Tunisia: President condemns suicide explosion

Tunisian President, Béji Caïd Essebsi, has condemned a suicide attack which left at least 20 people injured on Monday, October 29.

Reacting from Berlin, he described the act as an attack on the State, and called for proper investigations into the incident.

“I hope that officials in Tunis will study the causes and consequences of the attack, not just the superficial aspects, because this attack targeted the State, its authority and the prestige of the country”.

The country’s Presidency had announced a one-month extension of a state of emergency throughout the country on 5 October. Beji Caïd Essebsi has vowed to combat terrorism, which has resurfaced after a three-year break in attacks.

“We thought we had gotten rid of terrorism but, in reality, it is not the case. I hope that terrorism will not take over us, it is not the rough climate, like winter for instance, that counts in Tunisia, but it is the political climate that is bad.”

Security forces identified the assailant as a 30-year-old woman from the Mahdia region, about 200km from the capital.

The holder of a degree in Management and English has no known extremist affiliations.

This is the first terrorist attack witnessed in the capital, Tunis, since a suicide bombing killed 12 security agents in November 2015.