Floods plunge Tunisia\'s Bou Salem into chaos

Tunisian security forces in action Tunis – Nabil Zaghdoud Demonstrators set a number of government offices on fire, protesting against what they called “government negligence” to floods that have ravaged northwestern Tunisia in recent days. Protesters also??criticised the government\'s inaction in finding a solution to the crisis, stating they were \"too preoccupied with foreign affairs.”
The Tunisian Interior Ministry sent out security reinforcements armed with teargas on Sunday evening to disperse protesters in Bou Salem city in Jendouba governorate, 350 km northwest of Tunis. Demonstrators condemned the government’s negligence of the situation at Bou Salem and the lack of security in the region.
Police detained dozens of protesters after they set fire to government facilities, in an escalation of demonstrations that started with the deterioration of city life due to the floods.
Government sources stated that protesters “sabotaged government offices, the police station, and set the city’s court on fire.They threw rocks at security and burned tyres on the major roads leading to the city.”
Undersecretary of the Interior Ministry Saeed Al-Oushishi stated on state television on Sunday that security forces were still trying to control the situation in Bou Salem.
“Security and joint military forces are pursuing dozens of youth accused of burning public facilities,” he said, accusing unnamed political forces of “using the residents’ anger of the government’s slow intervention to incite violence and sabotage.”
For his part, Interior Minister Ali Larayedh said the “lawlessness which coincided with the floods in the city is fuelled by groups which provoke people in order to worsen the critical conditions and hamper the government’s work.”
Official state media cited a number of citizens saying that political parties interfered in the city’s affairs and tried “to instigate people to organise a popular rally on Monday, but was faced with rejection by most residents who were preoccupied with their crisis and their concerns to get rid of the water and mud, and resume normal lives.”
Protesters are demanding the government speed up water-suction operations and provide necessary supplies to support affected families until radical solutions to the problem are reached.
Military and defence forces have been working on suction and pumping water from houses and neighbourhoods, whereas the Equipment Department in the city has been sweeping mud off roads, in addition to rescuing several families whose houses were flooded by water and their crops destroyed.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali visited Bou Salem on Saturday, by helicopter, to examine the situation in the city and the extent of damage caused by the floods in the past few days.
Jebali met with the Disaster Management Committee to enquire about the situation, and was informed of the steps taken to contain the damage.
He said “saving Bou Salem from floods needs a definitive settlement of the infrastructure problem.”
The Prime Minister, who was accompanied by the Ministers of Interior and Equipment as well as the Secretary of State for Agriculture had to cut his visit short due to the protests.
Jebali assured that the government understood the anger of the citizens and was aware of their expectations, asserting that its priority was to protect human lives.