A few days after his surprise visit to Sfax, where the migration issue was at the centre of his preoccupations, President Kais Saïed went on Tuesday to Gafsa, the country's source of phosphate wealth, where production has been dwindling for the past four years amid a serious protest movement launched by the region's unemployed. On Tuesday evening, the Head of State visited the Redeyef delegation, where the commercial phosphate production unit is located, and whose headquarters have been occupied since 2020 by crowds of job-seeking protesters. The social unrest has led to a forced halt in commercial phosphate production and, as a result, a drastic drop in deliveries to chemical fertiliser manufacturers. As soon as he arrived on the scene, the President of the Republic met with a crowd of job seekers. Essentially, their demands relate to the need to act as quickly as possible on the " minutes of agreement " reached in the past with government and regional officials. In addition, they want to be recruited by environmental companies, the Société tunisienne pour le transport de produits miniers and the Compagnie des phosphates de Gafsa (CPG). On this occasion, the Head of State stressed that Tunisia is currently short of financial resources and is in great need of its phosphate wealth and all its national potential to meet the major socio-economic challenges it faces. "It is imperative that the phosphate sector returns to normal production as quickly as possible", he said. Needless to say, the National Security Council met on April 26 just to examine the issue of phosphate production in depth," he reminded jobseekers. It's high time you took the initiative and launched your own private projects," the President of the Republic told the sitinners, urging them to get more involved in exploiting agricultural land to create wealth. President Saïed was also keen to reassure the workers about the future of CPG. There was no question of the company being sold off, he said, reaffirming his commitment to bringing to justice "the corrupt" who are striving to bring the State and its public companies to their knees. The protest movement by job seekers in Redeyef has largely disrupted the process of marketing and delivery from Redeyef of a large stock of commercial phosphate, estimated at 1.5 million tonnes, to CPG customers, mainly chemical fertiliser manufacturers.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse