TUNIS - Key events in Tunisia since the revolution that drove president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali out after 23 years in power and sparked popular uprisings across the Arab world:
TUNIS – Key events in Tunisia since the revolution that drove president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali out after 23 years in power and sparked popular uprisings across the Arab world:
— 2011 —
– January 14: Ben Ali flees to Saudi Arabia with his family, becoming the first Arab leader to step down in what later becomes known as the “Arab Spring.”
– February 25: 100,000 people stage an anti-government demonstration in Tunis. Clashes as police stations are torched and ransacked.
– March 1: Moderate Islamist movement Ennahda legalised.
– October 23: Ennahda wins 89 of the 217 seats in a new constituent assembly after Tunisia’s first free election.
– December 12: Secular opposition leader Moncef Marzouki, a fierce rival of Ben Ali, elected president.
— 2012 —
– June 11-12: Unrest triggered by an art exhibition that includes works deemed offensive to Islam. The government blames hardline Salafists and old regime loyalists.
– September 14: Four people killed in clashes at the US embassy amid protests over an anti-Islam film.
– October 18: A local coordinator of the opposition party Nidaa Tounes is killed by a mob in Tatouine, southern Tunisia.
– November 27-December 1: 300 injured in clashes in Siliana.
— 2013 —
– February 6: Prominent opposition leader Chokri Belaid shot dead, sparking deadly protests and a political crisis.
– July 25: Opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi shot dead. His family blames Ennahda, which denies the charge. Demonstrations in Tunis and elsewhere, including Brahmi’s birthplace, Sidi Bouzid.
– August 2: The army announces a “huge” air and ground operation against Islamist militants in the Mount Chaambi area along the Algerian border. The government accuses Tunisia’s main Salafist movement Ansar Asharia of links to Al-Qaeda.
— 2014 —
– January 3: Parliament begins voting on a new constitution after months of deadlock.
– January 9: Clashes between hundreds of demonstrators with police and troops in the central town of Kasserine, amid rising social discontent. Protests and strikes have multiplied since late 2013.
– January 10: Mehdi Jomaa is tasked with forming a caretaker government of independents a day after Islamist prime minister Ali Larayedh resigns.
Jomaa’s designation was agreed to in mid-December as part of a bid to end the crisis that began with Brahmi’s killing.
