Ten years after the revolution, 2021 turned out to be a very particular year for Tunisians, both in a complex national context and a very difficult international context.
The year 2021 was dominated by the Covid-19 crisis, amplified by a collapsing health sector, and the exceptional measures implemented by the President of the Republic as he assumed full powers. The year was also marked by a number of environmental scandals,
most notably the highly publicised Italian waste affair. New financial scandals were unveiled through the global Pandora Papers investigation, to which there was no response from the authorities, despite the fact that at least nine Tunisian were implicated.
The Covid-19 Crisis
In 2021, Tunisia faced several new waves of the pandemic, challenging the public health system. It was not until the second half of the year that the vaccination rate really picked up and Tunisians began to recuperate from the chaotic management of this
unprecedented crisis. In December, the decree-law on the obligation to present a health pass to access public spaces came into force, the implementation of which has been widely criticised throughout social media.
Pfizer, Sputnik V or AstraZeneca/Oxford - which vaccines will be administered in Tunisia against Covid-19? Who will be vaccinated first? When will it start? Inkyfada provides you with the latest information.
Hit hard by the fourth wave of the pandemic, the inhabitants of Kairouan live according to the rhythm of this health emergency. According to the regional director of health, the governorate consumes 10,000 litres of oxygen every day, and the hospitals are saturated.
"We are overwhelmed", admits a pharmacist, exhausted by the vaccination campaign. Faced with a lack of resources in vaccination centres, the government's objective of 3 million people vaccinated by June 30 seems unrealistic.
For several weeks now, the spread of the virus has been rapidly accelerating throughout Tunisia, which is now ranked as one of the countries suffering the heaviest losses during this period. The following five graphs help analyse the current situation, as well as the potential for a fifth wave in the autumn.
After nearly a month's delay, the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in Tunisia finally began on March 13. The number of people vaccinated, the number of vaccine doses announced and received - will the government's objectives be met? View the regularly updated progress and projections of the campaign, in numbers.
Number of infections and recoveries, death toll, number of intensive care beds available... One year after the beginning of the epidemic, where does Tunisia stand with regard to Covid-19? inkyfada has gathered a large amount of data on the health situation in the country. Using interactive maps and graphic charts, discover all the key figures of the evolution of the epidemic. Article updated regularly.
July 25, Kaïs Saied seizing Full Powers
On July 25, 2021, the President of the Republic, Kaïs Saied, applied Article 80, dismissing the Head of Government, suspending all the activities of the National Assembly, and seizing full powers. What are the implications of such a decision? What are
the possible consequences? Inkyfada has attempted to review the consequences and uncertainties that developed as a result of July 25.
On the evening of July 25, Kaïs Saied announced the enforcement of Article 80 of the Constitution - an article that, for example, allows for a state of emergency to be declared in the event of an "imminent threat". Inkyfada compared the legal text to the speech of the President of the Republic.
On July 25, 2021, President Kaïs Saied applied Article 80 of the Constitution to declare a state of emergency. If the decision is referred to the Constitutional Court, it is the only authority that can rule on whether or not to maintain such a situation. However, this authority, which is intended to mediate institutional conflicts, has yet to see the light of day.
On September 22, 2021, Kaïs Saïed published a presidential decree announcing that the President of the Republic was in charge of carrying out draft amendments related to political reforms, as part of the exceptional measures adopted on July 25, 2021. These infographics review Kaïs Saïed's state project and his vision for the political system,
Environmental Scandals
Tunisia does not know what to do with the vast amount of waste. Lack of a proper strategy, corruption, and stagnation are at the root of unsustainable pollution and problems. The Italian waste affair, the practice of dumping wastewater into the sea, social
protests concerning waste landfills, inkyfada closely covered Tunisia's environmental crisis in 2021.
For several months, the major scandal of illegal importation of household waste from Italy has been shaking the country. Apart from the environmental aspect, numerous documents obtained by Inkyfada and the Italian investigation network IrpiMedia corroborate a trail of evidence exposing a vast network of corruption.
