Leading human rights organization Amnesty International said that Tunisia’s presidential decree-law threatens Tunisians' freedom to discuss and challenge its leaders about the ongoing food shortages in Tunisia.  

Images of Tunisians queuing for bread outside bakeries and empty shop shelves where flour, rice and vegetable oil should be have flooded the press and social media since mid-February with seemingly no end in sight, which — just ahead of Ramadan — is particularly disheartening for Tunisians worried about political and economic instability.

Tunisian President Kais Saied’s response to the food shortages came on March 9 when he announced that he was waging war on speculation and then later on March 20 when he issued Decree-Law 2022-14 creating higher penalties for speculating on goods, with penalties ranging from 10 to 30 years of jail time, effectively a life sentence for cartels hoarding state-subsidized products like flour and planning to sell at a higher price later.

The daily news is rife with scenes of police raiding storehouses full of sacks of flour and semolina and other food and domestic products. The Ministry of Commerce’s Facebook page is a catalog of police raids on warehouses full of sacks of flour, other foodstuffs, and highly perishable foods such as eggs and vegetables, all captioned with admonishing commentaries of how these small-business people are stealing the nation’s food. Tunisia's press noted that despite these mass confiscations of so many tons of flour, oil and sugar, shop shelves are not being refilled.