Tunisian president sacks PM amid economic crisis

Tunisian resident Kais Saied has dismissed Prime Minister Kamel Madouri his office said on Friday, as the North African country grapples with major economic issues.

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Madouri, a technocrat appointed last August as part of a cabinet reshuffle, was replaced by Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri, the former minister of public works, the presidency said.

Zaafrani, 62, becomes Tunisia’s second woman premier after Najla Bouden, who was in the post from October 2091 to August 2023.

She takes office as Tunisia also faces criticism from the United Nations over the imprisonment of Saied’s political opponents and as rights groups decry a rollback on freedoms.

In 2019 Saied became president of Tunisia, the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring.