Dozens of police officers have been injured and more than 200 people arrested as wide-scale protests in Tunisia over rising prices and austerity measures entered their fourth day on Thursday, media reports said.

Starting out as peaceful demonstrations last week, the protests turned violent on Monday and Tuesday and have since spilled over to at least four other towns, including the outskirts of the nation’s capital Tunis, Reuters reported.

Tunisia has seen days of street protests against hikes in value-added tax and social security contributions introduced earlier this month as the government grapples with a growing budget deficit and the need to meet its foreign debt obligations.

The authorities have deployed military units to protect government buildings, banks and stores and threatened to clamp down on violent protests some of which have resulted in looting, setting buildings on fire and violent clashes with the police.

"What happened is violence that we cannot accept. The state will remain steadfast," Prime Minister Youssef Chahed warned in a radio address.

​One protester was killed on Monday, but police said they were not responsible. There is no available information about the number of injured protesters.

In the past few years, the North African country has been rocked by massive demonstrations held each January to mark the anniversary of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution that toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

​Despite its relatively smooth democratic transition, Tunisia remains plagued by economic problems, high unemployment and political turbulence that no post-revolution government has been able to resolve.

READ MORE: Protests Against Unemployment, Price Hikes Take Place in Tunisia (PHOTOS)

The 2011 Jasmine Revolution led to a thorough democratization of the country and to free and democratic elections and sparked a wave of similar revolutions across North Africa and the Middle East which have come to be known as the Arab Spring. </s> Tunis: More than 200 people have been arrested and dozens of police hurt during clashes in Tunisia, the interior ministry said Wednesday, as anger over austerity measures spilt over into unrest.

The North African country has been hailed for its relatively smooth democratic transition since a 2011 revolt that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings, but seven years after the revolution, tensions over economic grievances are high.

Tunisia has seen rising anger over hikes in value-added tax and social contributions after a tough new budget was applied at the start of the year.

Interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani told local radio that 49 police officers were wounded during a second night of clashes across the country Tuesday to Wednesday and that 206 "troublemakers" were arrested.

Properties were damaged, he said, including a branch of the Carrefour supermarket chain in a suburb of Tunis that was looted.

After a calm day on Wednesday, residents said demonstrators in the evening took to the streets of Tebourba, a town west of the capital Tunis where a man in his 40s died in unrest on Monday night.

On a visit to a nearby town, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed condemned acts of "vandalism" that "serve the interests of corrupt networks to weaken the state", pointing the finger at a leftist party that called for protests.

Fresh clashes broke out on Wednesday night in the northern town of Siliana, where youths threw stones and molotov cocktails at security forces. Police responded with tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.

There were similar scenes in Kasserine, a town in Tunisia's neglected central region, with protesters burning tires to block roads and some throwing stones at police.

The army has been deployed around banks, post offices and other government buildings in the country's main cities, the defence ministry said.

There have been no figures given for the number of protesters injured in the clashes.

On Tuesday night, hundreds of young people took to the streets of Tebourba for the funeral of the man who died.

Police have insisted they did not kill him. Health Minister Imed Hammami said that results of an autopsy would be made public on Thursday.

Unrest was also reported in the working-class neighbourhoods of Djebel Lahmer and Zahrouni on the outskirts of Tunis, the central cities of Gafsa and Kasserine, and the northern town of Jedaida.

In the central town of Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the protests that sparked the 2011 uprisings, youths blocked roads and hurled stones, and the police retaliated with tear gas, an AFP reporter said.

A representative of Tunisia's Jewish community said two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the entrance to two Talmudic schools on the Mediterranean island of Djerba, but their interiors were not damaged.

The recent unrest started with peaceful protests against the austerity measures last week, but escalated into clashes with police in the night of Monday to Tuesday.

Activists have called for a massive demonstration on Friday against the austerity measures, which are expected to increase the cost of living.

They have demanded a revision of the legislation behind the VAT and social contribution hikes, as well as better welfare for struggling families.

"There are acts of looting and robbery but also a political message from a section of the population that has nothing to lose and feels ignored" seven years after a revolution demanding work and dignity, said political scientist Selim Kharrat.

He said that many public buildings have been targeted while the government has "taken a pretty strong stance against the protesters".

Tunisia's economy has struggled since the 2011 revolution, which was fuelled by unemployment and graft.

