GABES, Tunisia: Several thousand people rallied in southern Tunisia on Wednesday, calling for the closure of an aging chemicals factory which locals have blamed for a host of poisonings and health issues.
As the procession reached the vicinity of the vast factory of the Tunisian Chemical Group, a public company, police fired large amounts of tear gas. Hundreds of people retreated, but groups of young people remained shouting their anger, while several individuals fainted, according to an AFP correspondent on site.
In recent weeks scores of people have been hospitalized in the city of Gabes, with residents pointing the finger at the potentially cancer-causing waste from a phosphate processing plant nearby.
“This has to stop. My three kids and I are asthmatic, my husband and my mother died from cancer as a result” of the plant, 52-year-old protester Lamia Ben Mohamed told AFP.
“We want to breathe,” the protesters chanted, while dozens of motorcycles at the head of the rally honked their horns.
