Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday appointed a new interior minister after Taoufik Charfeddine announced he is resigning from his post to spend more time with his three children following the death of his wife last year, reported Africa News.
The 54-year-old Charfeddine, who had held the post of Tunisia’s interior minister since October 2021, told reporters that he wished to thank the president for his understanding and for allowing him to step down.
“The time has come for me to dedicate myself to this responsibility she left me,” the outgoing minister said.
The minister’s wife lost her life in a fire due to a gas leak in their home in June last year.
Charfeddine, a close aide of President Saied, was a key figure in the election campaign that propelled Saied to the presidency in 2019. He had also served as the country’s interior minister under the former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, who suspended him in January 2021. Saied reappointed him after dismissing Mechichi.
According to the Tunisian presidency, Saied issued two decrees on Friday, the first removing Charfeddine and a second appointing Kamal Feki, the former governor of Tunis, as head of the Ministry of Interior.
Mr. Feki, who is a law graduate and a former executive of the Ministry of Finance, has served as the prefect of Tunis since 2021.
Over recent weeks, the Tunisian authorities have arrested prominent opposition figures who accuse Saied of a coup, charging them with conspiring against state security.
In July 20221, Saied froze parliament and sacked the then government. He has concentrated nearly all powers in the presidency since then and moved to rule by decree, moves that opposition and critics have described as an undemocratic coup. He also got the country’s new constitution passed last year in a referendum with an extremely low turnout.