Protests are common in the North African state in the month of January, when Tunisians mark the anniversary of the revolt that unseated dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

January 2016 saw the biggest wave of public discontent since the uprising as the death of an unemployed protester in Kasserine sparked days of unrest.

In December, unemployed protesters and activists marched through the streets of Sidi Bouzid, angry over the lack of jobs and opportunities that continue to plague residents.

In a report released on Thursday, conflict analysts International Crisis Group (ICG) warned the country's political class against succumbing to "authoritarian temptation".

While politicians had so far resisted the urge to backtrack on reforms, ICG said "in the context of an economic slump, the nostalgia for a strong state, like the one that the former regime claimed to defend, is spreading".

The revolution in Tunisia began in December 2010 after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and later died in a protest over unemployment and police harassment that spiralled into Ben Ali's overthrow. </s> TUNIS: Tunisian police arrested 237 people, including two Islamists, for attacking police stations and government buildings and for vandalism in anti-government protests, the interior ministry said on Wednesday, as a Jewish school was attacked.

Demonstrations broke out in the North African country on Sunday spreading since then to more than 20 towns as people protest against new tax and price increases imposed by the government on Jan 1 to reduce a ballooning deficit and satisfy foreign lenders.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among the nations where Arab Spring revolts took place in 2011, it has had nine governments since then and none of them have been able to tackle growing economic problems.

Clashes erupted in more than 20 towns late on Tuesday, and some people also hurled petrol bombs at a Jewish school on the southern tourist island of Djerba, home to an ancient Jewish community.

There were no protests in Djerba but locals said the assailants had exploited the fact that there was a reduced security presence as police were busy elsewhere.

"Unknown people took the opportunity of the protests and threw Molotov cocktails into the lobby of a Jewish religious school in Djerba," the head of the local Jewish community, Perez Trabelsi, told Reuters.

Jews have lived in mainly Muslim Tunisia for over 2,000 years, and Djerba is home to Africa's oldest synagogue, which was hit by al Qaeda-linked militants in 2002 in a truck bomb attack that killed 21 people including Western tourists.

About 50 policemen were wounded in clashes and 237 arrested on Tuesday, said interior ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani.

Among the arrested were two radical Islamists who had helped storm a police station in Nefza town, he said. In Tunis, a crowd stormed a Carrefour market.

"Last night criminals looted and burned security centres, 45 police cars were torched and some government offices were attacked," Chibani said.

"They blocked roads and carried out robberies in many cities ... Obviously, these are not protests, but theft and damage to public and private property."

Protests drew in hundreds in each town where demonstrations were staged but they have been smaller than in previous instances since 2011 in Tunisia, where Islamists, secular groups and labour unions have argued over the country's direction.

Public anger has been building since Jan. 1, when the government raised the prices of petrol and other items and hiked taxes on cars, phone calls, internet usage and hotel accommodation as part of those economic reforms.

The Ennahda Islamist party, which rules with secularists, said the government should raise the minimum monthly wage of 357 dinars (£105.8) and give more aid for poor families, joining similar calls by labour unions.

There was no immediate comment from the government.

But in a sign that the public coffers are strained, Taoufik Rajhi, minister of economic reforms, told parliament the state was unable to improve the health sector, infrastructure and education with one of the highest wage bills in the world in terms of the size of the economy.

Parliament approved on Tuesday a bill to offer voluntary redundancies to public service workers, part of the 2018 budget trying to cut the deficit.

The 2011 uprising and two major militant attacks in Tunisia in 2015 damaged foreign investment and tourism, which accounts for 8 percent of its economic activity.

The government says it wants to cut the public sector wage bill to 12.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 from about 15 percent now by offering voluntary redundancies.

But it is also trying to impose higher petrol prices and contributions to social security, which are tough for many people after years of hardship. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption One person has died and hundreds have been arrested in protests in Tunisia

More than 200 people have been arrested across Tunisia during a second night of protests, a government spokesperson has said.

At least 49 police officers were also injured during clashes with demonstrators, the spokesman added.

People had taken to the streets to protest against the government's austerity measures.

This was despite Prime Minister Yousef Chahed's assurances that 2018 would be the last "difficult" year.

He had previously acknowledged that the country was facing extraordinary and difficult times, and promised to end economic hardship.

What is happening in Tunisia?

Protests have taken place in at least 10 different areas in the last few days. One person has died.

The protests began peacefully last week, but escalated on Monday evening.