Inkyfada, together with the Italian investigative media IrpiMedia, as well as the Italian television station RaiNews24, revisit the Italian origins of the vast corruption affair surrounding Italian waste, introducing several new and key players. May 2020, almost a year on from the initial arrival of illegally imported household waste from Italy, most of the cargo is still blocked at the port of Sousse.
"I just couldn't go on in the same way. I had 12,000 dinars in debt, so I ended up abandoning it all." Merely in his early thirties, Hosni Ghanay is a former farmer from Douar Gharghiz, near Jendouba. In the region and elsewhere, many farmers express that they feel powerless in the face of an agricultural structure that suffocates them.
On March 4, 2021, a negotiation meeting was held between the Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas (STEG) and the inhabitants of the village of Borj Essalhi in Cap Bon. At the heart of the dispute was the construction of the Sidi Daoud wind farm that took place more than 20 years ago, as it consequently has led to numerous injustices according to the residents. Inkyfada reports.
In 2018, Tunisia imported more than 240 tonnes of agricultural pesticides that are either banned or severely restricted within the European Union. Inkyfada examines the current situation, based on a database compiled by Greenpeace UK and Public Eye.
For more than two decades, the beaches in the southern suburbs of Tunis have seen regular swimming bans due to high levels of pollution. What exactly do these waters contain? Inkyfada has had access to water analyses that detail the nature of this marine pollution, and the associated risks it poses to humans and biodiversity.
The Pandora Papers in Tunisia
An investigation conducted by the ICIJ, in collaboration with 150 international media outlets (including inkyfada), the Pandora Papers is the largest journalistic collaboration ever, involving more than 600 journalists in 117 different countries. The
foundation of this substantial investigation is based on confidential documents being leaked from 14 offshore institutions that provide services to wealthy individuals and corporations seeking to set up shell companies, trusts, foundations and other
entities in jurisdictions with low or zero tax liability.
Since October 2021, inkyfada has published investigations looking into 9 out of the 30 Tunisian individuals who were mentioned in the Pandora Papers as having used opaque arrangements to open offshore companies in tax havens. The authorities have yet
to respond to this.
What is the link between Manar Tuna, the Habitat Bank, and a company hidden in the Virgin Islands, transferring millions of dollars? The discreet multimillionaire Rached Horchani, head of one of the most prolific business groups in Tunisia, could not resist the call of the tax havens.
Inkyfada investigated the 9 key players out of the 30 Tunisians who were mentioned in the Pandora Papers for using ambiguous arrangements to open offshore companies in tax havens. Through the many leaked documents, several businessmen, political figures and fugitives were able to be identified.
Among the Tunisian names that appear in the 11.9 million Pandora Papers’ documents, one in particular stands out, due to the mysterious circumstances. Mohamed Allani, who has been missing since 2004, and his recreational boat, the 'Kilani'.
Highlights
In 2021, we created several immersive experiences that focused on individual or collective narratives, in order to revisit events such as January 14, or the inter-clan conflict in Aïn Skhouna [available in English soon]. Additionally, we were able to
map poverty data throughout Tunisia to demonstrate the distribution of inequalities within the population. The belated publication of the official list of the martyrs and the wounded of the Revolution also became the focal point for a series looking
into the issues surrounding transitional justice.
Which are the most impoverished delegations in Tunisia? Which ones are the most affluent? Is there a correlation between poverty and access to infrastructure? To better understand the correlation, inkyfada has created an interactive map based on INS data.
After 10 years in the making, the official list of martyrs and wounded of the Revolution was finally published in the State Journal on March 19, 2021. In it, the State recognised 129 martyrs and 634 wounded. Who was responsible for creating this list? How was it conceived? What does it include? In the first episode of this series, Inkyfada aims to clarify these questions and uncover the background of this list that strikes the very heart of the Tunisian collective memory.
Compare the campaign financing and media presence of the various candidates in the 2019 presidential election through this interactive chart. Based on the election report by the Court of Auditors, inkyfada evaluates the effectiveness of the different campaigns in relation to the number of votes obtained.
