チュニジアで若者ら暴徒化、治安部隊と連夜衝突

【チュニスＡＦＰ＝時事】新型コロナウイルス対策の厳格なロックダウン（都市封鎖）が14日に導入されたチュニジアの複数の都市で、若者らが暴徒化し、3夜連続で治安部隊と衝突している。首都チュニスの外れにあり労働者が多く住む地区エタダメンでは、17日夜も若い男たちが警察に向かって石を投げるなどし、機動隊が催涙ガス弾を発射した。（写真はチュニジア首都チュニス郊外のエタダメンで、治安部隊と衝突する若者たち）
　当局によると、チュニスをはじめ複数の都市で起きている連夜の騒乱で、これまでに数十人の若者が逮捕された。
　ロックダウンが始まった１４日は、ちょうど１０年前に当時のジン・アビディン・ベンアリ大統領の独裁政権が民衆蜂起により倒れた記念日に当たる。だが、エタダメンで政治的なスローガンを叫ぶ者はいない。
　「これは抗議デモじゃない。近隣から集まってきた若い連中が、略奪したり楽しんだりしているだけだ」と、地元住民（２６）は話した。近くのカフェの店員（２８）も、路上で暴れているのは「退屈した若者たち」だと述べた。ただ、この店員は、今回の騒ぎの原因は１０年前の「ジャスミン革命」以降のチュニジアの政治家らにあると批判した。
　革命から１０年が過ぎた今、国民の多くの間では劣悪な公共サービスや、筋の通らない政治家ばかりの政界への怒りが高まっている。チュニジアの国内総生産（ＧＤＰ）は２０２０年に９％減少し、デフレスパイラルに陥る中、若者人口の３分の１は失業状態にある。
　主要産業だった観光業は、２０１５年にイスラム過激派による襲撃事件が相次いだことで苦境に立たされ、新型コロナ流行にとどめを刺された格好だ。新型コロナ危機と不況を受け、国外脱出を目指すチュニジア人が増えている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/01/19-07:54）

Clashes broke out for a third consecutive evening Sunday in several Tunisian cities, pitting stone-throwing youths against security forces despite a tight lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.
In the working-class neighbourhood of Ettadhamen on the edge of the capital Tunis, young men hurled rocks at riot police who responded with volleys of tear gas.
Authorities said they had arrested dozens of young people during consecutive nights of disturbances in the capital and other cities, amid a nationwide anti-coronavirus lockdown imposed since Thursday -- a decade to the day since dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled from power.
But in Ettadhamen, there were no political slogans to be heard.
These aren't protests, it's young people who are coming from nearby neighbourhoods to rob and entertain themselves, said 26-year-old resident Oussama.
A protest would be during the day, faces visible.
Abdelmoneim, a waiter at a nearby cafe, said those in the street were bored adolescents, but blamed the violence on the country's post-revolution political class.
These delinquents are the result of their failure, the 28-year-old said.
- Economic crisis -
From nightfall, young people gathered again on the roofs of houses to lob stones and fireworks at police and national guard officers.
Sirens wailed as a police officer with a megaphone shouted go home!
Nearby, a young man filling his pockets with rocks told AFP: These are for our enemies.
Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Hayouni said earlier Sunday that dozens of young people, mostly aged between 14 and 17, had been arrested after they took to the streets during previous evenings, to loot and vandalise shopfronts and cars.
Videos circulating on social media showed young people burning tyres, insulting the police and looting shops.
Sousse, usually a magnet for foreign holidaymakers but hit hard by the pandemic, also saw rioting.
Tunisia had been under a night-time curfew even before the recent lockdown, a four-day measure meant to expire on Sunday at midnight.
A decade on from the revolution, many Tunisians are increasingly angered by poor public services and a political class that has repeatedly proved unable to govern coherently.
GDP shrank by nine percent last year, consumer prices have spiralled and one third of young people are unemployed.
The key tourism sector, already on its knees after a string of deadly jihadist attacks in 2015, has been dealt a devastating blow by the pandemic.
Tunisia has registered over 177,000 coronavirus cases, including over 5,600 deaths from the disease.
The health crisis and ensuing economic misery have pushed growing numbers of Tunisians to seek to leave the country.
In Ettadhamen on Sunday evening, waiter Abdelmoneim nervously dragged on a cigarette as youths fought police nearby.
I don't see any future here, he said.
He said he was determined to take a boat across the Mediterranean to Europe as soon as possible, and never come back to this miserable place.