Tunisia imposes curfew as unrest grows over lack of jobs

Tunisia has imposed a nationwide overnight curfew after protests and violence against rising unemployment spread across the country.

The curfew, to be imposed from 8pm until 5am, was announced after skirmishes between police and protesters in the early hours of Friday in the impoverished suburbs of Tunis. The capital is braced for mass protests this weekend.

The violence followed a week of unrest across the country, which police said had injured 59 officers and 40 protesters. The protests carry echoes of Tunisia’s Arab spring revolution in December 2010, which saw the downfall of the former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.