Man sets himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid
on the day of Ban Ki Moon’s visit

TUNIS – A 33-year-old Tunisian died after setting himself on fire this morning in Sidi Bouzid, a city in central Tunisia and a stronghold of the revolution, on the day that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon visits the North country -African. Medical sources report it.

The man, Khaled Ezzafouri, was rescued and taken to the Sidi Bouzid regional hospital, to then be transferred to the Sfax hospital, due to the severity of his condition, but he did not make it. In Sidi Bouzid, on 17 January, he set himself on fire – dying after weeks of agony – a young fruit trader, Mohamed Bouazizi, who thus wished to denounce the poverty in which a large part of the Tunisian population was affected. At his bedside, in Ben Arous hospital, where he had been hospitalized in desperate conditions, President Ben Ali also went. That same Ben Ali who was then forced to leave power and the country from the revolt triggered by Bouazizi’s gesture. To honor the young man’s memory, the Traumatology Center and the great burns of the Ben Arous hospital were named after him, where other young people who carried out the same gesture were also brought.

Ban Ki Moon arrived in Tunis during the night to meet with the Tunisian transition authorities. Yesterday the UN secretary was in Egypt, where he had talks with the committee that has led the country since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, on 11 February.