Terrorist Attack in Tunisia: A Tug of War Between ISIS and the Government

Around 50 gunmen raided Ben Guerdane, a small, poor Tunisian town located about 20 miles away from the border with Libya, on March 7th, causing about 60 deaths. The assailants attempted to take control of the city’s military barracks, but military forces pushed them back. The bulk of the assault lasted two days after several militants barricaded themselves in local homes. According to the Ministry of Defense, nine gunmen were arrested while 49 were killed. Another dozen soldiers and police officers were killed, as well as seven civilians, including a 12-year-old girl. So far, no terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the attack, but government officials asserted to the Middle East Eye that the assailants had affiliations with the self-styled Islamic State (IS).

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (left) meets with Tunisian President Caid Essebsi (right). Courtesy of Wikimedia

The Middle East Eye reported that Tunisian President Béji Caid Essebsi described the attacks as “unprecedented” and vowed to “exterminate these rats.” Prime Minister Habib Essid declared that “the purpose of the attack was to disrupt the security situation in our country and establish a Daesh [Arabic for IS] emirate in Ben Guerdane.” Essid admitted that “most attackers were Tunisians,” and a 71-year-old resident of Ben Guerdane stated that the militants “knew the people here very well.”

Tunisia has hosted two terrorist attacks in less than a year, where more than 60 people died. Last November, 12 members of the presidential guard died in a suicide attack meters away from the Ministry of Interior. Most recently, United States air strikes targeted an IS training camp in the Libyan city of Sabratha, located 133 miles from Ben Guerdane, which may have prompted the militants to attack neighboring Tunisia.

In order to combat Tunisia’s terrorism problem, the government has adopted several policies with varying degrees of success. It has notably built a 125-mile fence which stretches along the Libyan border to stop militants from infiltrating to Tunisia. It has also decided to increase the defense budget and the size of the military, and has received increasing financial assistance from the U.S., the EU and NATO.

However, it has yet to tackle the root of the problem: economic and social disparities. Indeed, almost 5,000 Tunisians have left to join IS and other jihadist groups as a result of increased unemployment and a sluggish economy. Nonetheless, governmental efforts to address and redress the economic exclusion of Tunisia’s “dark regions” seem to have come too late. Since January, thousands of Tunisians from the internal regions have been demonstrating against the government and consider themselves to be “time bombs.”