State of emergency extended in Tunisia, 10 years on

A new decree has announced the extension of the state of emergency in Tunisia until the end of January 2026, according to La Presse de Tunisie on 30th December. It was last renewed in January 2025 for another year.

It allows the government and authorities to bypass the judicial system to impose curfews, carry out searches and home arrests, monitor communications and censor media.

The state of emergency was initially declared in 2015, following a terrorist attack in the coastal city of Port el Kantaoui, close to Sousse, during which 38 foreign tourists were killed. The lone gunman, identified as student Seifeddine Rezgui, had reportedly trained in Libya with the Ansar al-Sharia group. This was the biggest terror attack in Tunisia’s recent history, and President Beji Caid Essebsi, in post at the time, responded with what he described as “exceptional measures.”

While it was only declared for 30 days, another attack on a bus carrying security agents attached to the president in Tunis killed 13 in November 2015, after which the state of emergency was reinstated. It has been continuously renewed since then, limiting Tunisians’ right of public assembly and supporting President Kais Saied’s increasingly authoritarian rule. After his election in 2021, he notably dissolved Parliament in 2022, accusing his opponents of an attempted coup and securing his power grab by throwing the country into crisis.

Tunisia has seen a significant tightening of restrictions on freedom of expression in recent years, marked by the arrest of political activists, journalists, lawyers and other public figures viewed as critical of President Kais Saied.

The recent trial of over 40 activists for “conspiracy against the State” has been denounced by human rights agencies such as Human Rights Watch as unfair and politically motivated. The defendants were given exceptionally long jail sentences of up to 45 years, despite the dubious accusations.

Civil society groups have also been relentlessly attacked: another trial targeted a human rights association offering shelter to Sub-Saharan refugees. Similarly, women’s rights groups have been banned under accusations of receiving foreign funding, in an escalation of Saied’s crackdown on any form of perceived dissidence.

La Presse, BBC, Maghrebi.org