Tunisia: death of a footballer who set himself on fire

April 15, 2023

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Tunisia: death of a footballer who set himself on fire A Tunisian professional footballer died after setting himself on fire earlier this week to protest against the "police state" following a hassle with the police, his brother said on Friday. Nizar Issaoui , 35, who was without a club after playing for several elite and lower division teams, set himself on fire on Monday in the town of Haffouz in the Kairouan region (center). In a message posted on his Facebook page before taking action, Nizar Issaoui said he had decided to condemn himself "to death by fire" . "I have no more energy, let the police state know that the sentence will be carried out today ," he added. His gesture is reminiscent of that of Mohamed Bouazizi , the traveling salesman who set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, triggering the Tunisian revolution that ended the reign of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali during the first Arab Spring revolt which then spread to other countries in the region. According to Tunisian media, Nizar Issaoui intended to protest against the police after being accused of "terrorism" when he went to the station to file a complaint against a fruit merchant who sold bananas at ten dinars (3 euros) per kilo , i.e. double the price set by the authorities to combat speculation in a context of shortages. A video circulating on social networks shows Nizar Issaoui filming himself with his phone, screaming: "for an argument with a person selling bananas at 10 dinars, I am accused of terrorism at the post. Terrorism for a banana business" . Initially hospitalized in Kairouan, Nizar Issaoui, who suffered third-degree burns, was then transferred to the burns hospital in Tunis. "He died last night and will be buried today," his brother, Ryad Issaoui , told AFP . According to Tunisian media, after the announcement of his death Thursday evening, clashes took place in the locality of Haffouz between young demonstrators throwing stones and police who fired tear gas to disperse them. Ethiopia: new population displacements in Tigray Forces from Ethiopia's Amhara region have displaced tens of thousands of Tigrayans from disputed territories in the north of the country in recent weeks, despite a peace deal reached late last year, aid workers say and internal agency documents seen by the AP. The Mai Tsebri region in northwestern Tigray is close to the regional border with Amhara . It changed hands several times during the war, which broke out in 2020 and ended with a ceasefire in November. The Amhara people claim the area as their own. Since the start of March, some 47,000 people uprooted from Mai Tsebri have moved to Endabaguna , a town some 55 km further north, according to United Nations figures seen by the AP on Thursday. Another report, prepared by a humanitarian agency, said residents fled Mai Tsebri due to "harassment, ethnic profiling and direct threats" from irregular Amhara forces who also carried out "evictions" . This report adds that there have been no aid deliveries to Endabaguna since the displaced people started arriving. As a result, they are "on the brink of starvation" . Displaced people in Endabaguna are housed in a reception center originally built by the United Nations and the Ethiopian government for refugees from Eritrea , a country bordering Tigray. The site was badly damaged during the war. An aid worker who recently visited the center said conditions there were "very bad" and the number of people was "increasing day by day" . "The roof and the pipes are damaged, there are no toilets or latrines, the doors and windows of the rooms have been looted (or) damaged, and there is no adequate water supply" , said the aid worker. A second aid worker said many people recently uprooted from Mai Tsebri were displaced for the second time, having already been driven from their homes in the western part of Tigray. Amhara forces annexed western Tigray early in the war. They are accused of "ethnic cleansing" by the US State Department after forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans from the region. Under the recent ceasefire, aid deliveries to Tigray have resumed after two years of restrictions. However, aid workers say Amhara forces continued to block food distribution around Mai Tsebri, and residents reported killings. Mai Tsebri resident Teferi Muley said he fled the area in November after being threatened by Amhara troops, who accused him of helping Tigray rebels . He said he returned in March to the nearby village of Haida, where he witnessed the killing of several artisanal gold miners by Amhara troops. Last week, the Ethiopian government said it planned to integrate security forces from the 11 federal regions into the national army or police. This decision provoked a wave of protests in the Amhara region, as well as firefights between the federal army and the regional Amhara units which refused to disarm. Aid officials say the upheaval is likely to lead to increased displacement for Mai Tsebri, which already averages 150 households per day, according to another aid agency's assessment. Chad: refugees and displaced persons soon deprived of food aid? In Chad, the world food program has dried up and urgently needs additional funds from donor countries. Otherwise, it could stop aid to the hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced people from May. The alert was issued on Friday. "2023 is another very difficult year, we have absolutely no funding from May for refugees and displaced people. It's really catastrophic," explains Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director, Chad. The agency needs for the next six months, 142.7 million dollars to continue its assistance to refugees; displaced persons and Chadians who are victims of climate change. “We did receive additional funding in 2022, but the needs were too great, because you have to add the two million Chadians who are suffering from serial food insecurity during the lean season, plus another 300,000 people who have been affected. by the floods, and our resources were overstretched,” said Pierre Honnorat. Already in April, the WFP had reduced the number of refugees receiving assistance from 455,600 to 270,000. According to figures released Friday by the WFP, Chad has 583,400 registered refugees and 381,000 internally displaced persons. Senegal: a gas project plunges fishermen into despair For years, residents of the small fishing town of Saint-Louis, Senegal, have been struggling. Climate change, foreign industrial trawlers and the COVID-19 pandemic have made life on the water difficult. When authorities announced a new gas project off the coast in 2015, the community hoped it would bring new opportunities. Instead, many locals say the gas only brought a wave of trouble and drove people to despair. Some women have even been forced into prostitution to support their families, they told The Associated Press in interviews. Four women who told their stories said they started sex work because their husbands, all fishermen, could no longer earn a living since the gas market came to town and the rig restricted access to fertile fishing grounds, locally known as diattara. The women all said they knew several other women in the same situation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because their families do not know what they are doing. Prostitution is legal in Senegal, but women do not want to register, citing cultural shame. For them, prostitution is faster and more reliable than working in a shop or restaurant - jobs that don't pay well and can be hard to find. The deal – planned by a partnership between global oil and gas giants BP and Kosmos Energy , and state oil companies in Senegal and Mauritania – is expected to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year, enough to sustain production for more than 20 years, gas companies say. The government and companies say they are engaging with fishing communities in Senegal and Mauritania and trying to benefit the wider economy by sourcing locally, developing the workforce working and supporting sustainable development. According to BP, more than 3,000 jobs have been created in Senegal and Mauritania in some 350 local companies. The company also cited its work in renovating the maternity ward at Saint-Louis Hospital and helping 1,000 patients through a mobile clinic operating in remote areas. In a statement to AP, Kosmos spokesman Thomas Golembeski said the project will provide a low-cost source of natural gas and expand access to reliable, affordable and cleaner energy. He also mentioned access to a micro-finance credit fund created for the fishing community. "I'm praying this stops, because it's not what I want to do from the bottom of my heart. I'm doing this for my children," one mother told AP, her shoulders hunched and her voice weary, in a hotel room where she will not be seen by her husband or her friends. Traditionally, many women earn their living by processing fish, while men catch it; sons, husbands and fathers spend weeks at sea. Sons, husbands and fathers spend weeks at sea. But with the restrictions, families have been unable to feed their children or pay their rent. In some cases, families have had to withdraw their children from school or transfer them from a private school to a public school where teachers do not show up for several days. BP and Kosmos did not respond to questions about female prostitution. They also failed to answer the question of whether they stood by their original risk assessment of the project, which acknowledged in a 2019 environmental and social impact assessment that there were "many 'uncertainties regarding the consequences for the fishermen of Saint-Louis", but that they still considered that the intensity of the impact was low. The local government said people's concerns about the platform were overblown and the community should be patient, at least until the end of production, which is expected to start by the end of the year. Papa Samba Ba, director of hydrocarbons at Senegal's petroleum and energy ministry, said the goal was that by 2035, half of gas projects would be outsourced to local companies and services. Local authorities have acknowledged an increase in prostitution in St. Louis, but they attribute it to economic hardship and widespread poverty in general, not directly to the gas project.