According to reports, on Tuesday night hundreds of young people gathered in some places, with some throwing rocks, blocking roads and looting, and others torching police cars and attacking government officials, interior ministry spokesperson Khelifa Chibani said.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption People are demanding an end to austerity

Police responded by firing tear gas at the demonstrators. As many as 237 people have been arrested, including two Islamists, news agency Reuters said.

A Jewish school on the island of Djerba was also petrol bombed. It is thought the attackers were taking advantage of police attention being elsewhere. No-one was injured.

The defence ministry said the army is now protecting banks, post offices and other government buildings in Tunisia's main cities.

Why are they protesting?

The anti-austerity demonstrators are demanding the government drop the 2018 budget, which opposition groups describe as "unfair". They also want to see better welfare for Tunisia's struggling families.

The protest comes after the government announced an increase in value-added tax and social contributions in the budget.

The new financial year has also brought with it price hikes on some goods and increased taxes on imports.

One Tunisian told the BBC: "Our demands include, primarily, the scrapping of the 2018 financial law, reducing the prices of essential goods, the reversal of privatisation of state entities…, social security and health coverage for the unemployed, provision of housing for families with a limited income, and a national and strategic plan in the fight against corruption.

"If they do not answer these demands, we will call for the scrapping of parliament."

What is the economic situation in Tunisia?

Tunisia has been struggling with finances since the 2011 revolution, when Zine El Abidine Ben Ali - who ruled for more than 20 years - was forced to flee.

The revolution was sparked by the country's high unemployment rates and worries about corruption.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption January is a common time for protests in Tunisia

Seven years on, and nine governments later, some of those same problems remain - not helped by a number of terrorist attacks which have damaged Tunisia's tourism industry and foreign investment opportunities.

In December 2017, the International Monetary Fund told Tunisia it needed to take "urgent action" and "decisive measures" to reduce its deficit.

It gave the country a $2.9bn loan in 2015.

But Prime Minister Chahed says this will be the last bad year for Tunisians.

"People have to understand that the situation is extraordinary and their country is having difficulties, but we believe that 2018 will be the last difficult year for the Tunisians," he said on Tuesday. </s> More than 300 protesters were arrested overnight, and the army was deployed in several Tunisian cities to quell violent demonstrations over prices, taxes and unemployment that have swept the country.

In Thala, near the Algerian border, troops were sent in after protesters burned down the national security building forcing police to retreat from the town, witnesses told Reuters.

Violent anti-government protests have raged in other towns in the North African country since Monday, among them the tourist resort of Sousse, against price and tax increases imposed by government to cut a ballooning deficit and satisfy international lenders.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among “Arab Spring” nations, it has also had nine governments since the overthrow of authoritarian leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, none of which have been able to deal with growing economic problems.

“Three hundred and thirty people involved in acts of sabotage and robbery were arrested last night,” interior Ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani said bringing the number of detainees since the protests began to around 600.

The army was also deployed in several other cities, including Sousse, Kebeli and Bizert to protect government buildings that have become a target for protesters.

Uprisings in 2011 and two major militant attacks in 2015 damaged foreign investment and tourism, which accounts for much of Tunisia’s economic activity.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Wednesday accused the opposition of fueling dissent by calling for more protests.

On Tuesday, petrol bombs were hurled at a Jewish school on the southern tourist island of Djerba, home to an ancient Jewish community. </s> TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian police arrested 237 people, including two Islamists, for attacking police stations and government buildings and for vandalism in anti-government protests, the interior ministry said on Wednesday, as a Jewish school was attacked.

Demonstrations broke out in the North African country on Sunday spreading since then to more than 20 towns as people protest against new tax and price increases imposed by the government on Jan 1 to reduce a ballooning deficit and satisfy foreign lenders.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among the nations where Arab Spring revolts took place in 2011, it has had nine governments since then and none of them have been able to tackle growing economic problems.

Clashes erupted in more than 20 towns late on Tuesday, and some people also hurled petrol bombs at a Jewish school on the southern tourist island of Djerba, home to an ancient Jewish community.

There were no protests in Djerba but locals said the assailants had exploited the fact that there was a reduced security presence as police were busy elsewhere.

“Unknown people took the opportunity of the protests and threw Molotov cocktails into the lobby of a Jewish religious school in Djerba,” the head of the local Jewish community, Perez Trabelsi, told Reuters.

Jews have lived in mainly Muslim Tunisia for over 2,000 years, and Djerba is home to Africa’s oldest synagogue, which was hit by al Qaeda-linked militants in 2002 in a truck bomb attack that killed 21 people including Western tourists.

