Tunisia Extends State of Emergency

Tunisia made the decision to extend the country’s state of emergency for another month on September 17. The nation has now been in a state of emergency for 11 months.In 2011, Tunisians ousted their president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in favor of democratic elections.

The Carthage Room inside the National Bardo Museum in Tunis where a 2015 terrorist attack took place.

Although Tunisia has been more successful than Egypt, Libya, and Syria in holding democratic elections and avoiding prolonged violence, the country still faces the threat of violence.

On March 18, 2015, a terrorist attack targeted the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, killing 22 people. A shooter took the lives of 38 people on a beach at Sousse on June 26, 2015. Although the government initially blamed the Katibat Uqba Ibn Nafi, an affiliate of al-Qaeda of Algerian and Tunisian factions, ISIS has claimed responsibility for these two attacks. These attacks remain among the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.

The government declared a state of emergency in November 2015 after a suicide bombing in Tunis that killed 12 members of the Presidential Guard. The laws of a state of emergency allow authorities to suspend the right to assembly if a strike or meeting is seen to “provoke or maintain disorder.” Additionally, army reserves were called in to patrol tourist sites such as beaches.

This series of violence coincides with a change in government. In August, Youssef Chahed was named prime minister and approved by Parliament. The incumbent, Habib Essid, was voted out by parliament due to his poor handling of economic and security issues. “The worst thing for this country is the government changing every year or year and a half,” Essid said. The new government has already placed security near the top of its agenda, but it still has a long road of hardships to deal with, including unemployment, poverty, corruption, and falling revenues from tourism.