Police in Tunisia"s southern city of Tataouine has fired tear gas to disperse protesters hurling stones at them and blocking roads, as demonstrations over high unemployment and the release of an activist escalated.

Demonstrators have been calling on the government to implement a 2017 deal to create jobs in oil companies and infrastructure projects to reduce unemployment now running at 30% in the region, one of the highest rates in Tunisia.

Ten years after a popular revolution ended Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s rule, the country is still struggling to deliver economic opportunities to unemployed youth in deprived regions like Tataouine.