About 50 policemen were wounded in clashes and 237 arrested on Tuesday, said interior ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani.

Among the arrested were two radical Islamists who had helped storm a police station in Nefza town, he said. In Tunis, a crowd stormed a Carrefour market.

“Last night criminals looted and burned security centers, 45 police cars were torched and some government offices were attacked,” Chibani said.

“They blocked roads and carried out robberies in many cities ... Obviously, these are not protests, but theft and damage to public and private property.”

Protests drew in hundreds in each town where demonstrations were staged but they have been smaller than in previous instances since 2011 in Tunisia, where Islamists, secular groups and labor unions have argued over the country’s direction.

Public anger has been building since Jan. 1, when the government raised the prices of petrol and other items and hiked taxes on cars, phone calls, internet usage and hotel accommodation as part of those economic reforms.

The Ennahda Islamist party, which rules with secularists, said the government should raise the minimum monthly wage of 357 dinars ($143.17) and give more aid for poor families, joining similar calls by labor unions.

There was no immediate comment from the government.

But in a sign that the public coffers are strained, Taoufik Rajhi, minister of economic reforms, told parliament the state was unable to improve the health sector, infrastructure and education with one of the highest wage bills in the world in terms of the size of the economy.

Parliament approved on Tuesday a bill to offer voluntary redundancies to public service workers, part of the 2018 budget trying to cut the deficit.

The 2011 uprising and two major militant attacks in Tunisia in 2015 damaged foreign investment and tourism, which accounts for 8 percent of its economic activity.

The government says it wants to cut the public sector wage bill to 12.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 from about 15 percent now by offering voluntary redundancies.

But it is also trying to impose higher petrol prices and contributions to social security, which are tough for many people after years of hardship. </s> Over 300 protesters were arrested on Wednesday night and the army was deployed in several Tunisian cities in violent demonstrations over prices, taxes and unemployment that have swept the country. In Thala, near the Algerian border, troops were sent in after protesters burned down the national security building forcing police to retreat from the town, witnesses told Reuters.

Violent anti-government protests have raged in other towns in the North African country since Monday, among them the tourist resort of Sousse, against price and tax rises imposed by government to cut a ballooning deficit and satisfy international lenders.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among "Arab Spring" nations, it has also had nine governments since the overthrow of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, none of which have been able to deal with growing economic problems. "Three hundred and thirty people involved in acts of sabotage and robbery were arrested last night," Interior Ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani said bringing the number of detainees since the protests began to around 600, as reported by Reuters. The army was also deployed in several other cities, including Sousse, Kebeli and Bizerte to protect government buildings that have become a target for protesters.

Uprisings in 2011 and two major militant attacks in 2015 damaged foreign investment and tourism, which account for eight percent of Tunisia's economic activity.Protests are common in the North African state in the month of January, when Tunisians mark the anniversary of the 2011 revolt. The country has been hailed for its relatively smooth democratic transition but seven years after the revolution tensions over economic grievances are high.

Tunisia has seen several days of demonstrations after activists and politicians denounced hikes in value-added tax and social contributions introduced at the start of the year as a tough new budget was implemented.

Tunisia's economy has struggled since the revolution, with growth remaining slow. January 2016 saw the biggest wave of public discontent since the uprising as the death of an unemployed protester in Kasserine sparked days of unrest.

In December, unemployed protesters and activists marched through the streets of Sidi Bouzid, angry over the lack of jobs and opportunities that continue to plague residents. The revolution in Tunisia began in the town in December 2010 after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and later died in a protest over unemployment and police harassment that spiraled into Ben Ali's overthrow.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Wednesday accused the opposition of fueling dissent by calling for more protests.

On Tuesday, petrol bombs were hurled at a Jewish school on the southern tourist island of Djerba, home to an ancient Jewish community. </s> Riot police clash with protesters during demonstrations against rising prices and tax increases, in Tebourba, Tunisia, January 9, 2018. — Reuters picTUNIS, Jan 10 — More than 200 people were arrested and dozens hurt during clashes in several parts of Tunisia, the interior ministry said today, after a second night of unrest driven by anger over austerity measures.

Ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani told local radio that 49 police officers were wounded during clashes across the country and that 206 “troublemakers” were arrested.

Properties were damaged, he said, including a branch of the Carrefour supermarket chain in the suburbs of Tunis that was looted.

