{"id":34478,"date":"2017-05-10T17:39:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T17:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/tunisia-orders-army-to-protect-oil-and-gas-fields\/"},"modified":"2017-05-10T17:39:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T17:39:43","slug":"tunisia-orders-army-to-protect-oil-and-gas-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/tunisia-orders-army-to-protect-oil-and-gas-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia orders army to protect oil and gas fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Troops’ deployment comes after protests erupt at industrial sites amid growing discontent over bad economic conditions.}<\/p>\n

Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi has ordered the army to protect the output of the country’s main resources following a wave of protests over unemployment and worsening economic conditions. <\/p>\n

It is the first time that troops in Tunisia were deployed to guard industrial installations, including phosphate, gas and oil production facilities, that are key to the national economy.<\/p>\n

“It is a serious decision, but it must be applied to protect our resources,” Essebsi said on Wednesday in a speech to the nation.<\/p>\n

“Our democratic path has become threatened and law must be applied but we will respect freedoms.”<\/p>\n

Since the 2011 revolution, Tunisia’s democracy has advanced with free elections and a new constitution. Yet, the government has faced growing social discontent over the economy, especially in inland regions.<\/p>\n

Protesters have often staged strikes and sit-ins that block access to production sites, costing the state billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Tunisia is trying to enact sensitive reforms to help growth, but many unemployed youth in the marginalised south still feel they have gained few opportunities.<\/p>\n

For several weeks, about 1,000 protesters in Tatouine province, where Italy’s ENI and Austria’s OMV have gas operations, have been demanding jobs and a share in revenue for the area’s natural resources.<\/p>\n

Protests have also broken out in another southern province, Kebili.<\/p>\n

Demonstrations that hit the phosphate sector in past years cost the country more than $2bn, according to officials. But production there has returned to the highest levels since 2010 after officials negotiated deals with protesters.<\/p>\n

Tourism, another key earner for the government accounting for about eight percent of the economy, was badly hit by two attacks on foreigners in 2015.<\/p>\n

Bookings, however, are returning and officials expected 30 percent tourism growth this year.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Troops’ deployment comes after protests erupt at industrial sites amid growing discontent over bad economic conditions.} Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi has ordered the army to protect the output of the country’s main resources following a wave of protests over unemployment and worsening economic conditions. It is the first time that troops in Tunisia were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-34478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34478"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=34478"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=34478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}