SUMMARY

Résistance Armée Tunisienne (Tunisian Armed Resistance and later also referred to as the General Revolutionary Committee for the Liberation of Gafsa) was a rebel group that briefly fought to remove the Tunisian government from power and thus end the perceived dominance of French neo-colonialism.

The group emerged in the context of increasing inequality and unemployment in the 1970s, coupled with state repression under President Habib Bourguiba, Little is known about the origins of the organization, but it is clear that it was comprised of Arab nationalists, intent on removing the president and to this end it carried out an attack on 26 January 1980. This marked the second anniversary of ‘Black Thursday’; a general strike that had led to two days of violence and the arrest of the entire Tunisian workers union leadership, which had organized the strike. It was hoped that the attack would inspire the civilian population to rise up and support the Résistance Armée Tunisienne cause, but this support failed to materialize. Seventeen participants were subsequently sentenced and executed by hanging in April 1980, and with that the group ceased to be active.

Leaders of the commando attack were Amr Ibn Al’Ass, Ahmed El Mergheni and Ezedine Cherif, who was known as ‘Le Borgne’ meaning ‘one-eyed’. In particular, Le Borgne had been a supporter of Salah Ben Youssef; ex-leader in PSD/DRC who had been expelled from the party in 1955 and led a guerilla campaign against Bourguiba, PSD/DRC and the French until his assassination in 1961.

It was also speculated that the attack may have been connected to the Progressive National Liberation Front of Tunisia, which was a rebel group based in Libya, and masterminded by Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi as a destabilization operation.

The Government of Libya was accused of training and giving weapons to Résistance Armée Tunisienne by the Government of Tunisia. However, the Libyan government denied the accusations, claiming that it had rather been a “popular uprising”.