A general strike and mass protests brought the southern Tunisian city of Gabes to a standstill on Tuesday, as tens of thousands of demonstrators demanded the closure of a state-run chemical plant blamed for decades of environmental pollution.
Shops, schools, markets, and cafes remained shut in response to a strike call by the powerful UGTT labour union, paralysing economic activity in the coastal city. Protesters filled the streets, waving banners and chanting slogans such as “Gabes wants to live” and “Dismantle the polluting units,” in a show of anger over what they described as a long-ignored public health and environmental catastrophe caused by the CGT phosphate plant.
President Kais Saied, who has faced growing unrest amid Tunisia’s deepening economic crisis, recently described the situation in Gabes as an “environmental assassination.” He blamed past governments for policy failures that led to widespread cancer, respiratory diseases, and the destruction of marine and agricultural ecosystems.
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However, protesters rejected Saied’s comments, accusing his administration of inaction and warning that continued delays in shutting down the plant would worsen the health and environmental toll. Health Minister Mustapha Ferjani announced plans for a cancer hospital in Gabes but did not provide a timeline for its construction.
The government, already under pressure from a severe financial crisis, faces the challenge of balancing public health demands with the need to sustain phosphate production, one of Tunisia’s most valuable export sectors.
An audit commissioned by the CGT in July revealed serious violations of national and international environmental standards. The report found that the plant dumps between 14,000 and 15,000 tonnes of phosphogypsum daily into the Mediterranean, alongside high levels of ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and sulfate emissions.
Environmental groups warn that marine life in the area has been devastated, with local fishermen reporting a sharp decline in fish stocks over the past decade, threatening livelihoods and intensifying public outrage.
The unrest in Gabes, analysts say, could spread to other regions already simmering with discontent over unemployment, water shortages, and rising living costs posing one of the biggest domestic challenges to Saied’s rule since he consolidated power in 2021.
