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Tunisia: Nationwide Curfew In Place After Unemployment Protests

Tunisia is under a curfew again just five years after the Jasmine Revolution which ousted the old corrupt regime of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2015 and started the so called Arab Spring. Unemployment protests have spread nationwide and become violent, resulting in a nationwide curfew being imposed by the authorities to curb growing social unrest. Al Jazeera English YouTube video: Protests over unemployment rates and the economy had intensified and spread to several cities including the capital. Press TV reports: Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said on Friday that the curfew will begin overnight, warning that those who disobey the decision would risk prosecution. The unrest was triggered on January 17, when a young man who had reportedly been sacked from his government job protested by climbing a transmission tower and was electrocuted. Since the beginning of this week, people have held demonstrations against unemployment and poverty across towns in central Tunisia. The hotbed of the protests has been the city of Kasserine, where clashes erupted for the first time between police and protesters earlier in the week. “In light of these attacks against public and private property, and given that the continuation of these acts represents a danger to the [...]