Tunisia extends state of emergency by a month

TUNIS — Tunisia on Monday extended by a month a state of emergency in place since November following a series of militant attacks, officials said. 

“The president of the republic, Beji Caid Essebsi, decided on Monday... to proclaim again the state of emergency across [Tunisian] territory for a month starting from June 21, 2016,” the president’s office said in a statement.

The North African nation, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has suffered from a wave of militant violence since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The Daesh terror group claimed brazen attacks last year on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and a beach resort that killed 59 tourists.

Following a suicide bombing in the capital in November which killed 12 members of the presidential guard and was claimed by Daesh, authorities declared a state of emergency and a curfew in the capital.

The curfew was later lifted, but the state of emergency has remained in place and was extended for the fourth time on Monday.

The law allows the authorities to ban strikes and meetings that might “provoke or maintain disorder”, to temporarily close theatres and bars, and to “take every measure to secure control of the press and all types of publications”.