On Saturday, September 27, 2025, the Shatt al-Salam region in Gabes province witnessed mass suffocation incidents affecting more than 50 students due to gases emitted from the Tunisian chemical complex, necessitating their transfer to hospitals. This incident is not the first of its kind, as it was preceded by three similar mass suffocation incidents during the current September, prompting the “Stop Pollution” campaign to describe this month as “Black September,” warning of the dangerous environmental situation in Gabes province in the south.
According to data from the “Stop Pollution” campaign in Gabes, the nearby city of Ghannouch recorded more than 30 suffocation cases on September 9, followed by another incident on September 10 affecting 9 people, then again on September 16 with more than 20 suffocation cases, culminating in the latest incident on September 27 in the Shatt al-Salam area, where the number of affected exceeded fifty.
In recent months, Gabes province has witnessed widespread popular protests emphasizing the necessity of implementing the government decision issued in 2017, which mandates the dismantling of chemical units and relocating them away from residential areas. These movements were in response to other government decisions dated March 5, 2025, which entail increasing phosphate-related production within the industrial zone, removing “phosphogypsum” from the list of hazardous materials, and allowing the establishment of new depleting industries, including an ammonia production unit and linked projects.
Parents of students: Our children are suffocating, and no one is taking action. The chemical complex in Gabes province, which contributes about 57% of the national production of phosphoric acid, is one of the main sources of pollution in the province. The gas emissions have repeatedly driven residents and civil society to demand the relocation of factories away from residential areas, after causing damage to wildlife and marine life, and contributing to the spread of respiratory, skin, and cancerous diseases among the population. We still do not know what types of gases they inhaled or whether they will have lasting effects on their health. One asked: “How long will the lives of our children continue to be played with?”
Monji, another student’s parent, explained that what happened was not an isolated incident but rather a new episode in a continuous series spanning years. He continued: “Residents here are now living in a permanently polluted environment, with no fresh air and no guarantee of our children’s safety,” emphasizing that “the population has only reaped diseases and repeated incidents from these factories, amid the absence of urgent measures to halt environmental degradation and the authorities’ laxity in enforcing previous government decisions related to dismantling polluting units,” according to him.
“A crime against human lives” In a statement to Sputnik, Khairallah Dabbia, a member of the “Stop Pollution” campaign, confirmed that “suffocation incidents in Gabes province continued at an escalating pace, with more than 100 cases recorded in September alone.” The environmental activist noted that “suffocation cases usually occurred twice a year, but this time they have recurred three times in the same month.” He explained that “the Ministry of Health initiated the formation of a specialized committee to investigate the matter, yet the incidents continued without any actual executive steps taken.”
Dabbia described what happened in Shatt al-Salam and Ghannouch in Gabes province as “a crime against human lives, resulting from the delay in implementing the 2017 government decision to halt the work of polluting industrial units.” Dabbia explained that “successive governments postponed the implementation of this decision, citing parliamentary then presidential elections, the formation of a new government, the COVID-19 pandemic, and then elections again, before civil society noticed a plan to backtrack on the decision, as the conversation shifted from halting deadly units to valuing phosphogypsum and increasing phosphate production fivefold, which would automatically quintuple pollution.”
The environmental activist warned that “this is just the beginning,” highlighting the potential catastrophic environmental and health consequences, especially in light of the government’s announcement to expand industrial activity in the region by establishing an ammonia plant and initiating green hydrogen manufacturing. He confirmed that “the 2017 decision came after a long process of popular movements and scientific studies since 2011, and that residents and civil society will continue their struggle to uphold this decision.”
Dismantling units is an urgent necessity. He explained that “official authorities have paid no attention to the environmental disaster in the province, noting that the chemical complex in Gabes, as well as in the Mdhilla delegation of Gafsa province, still uses outdated and polluting production methods, without developing work techniques in line with national and international environmental standards.” He added: “The same issue is repeated in other areas within the mining basin, especially in the Gafsa Phosphate Company, confirming the lack of effective official intervention to address this issue.”
Ibn Othman noted that “the companies affiliated with the Tunisian chemical complex are government-owned, and the state was expected to intervene to resolve the crisis, yet official priorities still focus on development models and economic feasibility at the expense of the health of the population and the environment.” Ibn Othman confirmed that “these factories continue to operate in polluted conditions, despite recording cancer cases and other serious complications among the inhabitants of the area, reflecting the authorities’ disregard for the health damages caused by pollution,” according to him.
He explained that “the main demand is to dismantle the polluting industrial units and relocate them to areas far away, as happened in Sfax province, to end what he described as an environmental tragedy that has turned Gabes into a disaster-stricken region on all fronts.” The regional coordinator for environmental justice confirmed that “civil society and residents will continue to pressure the authorities until previous government decisions are adhered to and citizens’ health is protected from the repercussions of industrial pollution.”
