Tunis' working-class districts revolt against police brutality

Protests rocked Tunis' sleepless nights for the fifth day in a row, as anger grew in the North African country over injustice, poverty and oppression.

On Tuesday night, several working-class neighbourhoods in the capital took to the streets protesting police brutality which has allegedly led to the death of a young Tunisian named Malek Salimi. 

Malek Salimi, 24, died last week of his wounds after being chased by police last month.

Tunisia's interior ministry denied allegations of abuse and claimed that Salimi was stopped with his two friends as part of a routine procedure, but he fled and fell from a high wall.

The demonstrations erupted last week in Taddamoun, a working-class neighbourhood in Tunis, where Salimi has lived.

Last night, the protests spread to other working-class districts in the capital such as Al-Zahrouni, Al-Aqaba, and Ibn Khaldun, with protestors setting rubber tires on fire, blocking roads, and throwing stones at security forces.  

The National Guard has reportedly fired gas and sound bombs extensively to disperse the crowds.

Eyewitnesses said the protesters-police hit-and-run continued until the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Over the weekend, the Ministry of Interior said that "a number of intruders participated in the protests for political purposes and to carry out operations of dislocation and theft."

Some activists denied the ministry's “false claims” that aim to "delegitimise" any anti-regime movement.

Meanwhile, thousands of Tunisians demonstrated and a general strike shut down the coastal city of Zarzis Tuesday to demand a renewed search for relatives who went missing during a September migration attempt.

The city has been rocked by days of protests also fuelled by anger over the burial of four people, suspected of being missing Tunisians, in a nearby cemetery for foreign migrants and allegedly without efforts to identify them.

On Monday, President Kais Saied asked Justice Minister Leila Jaffel to open an investigation "so that Tunisians can know the full truth and who was behind these tragedies".

The Tunisian Human Rights League said authorities had "not devoted the necessary resources to search and rescue operations in a timely way" and called for an inquiry into the burials.

Since Saied's power grab last July, political rifts have disrupted the country with right groups saying the birthland of the Arab uprisings of 2011 is moonwalking to its pre-revolution era.

The economic hardship, worsened by the Ukraine war and Saied's moves, drove thousands of Tunisian youth to risk their lives in irregular migration as poverty and unemployment soared in the cash-strapped country.