Mass protests were staged and violence flared up in the city of Ben Guerdane in southeastern Tunisia on Sept. 6, following the killing of Hussein Mansour, a young man who was shot by a Tunisian military patrol on the border with Libya during a hot pursuit of smuggling vehicles coming from Libyan territory to the military buffer zone in southern Tunisia.
Rida al-Najeh, a member of the coalition of civil society groups in Ben Guerdane, told Al-Monitor, “The people are calling for alleviating the punishment measures that now include firing live bullets against smugglers in the military buffer zone. The calls are made in light of the deteriorating situation in the city, which forced young [unemployed] men to break the law and get involved in smuggling activities and cross the buffer zone. The state should have provided these citizens with the appropriate living conditions.”
