Bread Crisis Fuels Tunisians’ Fears over Food Security

A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)
A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)
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Bread Crisis Fuels Tunisians’ Fears over Food Security

A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)
A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)

Everyday at dawn, Khaldoun Ben Amo, 63, heads to the neighborhood’s bakery to buy bread, to avoid the long queues that start to form in the early morning hours - a scene that is now common in Tunis.

Najia Khalafallah, 56, who lives in a village with one bakery, told Reuters that after 10 am she could not find a single loaf of bread, noting that residents were now registering their names and the number of required loaves of bread, which are not allowed to exceed five per family.

Such sad scenes are seen daily in all governorates of Tunisia. Everyday people stand in long queues in front of bakeries to get their bread.

Bread is a staple food product in Tunisian diet. The rate of consumption of bread per capita reaches 70 kilograms annually, and increases significantly during the month of Ramadan, according to official data from the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies.

The bread crisis in Tunisia fuels citizens’ fears about the existence of real threats affecting their food security, especially in light of the shortage of a number of basic foodstuffs, such as sugar, flour, rice and coffee, in addition to the milk crisis that emerged months ago.

President Kais Saeed accused “lobbyists and parties,” whom he did not name, of fabricating the crisis, calling on the Ministry of Agriculture, the Grain Board and all departments to “confront monopolists and those who tamper with the food security of Tunisians.”

“The aim of these successive crises is to fuel society for clear political ends,” he said, pointing to weak economic control, price hikes and the deterioration of the purchasing power.

Reports by the Tunisian Institute of Consumer indicate that about 900,000 pieces of bread are wasted yearly, at the cost of 100 million dinars ($33 million).

In conjunction with Saeed's statements, the Ministry of Commerce decided to stop supplying unlicensed bakeries with subsidized flour, which sparked the owners’ anger.

According to the Association for the Fight Against the Rentier Economy in Tunisia (ALERT), the bread crisis lies in structural problems, summarized in the level of local grain production, and the distribution of rations from mills to bakeries.

The association said that even in the best climatic conditions, local production was not able to cover the annual needs of grains, due to the neglect of the agricultural sector, especially main crops.

The Ministry of Agriculture had announced that the country’s wheat crop fell this year by 60 percent to 250,000 tons due to drought, increasing the country’s financial difficulties, at a time when the government is trying to obtain an international rescue package.

 

 



Lebanon’s PM Visits Syrian President to Discuss Border Demarcation and Security

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria April 14, 2025. (Dalati & Nohra/Handout via Reuters)
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria April 14, 2025. (Dalati & Nohra/Handout via Reuters)
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Lebanon’s PM Visits Syrian President to Discuss Border Demarcation and Security

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria April 14, 2025. (Dalati & Nohra/Handout via Reuters)
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria April 14, 2025. (Dalati & Nohra/Handout via Reuters)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam led a high-level ministerial delegation to Syria on Monday for talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, marking the most significant diplomatic visit between the two countries since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December.

"My visit to Damascus today aims to open a new page in the history of relations between the two countries, based on mutual respect, restoring trust, good neighborliness," Salam said in a statement on X.

At the center of discussions was implementing a March 28 agreement signed in Saudi Arabia by the Syrian and Lebanese defense ministers to demarcate land and sea borders and improve coordination on border security issues, Salam said in the statement.

The Lebanese-Syrian border witnessed deadly clashes earlier this year and years of unrest in the frontier regions, which have been plagued by weapons and illicit drug smuggling through illegal crossings.

During Monday’s meeting, Salam and Sharaa agreed to form a joint ministerial committee to oversee the implementation of the border agreement, close illegal crossings and suppress smuggling activity along the border.

The border area, especially near Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and Syria’s Qusayr region, has long been a corridor for illicit trade, arms trafficking, and the movement of fighters — including Hezbollah fighters who backed the Assad government during Syria’s 14-year civil war.

Hezbollah has been significantly weakened in its recent war with Israel and since Assad's ousting, it lost several key smuggling routes it once relied on for weapons transfers.

Lebanon also pressed Syria to provide clarity on the fate of thousands of Lebanese nationals who were forcibly disappeared or imprisoned in Syrian jails in the 1980s and 1990s, during Syria’s nearly 30-year military presence in Lebanon. Human rights groups have long documented the lack of accountability and transparency regarding these cases, with families of the missing holding regular demonstrations in Beirut demanding answers.

Syrian officials for their part raised the issue of Syrian nationals detained in Lebanese prisons, Salam said. Many of the detainees were arrested for illegal entry or alleged involvement in militant activity. Rights advocates in both countries have criticized the lack of due process in many of these cases and the poor conditions inside detention facilities.

Lebanon pledged to hand over people implicated in crimes committed by the Assad government and security forces, many of whom are believed to have fled to Lebanon after the government’s collapse, if found on Lebanese soil, a ministerial source told The Associated Press.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly comment.

In return, Lebanese officials requested the extradition of Syrians wanted in Lebanese courts for high-profile political assassinations, "most notably those involved in the bombing of the Al-Taqwa and Al-Salam mosques, those convicted of assassinating President Bashir Gemayel, and other crimes for which the Assad regime is accused," Salam said.

For decades, Lebanon witnessed a long series of politically motivated assassinations targeting journalists, politicians and security officials, particularly those opposed to Syrian influence. The 2013 twin bombings of the Al-Taqwa and Al-Salam mosques in Tripoli in northern Lebanon killed more than 40 people and intensified sectarian tensions already heightened by the spillover from the Syrian war.

Syria has never officially acknowledged involvement in any of Lebanon’s political assassinations.

Salam said he also pushed for renewed cooperation on the return of Syrian refugees.

Lebanese government officials estimate the country hosts about 1.5 million Syrian refugees, of whom about 755,000 are officially registered with the UN refugee agency, or UNHCR, making it the country with the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.

While Lebanese authorities have long urged the international community to support large-scale repatriation efforts, human rights organizations have cautioned against forced returns, citing ongoing security concerns and a lack of guarantees in Syria.

Since the fall of Assad in December, an estimated 400,000 refugees have returned to Syria from neighboring countries, according to UNHCR, with about half of them coming from Lebanon, but many are hesitant to return because of the dire economic situation and fears of continuing instability in Syria.