Cairo Man Sets Himself on Fire

Will more African dictators soon be ousted? Demonstrators in Egypt, Mauritania, and Algeria have set themselves on fire in acts of political protest, following the lead of a Tunisian man whose death became the catalyst for that country’s youth-led rebellion. In Cairo today, a man reportedly set himself on fire over a government policy that bars restaurants from buying subsidized bread. On the same day, a Mauritanian man reportedly drove to a government building in the capital city, Nouakchott, and set himself on fire while in his car. In Algeria, four people reportedly set themselves on fire this month during food riots. The acts all appear to derive from Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian man who set himself ablaze in front of the Sidi Bouzid regional council in central Tunisia on December 17 after police confiscated his fruit cart, setting off a chain of protests that ended up toppling the 23-year rule of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.