FRANCE PRESS

TUNIS: Fighting between rival clans in the southwestern Tunisian mining town of Metlaoui killed a young man Monday, according to a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
The situation had been very tense for two days in Metlaoui, an impoverished town located around 400 kilometers southwest of the capital Tunis.

Clashes between clans in Metlaoui, over access to jobs and other issues, had killed 12 people and wounded around 150 in June.
In the latest incident the young man died after a shot was fired from a rifle.
Ministry spokesman Hichem Meddeb said he had become a victim of “a quarrel between two people of two rival families.”

Security forces and armored vehicles of the national guard intervened to separate the two groups, he added.
Locals identified the two clans as the Ouled Bouyahia and Jridia families.

Tunisia started what became known as the Arab Spring when a wave of protests by youths demanding jobs and regime change toppled Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, one of the world’s most entrenched dictators, in January.

The interim authorities have since struggled to restore order in the country, where the first post-revolution election is due next month to pick a constituent assembly tasked with writing a new constitution.
Central and southwestern Tunisia have been tense for months and authorities imposed a curfew Friday in the towns of Sbeitla and Douz.

In Sbeitla, a 17-year-old girl was shot dead in violent clashes between two families, the Defense Ministry said.
And in Douz a committee of wise men comprising legal experts, imams and members of civil society was created Monday to ease tensions after dozens were wounded in clashes between youths, TAP news agency reported.

“These tensions are due to the weak authority of the state in these regions,” an official of Tunisia’s main opposition party, the Progressive Democratic Party, Mongi Ellouz, said Monday.
“They are limited and will have no effect on the voting process.”