Photo Gallery Tunisia's Challenges
Following the deadly attack by Anis Amri, a Tunisian national, on a Christmas market in Germany, Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told SPIEGEL: "Some terrorists do come from Tunisia, yes. But despite this, Tunisia is not the country of perpetrators -- it is also a target for jihadists. In 2015 alone, we had three serious attacks. Islamist extremists hate us because we are proving that a secular democracy can actually work in the Arab world."
Young, unemployed men in Oueslatia, Tunisia, the town where Amri came from, playing cards in a café. "Many people here are disappointed in what the revolution brought them as individuals," said Prime Minister Chahed. "We need more growth. We had around 1.5 percent from 2010 to 2015, but that's not sufficient for creating enough jobs."
Before he death in a shoot-out with Italian police in Milan, Anis Amri stole a semi-truck and plowed it into a Christimas market in Berlin on Dec. 19. Twelve people died in the attack and many more were injured. Amri might have succeeded in killing more people, but he was foiled when the truck's automatic emergency braking system detected an accident and stopped the vehicle.
Anis Amri's mother holds up a picture of her son at her home in Oueslatia on Dec. 22. Of the perpetrator, Prime Minister Chahed says, "Anis Amri does not stand for Tunisia or the Tunisian people. This barbaric act will not affect relations between our two countries. Terror today no longer has a nationality."
A deportation order had been issued against Amri by the German authorities, but they could not send him back to Tunisia because he lacked the proper identity papers. Some Tunisians have protested on the streets against allowing the repatriation of suspected Islamist extremists and terrorists.
