Tunis | Clashes broke out for the fourth night in a row in several towns in Tunisia, where young people targeted the police mobilized to enforce the curfew linked to the coronavirus pandemic and which responded with tear gas.
In Tunis, a few hundred young people threw stones and a few Molotov cocktails at police officers deployed in force, especially in several popular neighborhoods including the vast city of Ettadhamen located on the outskirts of the capital. The police fired large quantities of tear gas.
In Sfax, the country’s second largest city, protesters set fire to tires and cut roads, an AFP correspondent noted.
Clashes also took place in Gafsa, where residents were protesting against the destruction by the authorities of an informal outlet, another correspondent said.
Clashes also broke out in Kef, Bizerte (north) and Kasserine (center-west), in Sousse and Monastir (center-east), according to local media.
The Interior Ministry, which had announced more than 600 arrests on Monday, was not able at this stage to detail the arrests and damage that occurred during the night of Monday to Tuesday.
These clashes erupted the day after the tenth anniversary of the revolution that ousted Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and his police regime from power, while the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated a deep social crisis in Tunisia.
Tunisia has experienced a four-day general lockdown that ended on Sunday in an attempt to stem an outbreak of COVID-19 cases. An 8 p.m. curfew has been in effect since October.