Tunisia wants to obtain security lessons from the investigation into the 2015 Sousse killings, but needs more help from the European Union to end the deprivation that can be a breeding ground for terrorism, a Tunisian minister has said.
The June 2015 attack on the beach resort of Sousse killed 38 tourists, including 30 Britons.
The only surviving democracy spawned by the 2011 Arab spring, Tunisia is heavily dependent on tourism to keep its economy afloat. The six-week coroner’s inquest has thrown a harsh light on its security apparatus, with testimony that police officers slowed down on their way to the terrorist mass shooting.
The Guardian reports Sabri Bachtobji, the foreign affairs secretary, to say: “It is right that the families of English tourists know what happened that day.”
He told the Guardian: “The police service was not well prepared for this kind of terrorism. This country does not have a lot of resources and … after the revolution in 2011, so much was happening it was difficult to locate the greatest challenge.
“But after the terrorist attacks of 2015, we had to change our way of thinking, change our laws, attack money laundering, change our policing and increase our co-operation. We must keep learning lessons every day, and increase co-operation. If we do not try to learn lessons, we will not improve.”