Our Permanent Sections
This year, we have expanded the
"Stouchi" section, which delves into the detailed incomes and expenses of various Tunisians with different socio-professional backgrounds. Every other Sunday, this section lets us uncover a new and unique story. In addition to
"Stouchi", we produced two series of a historical nature: firstly
"Gens suspects", which retraces the lives of people who were on file with the French intelligence services in Tunisia between the 1910s and 1930s [exclusively available in Arabic and French], and
"Beyond the Dates", which focuses on key events in Tunisia's contemporary history, attempting to reconstruct the narrative of an individual or collective memory, through the lens of a specific context or a significant event on a national scale.
Mahmoud* is 28 years old. The young man is not very tall but well-built and clean-cut, which comes in handy in his line of work: smuggling petrol.
On the first of June 1955, the port of La Goulette welcomed a human tide that had come to celebrate the arrival of Habib Bourguiba, president of the Neo-Destour party, after his three-year absence. To the naked eye, the vast public celebration seemed to have spontaneously erupted, but the day had in fact been orchestrated down to the very last detail by the nationalist party.
Neziha* recently quit her job at a private religious school and now has no income or health insurance. Both divorced and childless, she lives alone in a studio in her family’s old garage.
Inkyfada Podcast
This year, inkyfada podcast has produced a number of podcast series on subjects that address contemporary societal issues such as plastic consumption, femicide in Tunisia [available in English soon] and the daily lives of youths in neighbourhoods exposed
to drug dealing. However, many podcasts were also created with the intention of revisiting certain aspects of our cultural heritage, such as
"Tbarbich" or
"Ija Ya Zmen". Alongside this, we also initiated a forum for discussing current affairs through the
"inkytalk" series, sparked by July 25 and the decisions of president Kaïs Saied.
This podcast features two aliens from the planet [(-CH2-)n], almost destroyed by the plastic brought back by humans. The two characters have come to investigate the origin of this material, its life cycle and how humanity is taming it. We will follow their quest to analyze this phenomenon in Tunisia and their meetings with Tunisian members of the faction Guerilla Pacifist for a Radiant Future without Plastic.
This series tells the story of women victims of domestic violence, some of whom have caused their death. This is the case of Refka Cherni, killed by her husband in May 2021 in Kef. In this podcast, relatives of women victims of femicide as well as women victims of violence testify to put these dramas at the heart of the public debate.
L’byessa is an audio account of the raw and unfiltered modern-day life of two “Zatla” dealers in a neighbourhood of the Tunisian capital.Those who tune in will follow the epic and genuine adventures of two timeless characters, dealing drugs and daydreams to their fellow citizens, in a country where people no longer dare to dream big.
Inkytalk, the editorial team's programme on topical issues.
Jnouss, "Bodies as Objects, Bodies in Struggle" is an intersectional feminist podcast series, in which we get to follow the intimate stories, reflections and struggles of people who have all been through a pivotal moment when their personal experiences were made public, and when the violence they experienced individually was transformed into a collective struggle.
Tbarbich is an monthly series, exploring the very heart of Tunisian popular culture and its various forms of expression. Folk tales, songs, dances and well-known characters - immerse yourself in the stories that have been collecting dust in the scattered corners of the Tunisian collective memory.
Ija Ya Zmen is a series of Tunisian tales narrated by the dancer and choreographer Saïda El Khadhra, with commentary by Hazar Abidi. These tales, part of a disappearing oral tradition, have been collected by the Inkyfada podcast team in order to preserve them and offer a sociological, anthropological, feminist and alternative reading.
This audio documentary in five chapters is an unprecedented dive into the workings of the Tunisian antiterrorist justice. As an extention of the documentary "Daech, the dilemma of justice", it compiles more than two years of investigations and interviews in an attempt to shed light on the issues facing the antiterrorism system in Tunisia.
This series of podcasts offers a deep dive into the Arabic language, through the point of view of Arabic-speaking journalists, feminist activists, translators and academics. On the occasion of a series of workshops organized by inkyfada, the latter dissect the language in an attempt to deconstruct it. At the core of the linguistic mechanism, they question the systems of domination related to gender and the different ways to resist them.
15 minutes
