Man sets self on fire in northeastern Tunisia
A customs officer in Tunisia has lost his life after setting himself on fire in a northeastern city, official sources say.
The 54-year-old man died on Wednesday after suffering “third-degree burns all over his body,” in the northeastern coastal city of Monastir, according to Radhouane Harbi, the director of the Fattouma Bourguiba Hospital’s emergencies unit.
Mongi Belkadhi, the spokesman for civil protection, said the man had sprayed his uniform with petrol and set himself alight outside a hotel in the touristic area of the city.
It was not immediately clear why he burned himself, but a customs official told the local news channel Nessma that the man had been on sick leave and had said he wanted to return to work.
The government department that employed the man has refused to comment on the incident so far.
Back in December 2010, a young fruit seller named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight to death to protest police harassment and unemployment in the central town of Sidi Bouzid.
His action triggered widespread street protests that brought down former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power for over two decades, in 2011.
The success of Tunisia’s revolution led to other revolutions in the same year that ousted autocratic rulers in other Arab states, including Egypt and Libya.
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