Tunisia dismisses security leaders

The Tunisian Ministry of Interior yesterday announced its decision to dismiss the director general of the Border Guard and a number of security officials in Zarzis, southeast Tunisia.

The ministry said in a statement that these dismissals come “as a result of the visit of the President of the Republic, Kais Saied, to the General Administration of the National Guard in El-Awaina yesterday, January 31.” It did not give reasons for the dismissals.

Saied visited the National Guard barracks in El-Awaina on Tuesday evening, in an unannounced visit, and stopped at the site where a secret migration boat to Italy carrying 18 citizens from Zarzis sank last September.

READ: Tunisia: defence team claims falsification in charges against ex-PM

Saied said that there are many indications that the “tragedy of Zarzis” was deliberate and that its victims were, once again, the miserable and the poor, as he put it. He added that afterwards, money was transferred from abroad to inflame the situation in Zarzis.

He noted that the boat was punctured, stressing that “whoever masterminded the operation is the one who drowned them,” stressing that “they took 200,000 dinars ($66,000), which were spent to inflame the situation, and dig up the bodies from their graves.”

The President also stressed that “the real criminals must be brought to justice.”

READ: Tunisia: Trade unionist charged with disrupting public services after calling for strike