes.
The protesters burned wheels and threw stones at police forces, forcing security personnel to use tear gas to restore calm, according to residents.
According to Tunisian media, a protester was killed and five others were injured in clashes with police forces.
In Sidi Bouzid city, demonstrators carried banners aloft with slogans that denounced high prices.
Small protests against high inflation and taxes took place in the capital Tunis a day earlier.
Six years after the uprising against dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has made progress towards democracy. But successive governments have failed to push through some of the painful reforms needed to overhaul public spending.
The North African country is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its partners to speed up reforms to create jobs and cut its deficit after its tourism sector was hit by militant attacks in 2015.
In an attack on March 18, 2015, two terrorists went on a shooting spree on foreign tourists in the country’s National Bardo Museum, killing 21 foreigners and a police officer before being gunned down by security forces.
On June 26 that year, another armed terrorist gunned down 38 foreign tourists, mostly from Britain, at the Imperial Hotel near the Mediterranean beach resort of Sousse.
Both of the attacks on foreign tourists were later claimed by the Daesh terrorist group, which has mainly been active in Iraq and Syria but which also has a foothold in crisis-hit Libya, Tunisia’s neighbor to the east.
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