Tunisia: Discontent over factory pollution grows

Hundreds of people have over the last two weeks marched through the streets of Gabes, a city in Tunisia's south to denounce what they call an environmental and health catastrophe.

On Tuesday, offices and shops remained shuttered thousands of workers declared a general strike, demanding the closure of a government-owned phosphate processing plant which they accuse of emitting poisonous gas.

Researchers have found that some of the waste discharged by the factory is radioactive, and that it can cause cancer.

Opposition to the factory goes back several years.

The government promised to shut down the plant in 2017 but went back on its word this year by vowing to ramp up production.

The protests by mostly young people broke out two weeks ago in the city of 400,000.