A Tunisian professional footballer died after setting himself on fire earlier this week to protest against the "police state" following a hassle with the police, his brother said on Friday.

Nizar Issaoui , 35, who was without a club after playing for several elite and lower division teams, set himself on fire on Monday in the town of Haffouz in the Kairouan region (center).

In a message posted on his Facebook page before taking action, Nizar Issaoui said he had decided to condemn himself "to death by fire" . "I have no more energy, let the police state know that the sentence will be carried out today ," he added.

His gesture is reminiscent of that of Mohamed Bouazizi , the traveling salesman who set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, triggering the Tunisian revolution that ended the reign of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali during the first Arab Spring revolt which then spread to other countries in the region.

According to Tunisian media, Nizar Issaoui intended to protest against the police after being accused of "terrorism" when he went to the station to file a complaint against a fruit merchant who sold bananas at ten dinars (3 euros) per kilo , i.e. double the price set by the authorities to combat speculation in a context of shortages.

A video circulating on social networks shows Nizar Issaoui filming himself with his phone, screaming: "for an argument with a person selling bananas at 10 dinars, I am accused of terrorism at the post. Terrorism for a banana business" .

Initially hospitalized in Kairouan, Nizar Issaoui, who suffered third-degree burns, was then transferred to the burns hospital in Tunis. "He died last night and will be buried today," his brother, Ryad Issaoui , told AFP .

According to Tunisian media, after the announcement of his death Thursday evening, clashes took place in the locality of Haffouz between young demonstrators throwing stones and police who fired tear gas to disperse them.

Ethiopia: new population displacements in Tigray

Forces from Ethiopia's Amhara region have displaced tens of thousands of Tigrayans from disputed territories in the north of the country in recent weeks, despite a peace deal reached late last year, aid workers say and internal agency documents seen by the AP.

The Mai Tsebri region in northwestern Tigray is close to the regional border with Amhara . It changed hands several times during the war, which broke out in 2020 and ended with a ceasefire in November. The Amhara people claim the area as their own.

Since the start of March, some 47,000 people uprooted from Mai Tsebri have moved to Endabaguna , a town some 55 km further north, according to United Nations figures seen by the AP on Thursday.

Another report, prepared by a humanitarian agency, said residents fled Mai Tsebri due to "harassment, ethnic profiling and direct threats" from irregular Amhara forces who also carried out "evictions" .

This report adds that there have been no aid deliveries to Endabaguna since the displaced people started arriving. As a result, they are "on the brink of starvation" .

Displaced people in Endabaguna are housed in a reception center originally built by the United Nations and the Ethiopian government for refugees from Eritrea , a country bordering Tigray. The site was badly damaged during the war.

An aid worker who recently visited the center said conditions there were "very bad" and the number of people was "increasing day by day" .

"The roof and the pipes are damaged, there are no toilets or latrines, the doors and windows of the rooms have been looted (or) damaged, and there is no adequate water supply" , said the aid worker.

A second aid worker said many people recently uprooted from Mai Tsebri were displaced for the second time, having already been driven from their homes in the western part of Tigray.

Amhara forces annexed western Tigray early in the war. They are accused of "ethnic cleansing" by the US State Department after forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans from the region.

Under the recent ceasefire, aid deliveries to Tigray have resumed after two years of restrictions. However, aid workers say Amhara forces continued to block food distribution around Mai Tsebri, and residents reported killings.

Mai Tsebri resident Teferi Muley said he fled the area in November after being threatened by Amhara troops, who accused him of helping Tigray rebels . He said he returned in March to the nearby village of Haida, where he witnessed the killing of several artisanal gold miners by Amhara troops.

Last week, the Ethiopian government said it planned to integrate security forces from the 11 federal regions into the national army or police. This decision provoked a wave of protests in the Amhara region, as well as firefights between the federal army and the regional Amhara units which refused to disarm.

Aid officials say the upheaval is likely to lead to increased displacement for Mai Tsebri, which already averages 150 households per day, according to another aid agency's assessment.

