Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi was admitted in the military hospital on Thursday after suffering a severe health crisis, the presidency said, reported BBC.
President Essebsi was “taken seriously ill and transferred to the military hospital in Tunis,” the Tunisian presidency noted in a Facebook post.
The 92-year-old leader was also treated in hospital last week. There had been reports that the president had died. But Prime Minister Youssef Chahed refuted all the rumors saying Mr. Essebsi was receiving all the attention he needed. He urged the people to stop spreading “fake news” about his health condition.
Mr. Essebsi, who had served on-off in ministerial roles since the 1960s, had won Tunisia’s first free elections in 2014 following Arab uprisings across the region. Earlier this year, he announced he would not stand in elections expected in November, despite his party calling for him to stand.
Earlier on Thursday, there were two suicide bomb attacks targeted security forces in the capital, Tunis, killing at least one person and injuring several others.
According to an Interior Ministry statement, the first bomb blast took place at 10:50 a.m. local time (5:50 a.m. ET) in central Tunis in which a bomber targeted a police patrol on the city’s main thoroughfare, Charles De Gaulle Avenue. A police officer was killed in the bombing.
The ministry said three civilians were injured in the bombing and a number of security personnel, who received “varying degrees of injuries.”
A second suicide bomber blew himself up near a police station in the al-Qarjani district at 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET), just ten minutes after the first blast.
“One person blew themselves up behind the back door of the police department in El Gorjani neighborhood,” the statement said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sofien Zaak said at least four security personnel were injured in the El Gorjani bombing.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide attacks.
