Tunisia President Essebsi has ‘severe health crisis’

Tunisia (QNN)- Tunisia’s 92-year-old president has been taken to a military hospital in a critical condition, after suffering “a serious health crisis”, the presidency said.

Beji Caid Essebsi’s office announced the hospitalisation on Thursday, later saying the president was “undergoing the necessary check-ups” and in stable condition despite rumours of his death.

An unnamed official told the Reuters news agency that the president, who has been in power since 2014, was in a very critical condition but was alive.

The announcement came as police were securing the site of two suicide bombings that targeted security forces in Tunis, killing at least one person and injuring several others.
All of those wounded in the explosions were in stable condition Thursday evening, the director of Charles Nicolle Hospital told state-run TAP news agency.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, but did not offer any evidence, in a statement published by the group’s affiliated media wing, Amaq news agency.

Essebsi won Tunisia’s first free elections in 2014 following Arab uprisings across the region.

Earlier this year, he announced he would not stand in elections expected in November, saying someone younger should take charge.

Former Tunisian President Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali was ousted in 2011 after 23 years in office.

Since then, Tunisia has won praise as the only democracy to emerge from the revolutions of the Arab spring.