Tunisia, January 11: The International Federation for Human Rights says at least 35 people have been killed in violence in the African nation of Tunisia over the weekend.
“We have a list of the names of the 35,” Souhayr Belhassen, the president of the International Federation for Human Rights said on Tuesday, AFP reported.
“The total figure is higher. It’s somewhere around 50, but that’s an estimate,” the president of the Paris-based federation of 164 human rights groups added.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators, as more violence has been reported.
The unrest has been blamed on rising living costs and high levels of unemployment
Massive riots and protests have rocked Tunisia this past month. They were sparked when a 26-year-old street vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December to protest the seizure by police of the farm produce he had been trying to sell to make a living.
In the wake of Bouazizi’s attempted self-immolation, hundreds of thousands took to the North African nation’s streets. The protesters complain of unemployment, economic woes, and an omnipresent dictatorship.
—-Agencies