Tunisian police foil imminent terrorist attack

The Tunisian Interior Ministry has announced the dismantling of a terrorist cell and the foiling of an imminent attack on a security headquarters in the eastern governorate of Sfax.

A statement issued by the Tunisian Interior Ministry itself confirms that the suspected terrorists of this cell have been arrested, and that the investigation showed that the terrorists were fully experienced in the manufacture of explosive materials. Official sources also confirm that this cell had strong links with Daesh.

Tunisia has suffered several attacks and struggles with armed groups and trafficking of all kinds on its borders. Since the revolution, the country has been trying to restructure and equip its defence and internal services, with the help of international cooperation. Armed attacks against the Tunisian National Guard have multiplied in the last two years, especially in the Kasserine area on the border with Algeria, a mountainous area where armed groups from Tunisia and other Sahelian areas have established themselves in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Terrorist actions have also increased in the country's capital over the past year, most recently on 2 March when two suspected suicide bombers on a motorbike detonated a device outside the US embassy. Two months earlier, a young woman with a device in her handbag committed suicide in front of a police couple on Habib Bourguiba Street, Tunisia's main thoroughfare.

In 2015, three jihadist attacks in the capital and Sousse killed 72 people, 60 of them foreign tourists, and 12 members of the presidential guard. The attacks devastated tourism, one of the pillars of the Tunisian economy, to which it contributed 14 % of GDP, and from which the country has still not been able to recover.

Tunisia is aware of the problems arising from terrorism, and Tunisia's own interior minister, Hisham El-Mechichi, had already revealed a year ago that Tunisia still faces terrorist threats with the escalation of the activities of extremist organisations, especially during the month of Ramadan.