The socio-economic motives of the insecurity in southern Tunisia

Abstract

The increasing insecurity in southern Tunisia since the revolution –
worsened by the crisis in Libya and jihadism – has considerably transformed
this previously peaceful area. The population is now caught between the
rock of trafficking and jihadist and/or criminal incursions and the hard place
of police and military control. The enormous stream of Libyan refugees –
until recently – has contributed to the confusion. Moreover, socio-economic
difficulties have added to the security risks and, since 2011, have maintained
a situation of instability that the measures to militarise the border zones,
set up in 2015, seem unable to overcome any time soon. The population,
therefore, is obliged to play a complicated game to survive in which rejection
of the State, absence of the State and demands of the State come together
in a way which is not necessarily contradictory.