The UGTT's general petroleum and chemicals federation is maintaining its September 23-24 strike call to demand that fuel transport workers be enrolled in the national CNSS social security fund and that a May 2019 agreement finally be implemented. Queues had already reappeared at petrol stations by Friday, though the federation says urgent negotiations could still avert the walkout. Worth noting: the UGTT's own national general strike, voted back in September 2024, has been postponed repeatedly and still has not taken place two years on.
Thursday's storm, which the meteorological institute had been warning about since Tuesday, flooded streets, trapped motorists in their cars and cut power and internet in parts of Tunis: in the old medina, water rushed through the alleyways as shopkeepers took shelter. Greater Tunis, home to nearly three million people, has now been hit repeatedly in quick succession: in January alone, the worst rainfall in 70 years left several people dead.
President Kais Saied said at Thursday's meeting with Health Minister Mustapha Ferjani that the public health system had been "targeted, even destroyed," and that funded projects in medical imaging and lab-analysis interpretation had been delayed despite available funding, which he described as deliberate obstruction by "corrupt individuals" without naming anyone. The characterization is the president's own and is reported here as his statement, not as an established finding.
