13 ministers replaced in Tunisian cabinet reshuffle

Tunisian Prime Minister, Youssef Chahed, has replaced 13 ministers on Wednesday, in a major cabinet reshuffle which included the Interior, Defence and Finance portfolios.
Abdelkrim Zbidi was appointed as the Minister of Defence, a position he previously filled between 2011 and 2013, while the former head of the National Guard, Lotfi Brahem, is the new interior minister.
Chahed appointed Ridha Chalghoum as the Finance Minister, a position he also held briefly in an interim cabinet formed in 2011.
Chahed described the newly-named cabinet as a “war government” that will continue to “fight terrorism, corruption, unemployment and regional inequality”.
The reshuffle, which also involved the ministries of Education, Energy and trade, comes following weeks of talks with different political parties.
This is the first reshuffle since Chahed’s National Unity Government, tasked with revitalising an economy battered by militant attacks, was appointed in 2016.
Tunisia is widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the 2010-11 Arab Spring uprisings.
But, in recent months, the North African country had faced a string of deadly terrorist attacks, some of which were claimed by the Islamic State radical group.
The violence has taken a toll on tourism, a key source of income for Tunisia.