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Hard Work Starts as Tunisia Emerges from Coronavirus Limits

Lisa Bryant

   PARIS - Over nearly a decade since its revolution, Tunisia has
   weathered rollercoaster politics, a tanking economy, terrorism,
   populism and growing voter disaffection. Now, COVID-19.
   So far, the coronavirus has left only a light footprint on the North
   African country, which is beginning to emerge from weeks of lockdown.
   But the pandemic underscores ongoing challenges it faces on its rocky
   road to democracy--which, analysts say, risk intensifying in the months
   to come.
   "We overcame COVID as a health crisis," said Salma Houerbi, a
   Tunis-based researcher for the Business & Human Rights Resource Center,
   an international non-governmental organization. "But now, we're going
   to enter a very difficult economic period."
   With slightly more than 1,000 cases and fewer than 50 deaths reported,
   according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center,
   Tunisia counts among the lowest caseloads in the Arab region. Analysts
   partly credit the new government's swift and proactive response for
   keeping the numbers down.

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