Chad: refugees and displaced persons soon deprived of food aid?

In Chad, the world food program has dried up and urgently needs additional funds from donor countries. Otherwise, it could stop aid to the hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced people from May. The alert was issued on Friday.

"2023 is another very difficult year, we have absolutely no funding from May for refugees and displaced people. It's really catastrophic," explains Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director, Chad.

The agency needs for the next six months, 142.7 million dollars to continue its assistance to refugees; displaced persons and Chadians who are victims of climate change.

“We did receive additional funding in 2022, but the needs were too great, because you have to add the two million Chadians who are suffering from serial food insecurity during the lean season, plus another 300,000 people who have been affected. by the floods, and our resources were overstretched,” said Pierre Honnorat.

Already in April, the WFP had reduced the number of refugees receiving assistance from 455,600 to 270,000.

According to figures released Friday by the WFP, Chad has 583,400 registered refugees and 381,000 internally displaced persons.

Senegal: a gas project plunges fishermen into despair

For years, residents of the small fishing town of Saint-Louis, Senegal, have been struggling. Climate change, foreign industrial trawlers and the COVID-19 pandemic have made life on the water difficult.

When authorities announced a new gas project off the coast in 2015, the community hoped it would bring new opportunities. Instead, many locals say the gas only brought a wave of trouble and drove people to despair. Some women have even been forced into prostitution to support their families, they told The Associated Press in interviews.

Four women who told their stories said they started sex work because their husbands, all fishermen, could no longer earn a living since the gas market came to town and the rig restricted access to fertile fishing grounds, locally known as diattara. The women all said they knew several other women in the same situation.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because their families do not know what they are doing. Prostitution is legal in Senegal, but women do not want to register, citing cultural shame.

For them, prostitution is faster and more reliable than working in a shop or restaurant - jobs that don't pay well and can be hard to find.

The deal – planned by a partnership between global oil and gas giants BP and Kosmos Energy , and state oil companies in Senegal and Mauritania – is expected to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year, enough to sustain production for more than 20 years, gas companies say.

The government and companies say they are engaging with fishing communities in Senegal and Mauritania and trying to benefit the wider economy by sourcing locally, developing the workforce working and supporting sustainable development.

According to BP, more than 3,000 jobs have been created in Senegal and Mauritania in some 350 local companies. The company also cited its work in renovating the maternity ward at Saint-Louis Hospital and helping 1,000 patients through a mobile clinic operating in remote areas.

In a statement to AP, Kosmos spokesman Thomas Golembeski said the project will provide a low-cost source of natural gas and expand access to reliable, affordable and cleaner energy. He also mentioned access to a micro-finance credit fund created for the fishing community.

"I'm praying this stops, because it's not what I want to do from the bottom of my heart. I'm doing this for my children," one mother told AP, her shoulders hunched and her voice weary, in a hotel room where she will not be seen by her husband or her friends.

Traditionally, many women earn their living by processing fish, while men catch it; sons, husbands and fathers spend weeks at sea. Sons, husbands and fathers spend weeks at sea. But with the restrictions, families have been unable to feed their children or pay their rent.

In some cases, families have had to withdraw their children from school or transfer them from a private school to a public school where teachers do not show up for several days.

BP and Kosmos did not respond to questions about female prostitution.

They also failed to answer the question of whether they stood by their original risk assessment of the project, which acknowledged in a 2019 environmental and social impact assessment that there were "many 'uncertainties regarding the consequences for the fishermen of Saint-Louis", but that they still considered that the intensity of the impact was low.

The local government said people's concerns about the platform were overblown and the community should be patient, at least until the end of production, which is expected to start by the end of the year.

Papa Samba Ba, director of hydrocarbons at Senegal's petroleum and energy ministry, said the goal was that by 2035, half of gas projects would be outsourced to local companies and services.

Local authorities have acknowledged an increase in prostitution in St. Louis, but they attribute it to economic hardship and widespread poverty in general, not directly to the gas project.