Tunisia, 10 years after the Arab Spring

It has been 10 springs since January 2011, when crowds of young people took to the streets to protest against the regime's oppression in the hope of building a more democratic country. The news of the suicide of a young street fruit vendor who burned himself to death in front of the municipal building on 17 December 2020, as a protest, shook the social networks.

The fruit seller, Mohamed Bouazizi, was only 27 years old and became the "first martyr of the revolution". But this young man is just a simple example of how fed up the Tunisian population was. Buazizi's death sparked a series of protests, which had been building for many years.

Social networks were the great ally of this struggle, which finally ended with the overthrow of Ben Ali. A halo of hope covered Tunisia, and the country's desire for change and reforms heralded a future towards a more prosperous country, but 10 years later many are feeling disappointed, as the promised changes have not come about.

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this revolution, hundreds of young people have once again taken to the streets to protest against the government's inaction, in a very different scenario to that of 2011, amidst severe restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Clashes between the demonstrators and the police are taking place for the fourth night in a row in several towns in Tunisia. Many Tunisians are increasingly fed up with the government's management of poor public services and a political class that has repeatedly proved incapable of governing coherently.

Younger people are once again the protagonists of these revolts, but in the absence of a clear programme, political leadership or the support of the main parties, it is not clear whether the demonstrations will gain momentum or die down, as many previous protests have done since 2011.

A few hundred young people have been involved during the protests in clashes with the authorities by throwing stones and some Molotov cocktails at the police officers deployed in the area, especially in several popular neighbourhoods, including the big city of Ettadhamen, located on the outskirts of the capital. The Ministry of the Interior, which had announced more than 600 arrests on Monday, was unable on this occasion to detail the arrests and damage that occurred during the night of Monday to Tuesday.

For its part, Amnesty International has called for restraint. The organisation referred to images showing officers beating and dragging those they had arrested and called on the authorities to immediately release Hamza Nassri Jeridi, a human rights activist arrested during the riots.

Tunisia is in the midst of a deep economic crisis, further aggravated by the pandemic. GDP fell by 9% last year, prices have skyrocketed and a third of young people are unemployed. In addition, the tourism sector has been devastated by the pandemic.

The African country has reported over 177,000 cases of coronavirus and 5,600 deaths. The health crisis and the resulting economic misery have pushed an increasing number of Tunisians to leave the country.