Key dates in Tunisia since popular revolt

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Tunisia's "National Dialogue Quartet" for building democracy after the 2011 revolution which unleashed the Arab Spring.

Below are key dates since the uprising that toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

- 2010-2011: Revolution -

On December 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a young university graduate who has only been able to find work as a fruit seller, sets himself alight to protest police harassment and unemployment in the central town of Sidi Bouzid. His act, from which he dies on January 4, unleashes rioting against unemployment and the cost of living, which spreads across the country and takes on a political dimension. Some 338 are killed. On January 14, 2011, thousands protest in Tunis and in the regions calling on Ben Ali to step down. He flees to Saudi Arabia, after 23 years in power, becoming the first Arab leader to quit under popular pressure.

- 2011: Islamists win election -

On October 23, Islamist group Ennahda, legalised in March, wins 89 of the 217 seats in a new constituent assembly after Tunisia's first free election. In December the assembly elects ex-opposition leader Moncef Marzouki as president. Hamadi Jebali, Ennahda's number two, is charged with forming a government.

- 2012: Radical Islamist attacks -

In June, and then in August, violent demonstrations and attacks by Islamists erupt. On September 14 four attackers are killed in clashes at the US embassy amid protests by hundreds over an anti-Islam film. From November 27 to December 1 riots break out in Siliana, to the southwest of Tunis, in which 300 are injured. Since the summer sometimes violent strikes and demonstrations have affected industry, public services and transport and businesses. As during the time of the revolution, it is in the interior regions, economically sidelined, that the unrest is focused.

- 2013: Opposition leaders killed -

On February 6 prominent anti-Islamist opposition leader Chokri Belaid is shot dead in Tunis, sparking deadly protests and a political crisis. On July 25, leftist opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi is also shot dead, near to the capital. In December 2014 jihadists claim both killings. On July 29 eight soldiers are killed in an ambush in the Mount Chaambi area near Algeria where Tunisian forces have been hunting an Al-Qaeda-linked group since December, 2012. Authorities say a sharp rise in Islamist militancy has since killed about 60 security personnel.

- 2014: First free presidential poll -

On January 26, lawmakers adopt a new constitution after two years of turmoil which exposed a deep rift between Ennahda and the secular opposition. A government of independents, led by Mehdi Jomaa and tasked with steering Tunisia to fresh elections, is sworn in, replacing the Islamist-led administration. On October 26, the secular Nidaa Tounes party led by Beji Caid Essebsi comes top in legislative polls conceded by Ennahda, winning 86 of 217 parliamentary seats. On December 21, Essebsi defeats Marzouki in Tunisia's first free presidential election.

- 2015: Carnage in Tunis museum -

On March 18, 21 tourists and a policeman are killed as gunmen assail Tunis' Bardo museum, in the first attack on foreigners since the revolution. On June 26, the target is the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Port el Kantaoui, south of Tunis, where an attack kills 38 foreign tourists, including 30 from Britain. The Islamic State (IS) claims responsibility for both attacks. A state of emergency that was announced on July 4 is lifted on October 2. In the meantime, the parliament approved on July 25 an "anti-terror" law that includes the death penalty for "terrorist" crimes.

Source: AFP