Police and army forces were deployed in several cities during the night, including in Tebourba 30 kilometres west of the capital Tunis, where hundreds of young people took to the streets after the funeral of a man in his 40s who died in unrest on Monday night.

Police have insisted they did not kill the man. The results of an autopsy have not been made public.

Unrest was also reported in the southern city of Gafsa, in Kasserine in central Tunisia and in Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the protests that sparked the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Tunisia has seen several days of demonstrations after activists and politicians denounced hikes in value-added tax and social contributions introduced at the start of the year as a tough new budget was implemented.

Protests are common in the North African state in the month of January, when Tunisians mark the anniversary of the 2011 revolt that unseated dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The country has been hailed for its relatively smooth democratic transition but seven years after the revolution tensions over economic grievances are high. — AFP </s> On Monday, a week after the new budget took effect, protests erupted in more than 10 towns across the country.

In Tebourba, an ancient town about 20 miles west of Tunis, the capital, a 45-year-old man, identified by residents as Khomsi el-Yerfeni, died on Monday night during protests at which the police fired tear gas. Witnesses told the news media they believed the man had been struck by a security vehicle, but the Interior Ministry said in a statement that he had had chronic shortness of breath and that his body showed no signs of violence or of having been run over.



The air in Tebourba was still thick with traces of tear gas on Tuesday. Trash bins were overturned. Police officers were out in large numbers.

Akrem, a 27-year-old protester who declined to give his surname because he fears the police, said unemployment and misery were rife in Tebourba. “With 500 dinars a month” — about $200 — “you can’t survive anymore, and our salaries don’t go beyond 400 dinars,” he said.

The minimum wage in Tunisia is about $160 a month, and even a small family would realistically need at least $240 a month to get by, economists say. Inflation is running at more than 6 percent, putting further pressure on household budgets.

In Kasserine, Raja Jassoumi, 33, a project manager with a nonprofit, said people had to be budget-conscious even when buying a loaf of bread, “so when you announce the increase of prices on fuel and other goods, it is the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Khalifa Chibani, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said 44 people had been arrested overnight across the country. He blamed looters for the disorder.

“What happened had nothing to do with democracy and protests against price hikes,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “Yesterday protesters burned down two police stations. They looted shops, banks and damaged property in many cities.”

Tear gas was also fired on protesters in the city of Kasserine. In Sidi Bouzid, the hometown of the Arab Spring, and in Meknassy, a neighboring city, young jobless people have been marching to protest the high cost of living and the lack of jobs. Several people have been arrested in Tunis and in the coastal cities of Sousse and Bizerte.

Protests are hardly new: In November, a mother of five killed herself by setting herself on fire in the town of Sejnane to protest her desperate economic plight. But public anger has festered anew because of the price increases.

On Tuesday in Tunis, young people gathered on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a main boulevard and the site of large protests that in 2011 toppled the dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years.

Many wore T-shirts with the slogan “Manich Msamah” (I Will Not Forgive), an anticorruption movement that began in 2015. Others bore the slogan “What Are We Waiting For?” and the image of a ticking clock.

“Wherever you go, in a shop or in a drugstore, every price is higher,” said Wael Naouar, a protester. “It is impossible for people to live with dignity today.”

Olfa Lamloum, the Tunisia country manager for International Alert, a nonprofit that seeks peaceful resolution to conflicts, said she worried “that we have the same narrative as before the revolution.”

“The protesters in marginalized areas are portrayed by the authorities and mainstream media as looters or criminals,” she said, but they are expressing “a real social despair.”

Safwan M. Masri, the executive vice president for global centers and global development at Columbia University, and author of the book “Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly,” said the new protests were the latest manifestation of an age-old problem: “huge economic disparity between the coastal and interior regions of the country.”

He cited as a precedent bread riots that took place in the country in 1983.

“I.M.F.-mandated structural adjustments ignored such inequalities back in the 1980s, and they do so again now,” he said. “Successive governments have consistently failed to address this issue and to invest in developing the central and southern regions.”

Leila Ghrairi, 51, a civil servant who came to support the protesters in Tunis, said she was not worried about another Arab Spring.

“I don’t think it can lead to a new revolution, because we have still some hope that this kind of protests can start a dialogue with the government,” she said. “But the violence of the police needs to stop.”
More than two hundred people are arrested across Tunisia as protests against economic conditions continue to grip the North African country. At least 49 police officers have been injured during clashes with protesters.