Tunisia confirms control over Sidi Bouzid

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Tunisian national army has been able to control the situation in the province of Sidi Bouzid, which witnessed riots on Wednesday, following a spate of family conflicts. During the weekly meeting with representatives from the local press, Brigadier-General Mokhtar Ben Nasser stated: "The situation has returned to normal in every city in Sidi Bouzid, and Hidra in Kasserine”, after the arson attacks and vandalism that gripped the city on Wednesday night which continued into the early hours of Thursday morning, necessitating the intervention of troops, and units of the National Security forces and the National Guard. Official sources said that the riot police, backed by the army, intervened after participants deliberately got involved in the violence, sabotaging a number of public and private properties, including cars and shops, with some rioters breaking into citizens' houses. The forces were able to control the situation after the arrest of dozens of "troublemakers". The Tunisian Ministry of the Interior had announced earlier on Thursday, that the demonstrators attempted to burn a security centre in the city of Kasserine in Hydra province (300km South-West), and stole computers from the municipality. Mohammad Hesham Al-Mu'dab, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, announced that: "200 people, most of them drunk, burned the police station and the Centre for the National Guard, and stole computer equipment from the municipality." Al-Mu'dab added that: "The demonstrations broke out in protest against the killing of the two prisoners, after the fire that started in the prison of Kasserine." Brigadier Mokhtar Ben Nasser pointed out that the situation on the Tunisian-Libyan border was stable. He also mentioned that an average 6 thousand refugees per day had been recorded arriving at Tunisian territory between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, reaching the arrival of a total 7150 refugees, of whom 6850 Libyans had been housed and sheltered refugee camps in Balzhabh and Tataouine.