Tunisians protest against wall border with Libya

Plans to build a sand wall barrier on the Tunisian-Libyan border have been met by defiance from the residents of Tunisia’s Bin Qirdan state, which lies near the borders with Libya. The region is witnessing a state of tension that has manifested itself in various forms, from public meetings and statements calling for the immediate suspension of the building of the wall barrier, to protests that blocked off the roads between Bin Qirdan and Ras Gadeer to prevent lorries from transporting goods to Libya.

A Tunisian official source said on Tuesday that a number of protesters forced two lorries loaded with salt intended for the commercial port in Zarzis to unload it on the road. This was by the residents of Bin Qirdan to protest against the government’s commencement of building the barrier wall along 220 kilometres of the border between Tunisia and Libya.

In addition to blocking off the road with salt, Libyan lorries loading goods on their way to Libya were prevented from passing in reaction to what was described by Bin Qirdan civil society as a “unilateral governmental decision that will deepen the marginalisation and the restrictions on livelihoods in the absence of developmental alternatives.”